Dates of payment of JSA Hardship limited by guidance?

I have had a number of hardship claims that have only been paid from the day the statement of circumstances was received, which depends on the post between here and beyond in this case.

This resulted in a client being paid for one day of JSA hardship, his sanction dated 10th Dec to 6th Jan, 28 days.  He is deemed as “not vulnerable.”  So is not paid for the first 14 days of the sanction. The statement was received on the 6th Jan. the last day of the sanction.

He then has to survive on £4.87 for the following 2 weeks until his next signing day and the 3 days beyond that it takes for that to be paid into his account.  My argument is that he is in hardship throughout this period because he was only paid 1 day in arrears not the eligible 14 days.

DWP Hardship say that he can only be paid from the day of receipt of the statement of circs and that payment can only be made for the period of the sanction. Hence, 1 day.
I have been told that they have taken specific guidance on this from Decision Makers.
DWP Hardship team are arguing that DMG Chapter 35 allows for this.
I cannot see how this can be.

From DMG Chapter 35
From what date are hardship payments payable
35300 A person or couple in hardship are entitled to hardship payments from the later of1
1. the 15th day that JSA is not payable because of a sanction or
2. the date the claimant becomes a person in hardship.
1 JSA Regs, reg 142(5)(a) & 146D(5)(a)

On what date does entitlement to hardship payments end
35302 Unless DMG 35291 applies, entitlement to hardship payments under this rule ends when the period of the sanction ends.
(no regulation says that a claimant cannot be paid an entitlement after the date of the end of the sanction, after all JSA is paid in arrears, and no regulation bars DWP from determining an entitlement after the dates of the sanction pass.)

Statement of circumstances
35400 Hardship payments cannot be awarded until the claimant has provided a statement of the circumstances relied on to show hardship1. This statement
1. is not a claim for a hardship payment because
1.1 hardship payments are payments of JSA(IB)2 and
1.2 there must already be a claim for JSA(IB) before the question of hardship payments arises
2. provides the information needed to decide entitlement to hardship payments3 and
3. affects the date of entitlement to hardship payments ONLY if the award is made because of a delay in determining the claim4.
ote: The statement must be signed5.
1 JSA Regs, reg 141(1), 142(1) & 143, 146C(1), 146D(1) & 146E; 2 reg 141 & 142, 146C & 146D; 3 reg 143(1)(a) & 146E(1)(a); 4 reg 141(2), (3), 142(2)(c), 146C(2) & (3) & 146D(2)(b); 5 reg 143(1)(b) & 146E(1)(b)

The statement of circs “affects the date of entitlement to hardship payments ONLY if the award is made because of a delay in determining the claim” 

Then the DMG sets out an example:

Kathy lives alone and is pregnant. Her only income is JSA(IB). She has no capital.
Kathy attends the Jobcentre Plus office as usual on 14 April, but her normal payment for 1 to 14 April is suspended because there is a doubt about her ASE during that period.
On 15 April she attends the Jobcentre Plus office and makes a hardship statement.
The DM determines that Kathy will suffer hardship if JSA is not paid and awards a hardship payment for the period 1 to 14 April.
35401 The date of the hardship statement has no effect on the date an award is made1 if the hardship award is made because of a
1.
disallowance because the
1.1 availability or
1.2 ASE or
1.3 JSAg
condition is not satisfied or
Vol 6 Amendment 36 June 2012
2.
suspension because a doubt about
2.1 availability or
2.2 ASE or
2.3 a JSAg
arises after an award has been made or
3.
sanction.

I would have thought this made it perfectly clear.

Also:
CPAG Chapter 55 part 5 For JSA and ESA,…. although you cannot receive hardship payments until you have made your hardship statement (for JSA) or your application (for ESA), there is no general rule to prevent you from receiving these for a period before the date on which you made the statement or the application

There is nothing in the regulations that I can see that specifies the dates that hardship can be paid over; a payment, in arrears for the whole period of the sanction, less the first 14 days in this case, is allowed for.

If someone shows that there is hardship on the 6th then it is reasonable to expect that the hardship will continue until the client next receives a payment, the next 14+ days. Therefore to prevent hardship, the full 14 days of arrears should be paid.

It appears that DWP do not see this argument.

I may be missing something, can anybody enlighten me? 

Sorry, I can see that I need to edit that slightly to make it more readable. Hopefully people can manage to find their way through !

In March there were significant discussions with JCP staff in Leeds around this matter.  It was agreed that guidance did indeed allow for a late submission of a JSA 10 “Hardship Statement” and that payment should be made using the standard rules around vulnerability and finding circumstance that is identified as Hardship. So the late submission of a JSA 10 is in itself not used to limit a Hardship decision in any way so long as Hardship is, or will be the case.

In recent research concerning Hardship Payments and the DMG Chapter 35 I note that 35400 has had an additional note added (in the June update) clarifying the way a late submission of a Hardship Statement is to be treated. Copied below:

DMG35400:
Note 2: Unless 3. applies, the application is merely a form that provides information needed to decide entitlement to hardship payments. It is the evidence the claimant is relying upon to show he is a person in hardship. Entitlement to hardship is from either the 15th day (non vulnerable groups) or the date the DM decides the claimant is a person in hardship and unless 3. applies entitlement is not from the date of the statement of circumstances (see DMG 35401).

Good news, lets hope JCP staff, both back room and frontline, are trained to read their own guidance