2nd COL Payment Refused Due to Going From Joint To Single Claim

ladyandthetramp

On the 28th Aug I split from my partner, so went from a joint to single claim, having claimed UC top  up for the last 2 years due to low income I was surprised that this simple change meant that I had a 5 week waiting period before I could submit income and expenses, I was expecting my usual payment and have no savings to had to apply for an advance (which I have to pay back) not only that I am now being told that I am not entitled to the 2nd COL payment because during the assessment period I was in this 5 week wait.  It just seems so unfair, it is supposed to be given to people who are struggling to help with living costs but through no fault of my own I won't be getting it.  Does anyone have any advice? The letter says you can appeal or ask for mandatory reconsideration but they haven't given me any details on how to do this.

poppy12345

You shouldn't have needed to make a new claim when you split from your partner, you could have just reported the changes and your exisiting claim would have reverted to a single claim. Was there any reason why you didn't do this?

The reason you're not entitled now is because you started a new claim and they are correct in saying you're not entitled.I don't think there's any appeals process to this.

calcotti

I agree with poppy, you should not have needed to make a new claim.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1077570/adme2.pdf
See paragraph E2156

Joint claimants – couple split up 
E2156 A joint claim couple will cease to be entitled to UC when they split up; however, each member of the couple will be entitled to a further award as a single claimant without the need to make a new claim. For each, the new assessment period will begin on the same date of each month as the assessment period for the old joint award.

Example

Tom and Katie are entitled to UC as a couple. Their assessment period is the 3rd of the month to the 2nd of the following month. They cease to be a couple on 27th November when Katie moved out. Tom rings up to notify DWP of this on the 27th. The DM terminates the award of UC from the first day of the assessment period in which this change occurs – namely the 3rd of November, Neither Tom nor Katie have to make a new claim to UC and they are each awarded UC as single claimants from 3rd November.

Even if a new claim were made, if it were made within six months the new claim should have the same assessment periods as the previous joint claim. See paragraph E2124

Getting the UC claimed retrospectively may be difficult (but you could try with reference to the DWP guidance mentioned above). If you can’t do this you could possibly raise a complaint seeking compensation for the financial loss you experienced as a result of DWP procedure.

NedS

OP never said they made a new claim - they said they went from a joint claim to a single claim. Did you make a new claim or did you just report a change that you and your partner had separated?

How did you originally start off with a joint claim? Did you make the original claim together as a couple, or did you move in with your partner and join their existing claim? If the latter, then you have never been assigned an AP of your own, but were sharing your partner's AP dates from their original claim that you joined. Hence, then when you report a change to leave that claim, your new single claim would be assigned an AP date based on the date that you reported the change happened - which would explain the 5 week wait until the first (next) payment.

Whether you are entitled to the CoL payment will depend on the AP dates of your claim. When is your new AP end date, and does it fall within the 1 month range for the second CoL payment?

calcotti

NedS said:

OP never said they made a new claim - they said they went from a joint claim to a single claim. Did you make a new claim or did you just report a change that you and your partner had separated?

How did you originally start off with a joint claim? Did you make the original claim together as a couple, or did you move in with your partner and join their existing claim? If the latter, then you have never been assigned an AP of your own, but were sharing your partner's AP dates from their original claim that you joined. Hence, then when you report a change to leave that claim, your new single claim would be assigned an AP date based on the date that you reported the change happened - which would explain the 5 week wait until the first (next) payment.

That doesn’t seem to match ADM paragraphs I’ve mentioned (I realise I was still editing to include them while you were posting).

Even if someone moves in with a partner and is ‘added’ to their claim the claim would still now be a joint claim and the rules for subsequently dividing the joint claim should apply.

NedS

calcotti said:

NedS said:

OP never said they made a new claim - they said they went from a joint claim to a single claim. Did you make a new claim or did you just report a change that you and your partner had separated?

How did you originally start off with a joint claim? Did you make the original claim together as a couple, or did you move in with your partner and join their existing claim? If the latter, then you have never been assigned an AP of your own, but were sharing your partner's AP dates from their original claim that you joined. Hence, then when you report a change to leave that claim, your new single claim would be assigned an AP date based on the date that you reported the change happened - which would explain the 5 week wait until the first (next) payment.

That doesn’t seem to match ADM paragraphs I’ve mentioned (I realise I was still editing to include them while you were posting).

Even if someone moves in with a partner and is ‘added’ to their claim the claim would still now be a joint claim and the rules for subsequently dividing the joint claim should apply.

That scenario is very straight forward and would apply where Tom and Katie make a joint couple claim together at the same time. But I'm not so sure it would apply if Tom has an existing single claim, and Katie, who doesn't have a claim (maybe she's still claiming Tax Credits), moves in with Tom and joins Tom's claim. When they then separate, Katie does not have her own AP dates as she's never had a claim of her own with a claim date assigned, she's only ever 'borrowed' Tom's AP dates for the purposes of their joint claim. So, as I understand it, the first time Katie would get assigned her own AP dates is when she reports the change to say she has separated from Tom - hence the 5 week wait reported by the OP.

Or maybe Katie's underlying AP date would be the date she opened her claim, but because she joined Tom's existing claim, the join claim continues to be paid by Tom's AP dates and when they separate the AP dates assigned to Katie would be based on the original date of declaration when she joined Tom's claim.

You see this in practice where two single claimants, with different AP dates become a couple. The couple claim AP dates are taken from the claim that the other person joins (has your partner given you a linking code? ... for you to join their claim). And then when they later separate, they each revert to their original AP dates, so one person of the couple will now get original AP dates back again.

It all has the potential to get very confusing so as always, I reserve the right to be wrong

calcotti

NedS said:. But I'm not so sure it would apply if Tom has an existing single claim, and Katie, who doesn't have a claim (maybe she's still claiming Tax Credits), moves in with Tom and joins Tom's claim. When they then separate, Katie does not have her own AP dates as she's never had a claim of her own with a claim date assigned, she's only ever 'borrowed' Tom's AP dates for the purposes of their joint claim.

I read that as now being a joint claim which therefore means the assessment dates should be applied to both if they then separate.

NedS said:

You see this in practice where two single claimants, with different AP dates become a couple. The couple claim AP dates are taken from the claim that the other person joins (has your partner given you a linking code? ... for you to join their claim). And then when they later separate, they each revert to their original AP dates, so one person of the couple will now get original AP dates back again.

That makes no sense to me, is that really what happens? I haven’t got the energy to read through the guidance at this time of night!

NedS

calcotti said:

NedS said:. But I'm not so sure it would apply if Tom has an existing single claim, and Katie, who doesn't have a claim (maybe she's still claiming Tax Credits), moves in with Tom and joins Tom's claim. When they then separate, Katie does not have her own AP dates as she's never had a claim of her own with a claim date assigned, she's only ever 'borrowed' Tom's AP dates for the purposes of their joint claim.

I read that as now being a joint claim which therefore means the assessment dates should be applied to both if they then separate.

NedS said:

You see this in practice where two single claimants, with different AP dates become a couple. The couple claim AP dates are taken from the claim that the other person joins (has your partner given you a linking code? ... for you to join their claim). And then when they later separate, they each revert to their original AP dates, so one person of the couple will now get original AP dates back again.

That makes no sense to me, is that really what happens? I haven’t got the energy to read through the guidance at this time of night!

I think so. I will keep an eye on claims that separate and see if I can confirm. Should be easy to confirm - under your thinking, both would retain the same AP dates. Under my thinking, statistically it would be highly unlikely (1 in 30 chance) both would have/retain the same AP dates.

xxxxxxxx

Seems to be a ridiculous way of organising AP dates,  why would it matter if their respective AP dates do not match what their previous AP dates were?  The example of Tom and Katie would make perfect sense for all split ups.  

When people join together then obviously the different AP dates will have to be muddled together somehow but not when splitting them.   

To Ladyandthetramp 
That sucks what happened,  but you need to realise your offer for a Mandatory Reconsideration is presumably from the COLP team,  According to the rules of the COL qualifying period you do not qualify so i see little point in requesting an MR from them.  In my opinion your quarrel is with the DWP for not following the example in ADM E2156.

Who is the letter from?

We should return and discuss this some more after we have all done some more digging.

calcotti

xxxxxxxx said:

..your offer for a Mandatory Reconsideration is presumably from the COLP team,  

No sure it can be, I think the CoL rules exclude rights of appeal - but could be wrong. OP could clarify.

xxxxxxxx

CoLP is not administered by UC