UC help

marie62029

hi
just looking for a bit of advice I claimed UC in June 2018 and was sending fit notes in I only received the questionnaire in April 2019 which had to be back on the 28th May 2019 does anyone know if that was right that I should have waited so long for it as I feel I had been missed as I've seen that forms are normally sent out within a couple of weeks of claiming?,
I received my appoiment for the assessment on the 5th July to attend on the 15th July when I was having my assessment I noticed on a paper on the desk that it said urgent so could anyone tell me why it would say urgent, could it be that I had waited so long for the form and how long decisions normally take.
thank you

poppy12345

marie62029 wrote: »

hi
just looking for a bit of advice I claimed UC in June 2018 and was sending fit notes in I only received the questionnaire in April 2019 which had to be back on the 28th May 2019 does anyone know if that was right that I should have waited so long for it as I feel I had been missed as I've seen that forms are normally sent out within a couple of weeks of claiming?,
I received my appoiment for the assessment on the 5th July to attend on the 15th July when I was having my assessment I noticed on a paper on the desk that it said urgent so could anyone tell me why it would say urgent, could it be that I had waited so long for the form and how long decisions normally take.
thank you

It does sound like your claim for LCW was overlooked which can happen. If you are given LCWRA then you'll receive any backdated money owed from the 4th month of your claim starting from when you sent in your first fit note.

marie62029

thank you for your reply, have you any idea how long the wait is usually for a decision?

poppy12345

marie62029 wrote: »

thank you for your reply, have you any idea how long the wait is usually for a decision?

There's no timescales for any decision, it depends on backlog in your area.

marie62029

sorry to bother you again but do you know if I can get a copy of my assessment or any other medical records they have and if so can I request it now or do I have to wait for there decision...tia

poppy12345

If you live in the UK then you can request a copy of the assessment report to be sent to you by ringing UC. This will give you some idea what the decision is likely to be because they mostly go with the report.



You will of course need to wait for the decision and if it's not what you're happy with then you'll have 1 month from that date to request the MR.

marie62029

hi just a follow up since my last post, i was granted lcwra on 15th august and was told they would write to me again within 7 working days to tell me about what backdated pay i would get and when, i didnt hear anything so i asked in my jornal when i would be told and was just told it will be sorted and given in my september payment but ive still had no letter and ive had the statement today and its still not showing on it.

anyone suggest any help before i contact them again as i just feel like the person who answers my questions is very unhelpful and just fobs me off.

11krage

Hello. There's usually a relevant period of three full assessment periods. What I'd suggest is to note the start date of your decision (if you haven't delayed proving fit notes or left any gaps between fit note periods this will be the start date of the first fit note you gave them, or the start date of your current UC claim, whichever is the later date.)


With this date written down go onto your account, click on payments. You'll see a list of all the payments you've received on UC and the assessment periods they cover.


Now check where your start date falls. If it falls in the middle of one of the assessment periods, ignore that assessment period. Start your count from the next one. Then count three assessment periods on the payment screen. The fourth one is when the lcwra element will start from.


If you haven't / hadn't received this payment when the decision was made then no lcwra is owed to you (the only possible exception is if you received any earnings in that period and previously didn't have a work allowance but now do. The work allowance is applied from the start date of the decision. So this would affect how much of the earnings were taken into account which could cause an underpayment).


That letter saying 7 days is very badly worded. It's been complained about multiple times. Basically if there is any underpayment owed to you, then you'll receive a letter on your journal about it at some point (depending on work load this might not be within seven days). As there is no task for a case manager to complete if there is no underpayment owed, if you're not owed anything you will receive no letter at all.


If after the above checks you find you are owed money (if you only made the claim in June it doesn't look like you'd be past the relevant period so wouldn't be owed anything), then you should also be aware that if you have debts the process they're supposed to follow is to refer the underpayment to debt management to pay off some of those debts. You'd also receive a letter if that happened.


This might not be what you wanted to hear, but hope it helps.


Edit to say I've just noticed you said June 2018, not 2019. So whether you are due any underpayment would depend on what start date they put on the decision. First thing is to check this as it may not be the start date of the claim or even the first fit note if you've had gaps between providing fit notes.

marie62029

hello thank you for the advice could i just ask do i need to contact them to find out when its been awarded from because i know that there has never been a gap in any of the fit notes

11krage

Hello. If there's no date in the letter you received (I don't think there is, but it's been a while since I've read one of them closely) then to be sure you'd need to contact them.


In case you get someone on the phone who's not sure what they're doing, you can direct them to look under the 'work capability decisions.' This will be on the left hand side of their screen on their main page once they've accessed your account.


The decision will have a type of decision, start date (which is what you need) and prognosis (how long the decision lasts for). I'd note down both start date and prognosis somewhere so you have it for reference.


If the start date does happen to be a while ago there should be a 'under or overpayment' task on their main screen. This should still be open unless someone has done a real silly and processed it and not followed the instructions to put the letter on your journal.


You could also have your account open while you call them, then when you get the start date you can do some quick working out and know then and there whether any underpayment is owed and for how many assessment periods.


That way if they give you a later start date that means no underpayment is due you can ask them if they're able to give you an explanation as to why that start date was used. They may hand this over to your casemanager to answer (particularly if you get a telephony agent who hasn't done much case management themselves).


There's a few agents unable to calculate whether the relevant period has passed themselves, so it would be beneficial for you to have that tab open so you can check yourself.


If an underpayment is owed to you and hasn't been processed you can push a bit for it to be processed faster as you've said you had the decision in August. But be aware that this would go to debt management instead of you if you have any debts. Many claimants forget about this and have already mentally spent the money so are quite upset when it goes to pay down their debts.

poppy12345

marie62029 wrote: »

hi just a follow up since my last post, i was granted lcwra on 15th august and was told they would write to me again within 7 working days to tell me about what backdated pay i would get and when, i didnt hear anything so i asked in my jornal when i would be told and was just told it will be sorted and given in my september payment but ive still had no letter and ive had the statement today and its still not showing on it.

anyone suggest any help before i contact them again as i just feel like the person who answers my questions is very unhelpful and just fobs me off.

Are you 100% sure it was LCWRA (limited capability for work related activity) and not just LCW (limited capability for work)