Can you be struck off from universal credit after a certain months/periods of £0 entitlement?

seatbeltnoob

I am self employed, I have been on UC for over a year now, due to covid affecting my events business. I have worked hard to get an ecommerce business going, and it has started to give me a full time income, slowly.

This month, my entitlement has be £0. After balacing out my accured losses over the last 3 months. I am curious though, as ecommerce is unpredictable, my income could get lost due to flood of competitors, loss of traffic etc. What if I need UC say 6 months down the line? Will I still be submitting my earnings to UC for as long as I want to, even though I'm earning too much to be entitled to anything? Or will they suspend my claim and ask me to apply again if I need it?

Spoonie_Turtle

seatbeltnoob said:

I am self employed, I have been on UC for over a year now, due to covid affecting my events business. I have worked hard to get an ecommerce business going, and it has started to give me a full time income, slowly.

This month, my entitlement has be £0. After balacing out my accured losses over the last 3 months. I am curious though, as ecommerce is unpredictable, my income could get lost due to flood of competitors, loss of traffic etc. What if I need UC say 6 months down the line? Will I still be submitting my earnings to UC for as long as I want to, even though I'm earning too much to be entitled to anything? Or will they suspend my claim and ask me to apply again if I need it?

I believe after 6 months of nil entitlement they close your claim.  If that happens, you can reapply any time.

calcotti

Normally with UC if you have a single month of nil amount payable the claim is closed. At the moment claims are, as spoonie says, being kept open for six months.

Normally if a claim is closed after once month there is an option for six months to do a rapid reclaim which effectively reopens the existing claim. For people with fluctuating income who maybe eligible for payment again, because of complex rules to do with ‘surplus earnings’, it can be sensible to keep reopening the claim each month.

TELLIT01

When UC started we were told that a UC claim/account never actually closed but would remain dormant to facilitate any requirement to claim in the future.  That obviously changed at some point.

calcotti

TELLIT01 said:

When UC started we were told that a UC claim/account never actually closed but would remain dormant to facilitate any requirement to claim in the future.  That obviously changed at some point.

As I understand it, fully closed after six months. So normally closed after one month with option of rapid reclaim for six months and any such claim preserves the existing APs and picks up any outstanding surplus earnings (hence the importance of repeatedly reclaiming if applicable). After a six month gap a completely new claim would be required with new APs.

I am not clear what happens when claims have been kept open by DWP for six months of nil payment. I assume that clam is fully closed and there is no rapid reclaim option.

It would be simpler for most if claims remained open for six months by default - as happened before full digital rollout. Just the self employed might want option to choose to fully close claim to relieve themselves of reporting responsibilities.

NedS

calcotti said:

I am not clear what happens when claims have been kept open by DWP for six months of nil payment. I assume that clam is fully closed and there is no rapid reclaim option.

It all hinges on the last day of entitlement. When a WC/CM closes a claim, they enter a claim closure date, but the system can override it and often decide the claim ended on an earlier date (last date of entitlement). For example, If a claim was closed today as NIL entitlement for 6 APs due to earnings, the system would set a claim closure date of 6 months ago - the end of the last AP in which there was entitlement to UC. So at that point, if the claimant reopened the claim, it would be treated as a new claim rather than a rapid reclaim. So to sum up, whether the claim is closed after 1 AP or 6 APs of NIL entitlement doesn't really affect the reclaim period - what is important is the last date of entitlement regardless of whether the claim is open or closed in the meantime. A rapid reclaim needs to be made within 6 APs of the last AP where there was an entitlement to benefit. One day over and it's a new claim.

When a claim is closed, the system puts an entry into the journal notifying the customer, and this notification contains the correct date of claim closure (last date of entitlement) so there can be no confusion.

calcotti

That's very informative. Thanks, Ned.