About universal credit

chechick

Hi l was woundering if any could give me advise in here, what it is lm on universal credit and lm in the lcw and been on this for 2 years and l went for another medical assesment and they put on lcwra l passed it on the 17th april 2018 so lm on lcw and lcwra so l  on both now,when l have phoned universal credit asking about my money when will it be paid and if lm owed any arrears there telling me different on the phone saying lm due any back pay then when l phone again the other says l am due something but there caculating it to see if l owe debt management which l dont, lve had no letters yet explaining whats going and there baffling my head one says somet then the next person says a different thing thanks replys would helpful 

Pippa_Alumni

Hi @chechick, sorry to hear this. It sounds like a really frustrating situation! I've forwarded this post onto our benefits advisors who will hopefully be able to clarify things.

chechick

Thank pippa scope, plus l dont no when lm gonna start getting the extra money thanks for replying 

gnmeads

Hi chechick welcome to the Scope community 
I have had the same problem with tax credit they don't seem to know what they are doing, well not until you speak to a higher member of staff.  I think the best way to go about it is to only ask each question you have once and when you do, record the call. This is so you can go back to it and they can't deny what they've said

chechick

Its a ballache some of them dont no what there  doing thats a good idea to record them mike [removed by moderator] didnt think of that lve phoned them back today and they said my extra will start on the 23rd of this month,,then l phoned them back just before 5 and another said my extra payment wont start till 3months cause therr looking into if l owe debt mangement anyhting and to see if there are any arrears due so l ,eep getting told different alls l want to no is whats going on properly what do you mean full service?? Mike [removed by moderator]

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi chechick

'Full service' that Mike [removed by moderator] referred to is the online version (where your claim is managed on the online journal) all UC will eventually be like this, but at the moment some claims are still administered clerically (by hand) and these are called 'Live service' -if you have an online journal you're full service.

The LCWRA should be added to the assessment period when the decision was made - from what you say above, if your normal payments are 23rd of the month, then I make your assessment period to be 16th to 15th?? If this is the case, the23rd May would be the first payment to include the LCWRA element - note that this will replace the LCW element and not be in addition to it.

Even if you owe a debt, the LCWRA should still be included from the relevant date, it may just mean that they take a deduction, but other than offsetting arrears payments (which I can't imagine they'd be doing here, as they wouldn't normally backdate prior to the decision date) they can't take more than the maximum 40% of your standard allowance, so I'm not sure what they're on about there.

I'd definitely second Mike's advice and if you're in full service, get it on the journal so create a paper trail.

Let us know how you get on.

Kind regards,

Mary

chechick

Ok thank you for your advice it has really helped