October 2017 Newsletter
Welcome to this month's newsletter - bringing you right up to date with useful benefit information.
In this issue find out more about:
- Wrong Advice- which make claimants worse off - a new letter to send to your HB Office.
- Health and Work Conversations- find out about the new mandatory interviews for new ESA claimants.
- UC Helpline- to be made a freephone
- Updated UC47- for applying for APA Managed Payments
- Roll out of Landlord Portal- as Digital UC rolls out
- Our Latest 'Tool'- Missing APA MP Predictor
- Universal Credit as a 'passport'- help with health costs and more
- Our popular UC Booklet - now available in Welsh
- UC in Scotland- new choices for new digital service claimants.
- JSA Hardship Payments- new rules help the homeless and those with mental health problems
- Housing Benefit- new rules on Additional Earnings Disregard reversed
- Payments from Certain Trusts- new regulations to disregard these payments.
As well as:
- Your chance to WIN £50 for your local FOOD BANK and chocolates for you!
- This month's really useful standard letter.
- This month's really useful tool!
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WRONG ADVICE
About who must claim UC once an area has gone onto the 'Full'/Digital service |
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We have become aware that in some areas Housing Benefit staff are wrongly advising existing HB claimants that they need to claim Universal Credit when they move to another tenancy within the same local authority area.
As many claimants are worse off on the Universal Credit system this is a practice that needs challenging.........
Use our new standard letter HB UC1 - and please contact us for advice if your HB Office refuses to change.
This is just one example of tenants being given the wrong advice and ending up on UC when they didn't need to -click here for other examples.
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New
'Health and Work Conversations'
for ESA claimants
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The Health and Work Conversation is a new feature of ESA. Most people who make a new claim for Employment and Support Allowance will now be required to attend an interview with a Work Coach at their local Jobcentre around four weeks into their claim.
Attending a Health and Work Conversation is mandatory,(although some people are exempt). This means that failure to attend without good cause can lead to a sanction!
Those who are exempt from attending include those who are terminally ill and fall under the 'special rules', anyone receiving chemotherapy or radiotherapy for cancer, lone parents with a baby under 1 year old, and where attending a Health and Work Conversation interview would put the claimant (or anyone else) at risk, due to their health condition. For a full list of who is exempt see here.
What is a health and work conversation?
During the interview, the Work Coach will go through a booklet with the claimant and the claimant will come up with an action plan.
DWP guidance says:
“The interview is a discussion between the claimant and the work coach to identify voluntary actions the claimant can take to build their confidence and motivation.... This mandatory conversation supports claimants with health conditions and disabilities, it allows the claimant and work coach to discuss their skills, abilities and goals and find out about the support that is available to help them move closer to work.”
So, whilst attending and participating in the Health and Work Conversation is mandatory, if the claimant does not complete the actions in their action plan, this would not be a sanctionable offence.
For more information about the questionnaire which is completed,what is likely to be discussed and what happens when someone fails to attend a Health and Work Conversation see here.
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DWP Helplines
to be made Freephone Numbers
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The government have announced that all DWP customer helpline numbers will become freephone numbers by the end of the year.
The first change will be to the Universal Credit Helplines. The government has said this will be 'in November'. There are two different helpline numbers for UC claimants - one for Live/Gateway Service claimants and another for Full/Digital Service claimants. We assume that both numbers will change to 0800 or 0808 numbers soon. Check our News Headlines page for updates!
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Make sure you are using the latest UC47 when applying for APA managed payments.
Latest version: 12th October 2017
Click here |
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Find out more about the
UC Landlord Portal
Click here |
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Missing Managed Payment Predictor..........
Receiving APA Managed Payments for claimants on the 'Full'/Digital UC service?
Use our new tool to predict which APA/TPD schedule will be missing a payment.
Click here |
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Help with
Health Costs
for Universal Credit Claimants
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Did you know that Universal Credit can 'passport' someone for help with certain NHS costs?
UC claimants whose earned income does not exceed the limit which applies to them can get free prescriptions, free eye sight tests, free dental treatment, free wigs and fabric supports, and assistance with travel costs to NHS hospital or clinic appointments.
The earnings limits are:
- £435 in any Monthly Assessment Period,or
- £935 in any Monthly Assessment Period for anyone with a child element included in their UC assessment, or where the claimant/partner has been found to have a limited capability for work.
Which box to tick for free prescriptions?
You may have noticed that the reverse of a prescription, where the patient must tick the box to confirm which 'passport benefit' they are receiving, does not yet include Universal Credit. The NHS website states that where Universal Credit is not listed, patients should tick the box for Income Based Jobseeker's Allowance instead. We have heard about somebody who was fined for giving false information when they did this! If this happens to anyone, they should, of course,challenge the fine and point out the advice on the NHS website.
More information here.
(Note that in Scotland, prescriptions,dental check-ups, sight tests, wigs and fabric supports are already free for everyone; and in Wales, prescriptions, wigs and fabric supports are free for all,regardless of income - however the above rules apply for getting help with the other NHS health costs listed above.)
Other help that Universal Credit can be a'passport' to...
You may already be aware that anyone on Universal Credit can get free school meals for their children (and as yet there is no restriction if the claimant has earnings from work). But did you know that UC could also be a 'passport' (depending on certain other conditions)to Healthy Start Vouchers, help with school uniform,Sure Start Maternity Grants, Funeral Payments, Cold Weather Payments, travel expenses to visit someone in prison, the Watersure scheme and legal aid? Find more details here.
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Have you seen our handy
Universal Credit Booklet?
Now available in Welsh...........
Why not order some?
- just £125+vat for 500
Click here for more information |
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Scottish flexibilities
for Universal Credit claimants
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Anyone living in Scotland and making a new claim for Universal Credit in a Full/Digital Service area from 4th October 2017 can choose to
- Have their housing costs paid to their landlord as an APA Managed Payment
and / or
- Be paid twice monthly instead of monthly.
These are new options available to claimants, with no conditions attached ie it does not depend on the level of rent arrears or on any vulnerabilities. This is a free choice open to new claimants.
Eligible claimants will be offered the choice on their UC account after they have received their first payment of Universal Credit, ie at the start of their second Monthly Assessment Period. Landlords will be notified if their tenants opt for the APA managed payment (these landlords may find our 'Missing Managed Payment Predictor' helpful - see above).
If a claimant chooses one or both of these options and at a later date wishes to revert back, they can do so (although the protections for landlords will remain in place - so where there are arrears at 2 months or more the landlord can apply for a managed payment and third party deductions for arrears, as has always been the case).
The intention is that these choices will be made available to pre-existing Full Service UC claimants in Scotland from early January 2018.
These flexibilities have been introduced by the Scottish Government using its devolved powers -these changes are not being introduced elsewhere in GB.
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Did you know?
What's new about JSA Hardship
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When someone on Jobseeker's Allowance is sanctioned, they can apply for a Hardship Payment. Most claimants must wait 2 weeks before they can apply - but certain 'vulnerable' claimants can apply straight away.
From 23 October 2017 two new categories are added to this list:
- If the claimant / couple is homeless
- Where the claimant / partner has a long term mental impairment
For the full list of who can apply straight away and more information on JSA Hardship - see here.
It is important that the claimant is also aware of their right to challenge the sanction decision!
They may have a good reason for their actions / failure which caused the sanction and may be successful if they request a mandatory reconsideration or appeal.
Many claimants do not bother to challenge them, especially if the sanction period is 4 weeks - because, by the time the decision has been revised, the sanction period has ended anyway. But it is important to challenge where the claimant has a good case for two reasons:
- Any shortfall between the amount of JSA they should have received and the Hardship Payment they were paid will be due to them as a backpayment; and
- Sanction periods can escalate for further offences at the same 'level'. So by having the previous sanction removed, the subsequent offence would not have the 'escalated' period.
More information here.
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HB additional earnings disregard-unintentional change corrected
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You may remember in our July 2017 newsletter we highlighted news of the change to the Housing Benefit Regulations which meant that more couples would be entitled to the additional earnings disregard of £17.10 per week. This was because the change in the Regulations (from 23rd June 2017) meant that the additional disregard was available where one member of the couple was disabled and either member of the couple was working 16 or more hours per week – it did not have to be the disabled member of the couple who was working.
Unfortunately, it appears that this was an unintentional error in the drafting of the Amendment Regulations. So it has been corrected!
New Amendment Regulations,in force from 3rd November 2017, reinstate the original position – ie in order to qualify for the additional earnings disregard, it must be the member of the couple who satisfies the qualifying conditions for the disability premium, or who is a member of the work related activity group who is working 16 or more hours per week.
Find more information on earnings disregards here.
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Payments from
Infected Blood Schemes or the Thalidomide Trust
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New regulations have been published to confirm that payments from the new Infected Blood Schemes and the Thalidomide Trust are to be fully disregarded as income or capital when calculating Housing Benefit, Income Support, Employment and Support Allowance, Jobseeker's Allowance and Pension Credit. There is new decision makers' guidance too.
You may have heard of the following schemes which have provided financial support to people infected with HIV and/or hepatitis C as a result of contaminated NHS blood or blood products:The Eileen Trust, The Macfarlane Trust, MFET Ltd, The Skipton Fund and The Caxton Foundation.These schemes were replaced in Scotland by the Scottish Infected Blood Support Scheme from 1.4.17 and in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, by the Infected Blood Schemes (IBS)from 2.10.17.
The Thalidomide Health Grant is administered on behalf of the Department of Health by the Thalidomide Trust (TT) for the purpose of giving relief and assistance to disabled people whose disabilities were caused by their mothers having taken Thalidomide during pregnancy.
New Universal Credit guidance confirms that these payments are already fully disregarded as income / savings in UC, under Regulations 75(4) and 76 of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013.
So, if you are aware of anyone who receives payments from these schemes, make sure these payments are not being taken into account when their benefits are calculated.
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