Universal credit back-payments finally start

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Details: Category: Latest news; Created: 24 July 2019

The DWP has finally started to compensate claimants who lost out because they were moved onto universal credit (UC) before 16 January 2019 and lost their severe disability premium.

Announcing the move this week, Amber Rudd told MPs:

“The regulations that I am laying today will enable us to begin to provide support for claimants who were entitled to the premium and have already moved to universal credit. From 24 July 2019, those claimants will be considered for backdated payments covering the time that has elapsed since their move. They will also gain access to ongoing transitional payments that reflect the severe disability premium to which they were previously entitled.”

The payments will amount to a maximum of £405 a month, an increase on the original figure of £360 a month.

The total package will cost will have cost £600 million by 2025 and will affect 45,000 claimants.

However, the DWP have gone back on a previous undertaking that claimants who were getting a severe disability premium only in their housing benefit would also be compensated.

The new regulations were put through just before parliament closes for the summer recess and without allowing MPs to vote on the amount claimants would receive or other issues.

The regulations also allowed the DWP to start its trial of managed migration of universal credit without allowing MPs to scrutinise or prevent the move.

Comments

#9 ELE1 2019-09-13 19:07

Today my partner received notification of the repayment of the SDP he lost when he was migrated to Universal Credit. I would like to thank the poster on here who advised those who were owed these back payments to report it as a SERVICE ISSUE on their UC journal.
He put 2 entries with regard to this and today received this good news.
My advice to anyone in the same position who is suffering because of this unfair system is to do as he did.
Do not give up,keep on at them!!!!

#8 Bernie 2019-08-10 20:25

Quoting morts67:

Anyone know what you can do to actually get what your owed in back payments and when SDP will actually be added to UC payment for those who naturally migrated as when i ask this or anything else on my journal i get told to get intouch with another department or tells you to get intouch with another department and so on.What is the point of the journal???

Hi I've been in touch with uc on several occasions regarding this so I've been told payments have started and there is a specialist team working on it to identify those who are due these back payments.
Since I wrote this original post I have done nothing else but ask both through my journal and phone uc on a daily daily basis sending every link I can find online requrequiring about it.
If you need to ask uc anything through your journal regarding this state it through the service issue part to ask them rather than the part work to job coach, payment etc.
You'll see it at the bottom of the list
This carry on for people owed is a service issue as we are due it and it's part of uc to sort this.
Keep at them the more you pester them the more they'll get fed up with you constantly messaging
So far it's working for me as I recieved a message yesteyesterday from a customer complaints advisor telling me she has highlighted my case and sent it to this this specialist team to bring it to there attention more quickly
I'm owed both SDA and enhanced rate since January 8th 8th 2018
Good luck keep on at them

#7 morts67 2019-08-10 14:24

Anyone know what you can do to actually get what your owed in back payments and when SDP will actually be added to UC payment for those who naturally migrated as when i ask this or anything else on my journal i get told to get intouch with another department or tells you to get intouch with another department and so on.What is the point of the journal???

#6 meninx 2019-08-01 21:21

I was getting severe disability on jobseekers but having scored nil points on WCA
I have been waiting for the tribunal since 2017
I have been told I can not get the severe disability premiums unless I win the tribunal
Has anyone else been through this experience or know how long WCA tribunal wait is

#5 Jim 2019-08-01 16:28

This is apparently due to the massive number of claimants who are affected by this. And as claimants are unable to contact these back office staff, and the call-centre staff will not be provided with any updates either, this means claimants will be completely in the dark throughout the whole process. There will be no way to find out if you are entitled to the money or not, or how long it will take until the final decision letter arrives in the post. I was told this process will be completed by 2025. So that’s a potential 6 years of in the dark waiting for claimants who might or might not be entitled to this money. Which is utterly disgraceful in my opinion. The good news I guess is claimants don’t need to ‘chase this up’ or tell them you should be entitled – it should just happen automatically for the specified people. Personally speaking I don’t think this had anything to do with helping claimants out or a ‘win’ for claimants – I think this was only done so they could continue unopposed with their planned UC Migration plans. I think Benefits and work could do with looking into this matter further and try and help explain to claimants more details about these Severe Disability Premium payments.

#4 Jim 2019-08-01 16:25

Finally the ‘specialist team’ Bernie referred to does exist but it is a back office department which from what I was told the claimant is not allowed to be in contact with. The way it was explained to me was as follows. There’s two computer systems here – 1) the old database with legacy ESA claims from people who have been migrated to UC. And 2) the new database with peoples latest UC claims on. The 1st database contains info whether the claimants were in receipt of Severe Disability Premium or not. I’ve been told that the 1st database needs to electronically talk to the second one. It will check each UC claimant to see if they used to be in receipt of SDP and if so ‘mark’ their account. The back office team will then receive details of all these ‘marked’ accounts and manually review the information and see if the claimant is still entitled to SDP. If they are they will be contacted in ‘due course’ via a letter with resolved details of how much money they will be owed and how much their monthly UC will increase. I was told claimants will not be contacted until this point if successful and will not be contacted at all if unsuccessful.

-1 #3 Jim 2019-08-01 16:24

In these situations the government says the claimant has ‘signed up’ for UC themselves and as such signed up to the new ‘rules’ of UC. They told me that in the small-print when a claimant signs up for UC they agree that Severe Disability Premium will not be paid to them in any circumstances. So they say they won’t go back on that decision as that is what we all agreed when we originally started our UC claims. If you have been MIGRATED to UC Credit the claimant hasn’t signed up for these new rules and that is why the government will review their claims and if they were previously in receipt of Severe Disability Premium will continue to pay those specific claimants the money they were previously on. I’m not sure if Benefits and Work is aware of this but it wasn’t clear in their newsletter and news article and it is also still a huge penalty for those people who are on Universal Credit not ESA. The UC Customer Service Representative I spoke to said this wasn’t the end of the legal action that was being taken on this subject – maybe this change is still to come further down the line.

-1 #2 Jim 2019-08-01 16:18

Hi there. Sorry for the really long reply but I wanted to share the info I’ve got with others. I’m in a similar situation to the 1st comment by Bernie but I have a bit more info for people. I rang up the UC Customer Service centre and was told this information. This is unfortunately a very small win that will only apply to a very small minority of people. The Severe Disability Premium will only be paid to people who were originally in receipt of this when they were on ESA and who were MIGRATED to Universal Credit. Severe Disability Premium will not be paid to anyone else on Universal Credit. It will not be paid to anyone who has ‘chosen’ to make a claim to UC. For example if UC had already been rolled out in your area before you made your claim then you will not get Severe Disability Premium. This also applies if you have ‘reported a change in circumstances’ on your ESA Claim. For example changing your address or marital status. In whichever area you live in for the last few years if you report a change to ESA they won’t let you do it and make you sign up for UC instead in order to make the necessary change.

+2 #1 Bernie 2019-07-31 10:24

I am due back payments for severe disability and enchanced rates of premiums I lost since I was made to claim universal credit on 08/01/2018
When I make enquiries regarding this money owed through universal credit. Nobody seems to have any answers regarding when this will be paid
All I am told is there is a special team working on finding claimants who are owed this backdated money
Does anyone have a contact number for this specialist team

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