Mixed Age UC claim issues

Hi,

I’ve got a client who are mixed aged with one above pension age (male) and one below pension age (female).

She was claiming New-Style JSA and Carer’s Allowance for her husband and we recently moved them over to UC as a mixed age couple. They have no rent so it was simply standard allowance plus a carers element which totals approx £700pm.

UC have done their calculations and have taken off their payment his state pension of £500 and her Carer’s Allowance of approx £200 which has meant they have a payment of £0 which has obviously left them in financial hardship.

Is there anything I can do to boost their income?

Thanks

Adam

Presumably he has some health issues so he could report a health condition and have a WCA. Obviously this is only worth doing if you think he could qualify for LCWRA and inclusion of the LCWRA element would result in some UC being payable which, based on what you posted, it would (after the three month wait).

What level of disability benefit is he getting? If he gets AA, enhanced rate Daily Living PIP or higher rate care DLA he is entitled to be automatically treated as having LCWRA.

Where they claiming any income based benefits prior to becoming mixed age, and was she actually in receipt of CA?

No she was claiming new-style JSA and he is claiming AA. She’s been in receipt of CA for a number of months (I think April 2020 time)

Ianb - 10 December 2020 09:23 PM

Presumably he has some health issues so he could report a health condition and have a WCA. Obviously this is only worth doing if you think he could qualify for LCWRA and inclusion of the LCWRA element would result in some UC being payable which, based on what you posted, it would (after the three month wait).

What level of disability benefit is he getting? If he gets AA, enhanced rate Daily Living PIP or higher rate care DLA he is entitled to be automatically treated as having LCWRA.

He gets AA - would I be able to get LCWRA even though he’s retired and therefore not looking for work anyway and has no work-related/preparation on his Claimant Commitment? (I’ve not dealt with Mixed Age couples on UC).

Thanks

Adam

CA falls under the overlapping benefits rules, so if she was getting both nsJSA and CA at the same time (rather than entitled to both, but only receiving the JSA), she will likely have a recoverable overpayment.

And yes, mixed age couples can get a LCWRA element, even when it is “tied” to the older of the couple.

As per Ian above - being above state pension age and getting AA means automatic LCWRA without further discussion, see para 5, sch 9 UC Regs. This should kick in after the three month assessment phase. That then maxes out their UC.

What needs to be checked is that the health condition was disclosed along with the AA award as part of the UC claim process.

As referenced by Elliott, schedule 9 of the UC regs says

“Circumstances in which a claimant is to be treated as having limited capability for work and work-related activity

Disabled and over the age for state pension credit

5.  The claimant has reached the qualifying age for state pension credit and is entitled to attendance allowance, the care component of disability living allowance at the highest rate or the daily living component of personal independence payment at the enhanced rate.”

If everything is in place clients will get a modest UC payment at the end of the fourth AP.