UC claim closed

UC claimant went abroad to attend a family funeral. He notified the DWP in advance and a JC appointment that would have taken place while he was away was deferred until after his expected return.

While the client was away he was asked via his journal to self-report his earnings. He was sent a reminder five days after that and then seven days after that his claim was closed.

When he returned to the UK after a total of 18 days abroad the client was encouraged to reclaim, which he did, but he ended up missing a month’s benefit.

After a false start in which the client challenged the decision not to backdate his second claim, he has now received a MRN in relation to the decision to close his first claim. It merely says that section 8(1)(a) of the Social Security Act 1998 allows the SoS to close a claim and that the client was given the correct amount of time to report his earnings.

This CPAG article deals with closing claims:
https://cpag.org.uk/welfare-rights/resources/article/%E2%80%98closing%E2%80%99-universal-credit-claims

The two regulations it refers to seem to give the claimant at least a month before a claim can be closed, rather than the 12 days which the client here was given.

Am I missing something?

1) Was UC already in payment, and the award was superseded and ended - or was this an entirely new claim?

2) Was the basis of the decision the fact that he was abroad or the failure to report earnings?

Thank you for the reply.

1) The original UC claim had been in payment for more than twelve months. We don’t have the wording of the decision to end his claim, as there is no access to the journal before the date of his reclaim, but the MRN that we have just received refers to it as a decision to close his claim.

2) Failure to report earnings.

Yes I think this has gone wrong.

Reg 61(1) UC Regs imposes a duty to provide earnings information but there are no particular consequences in terms of the award ending if you fail to do so. ADM H3013 spells out that a DM in these circumstances should make a decision on earned income using the available information. We often see LA HB departments in this situation adopting an “assumed income” of some preposterously high level, but really the DM needs to make a decision on the balance of probabilities based on the evidence they have.

Alternatively, there is a procedure in Part 5 & 6 of the D&A Regs for payments to be suspended and the award ultimately terminated, but as you say - nothing close to the period of time required for this to have occurred has passed.

Don’t see what s8(1)(a) has to do with anything.

Thanks again.

Client now says that he had already told the DWP via his journal how much his earnings were going to be for that month before he went abroad, because he knew they were going to ask him.

Of course we can’t see any of this because we only have access to journal entries made after the reclaim…

Just in from the DWP:

“Considering all the evidence, I am satisfied that your claim has been closed incorrectly and I am
therefore revising the original decision”