This morning I had a conversation with someone about their benefits.
Then, I sent a confirmation email
This is it:
Hello Hatshepsut,
Here’s a reminder of the things that we were just talking about:
Universal Credit
At the moment, you are getting UC that includes a Standard Allowance (£393.45) for you and a Child Element (£333.33) for your son.
They are taking back £50 per month for the advance that you had, leaving a monthly payment of £676.78
Alongside this there is the mortgage interest payment that goes direct to your bank.
The Work Capability Assessment or Health-Journey
Many people who get UC, who are not in work, have to job-seek in return for the money.
But when you give them a sick-note (which they call a fit-note) they generally ease-off the job-seeking, or stop it altogether.
The other effect of a sicknote is that it triggers a work capability assessment (which, ‘cos they love to give things two names, they will call a health journey.)
In the rest of this email I’m going to type WCA/HJ to refer to this Work-Capability-Assessment/Health-Journey
What’s The WCA/HJ About?
The whole point of this is to assess how far your health condition affects your ability to work.
First they confirm that your health condition puts barriers in the way of working.
Assuming that they decide this is so, they will give you the label that says that you have Limited Capability For Work (LCW)
Then they assess how severe your difficulties are, and whether you can manage to do things to improve your future employment prospects – which they call Work Related Activity.
Assuming that they decide that your condition has severe effects they will give you a label that says that you have Limited Capability for Work Related Activity (LCWRA)
Why Bother With The WCA/HJ?
If your WCA/HJ decides that you have both LCW and LCWRA then you get extra money in your Universal Credit.
The extra amount is called a LCWRA-Element and it’s currently £416.19 per month
When Does This Start
Assuming that your WCA/HJ decides that you have both LCW and LCWRA there is a three-to-four month waiting time to get the extra money.
This waiting time starts when you first told DWP that you are unwell.
How Does This Work For You? What Do You Need To Do?
You have already told DWP that you are unwell by providing sick-notes, but you need to be covered by these for the full time until the WCA/HJ is completed.
That’s why I suggested that you should ask your GP practice to give you new sick-notes for periods that link to when your last one ran out.
You should get this to the DWP maybe with a note saying “Sorry there has been a delay getting this sicknote in, I have been unwell”
Then you should start hassling DWP to get your WCA/HJ completed.
Then, once they have completed the WCA/HJ, assuming that they decide that your MS has severe effects, they will give you the extra LCWRA-Element.
They will probably get the start date wrong, but we can check that for you.
Working While You Have LCW/LCWRA
Just because DWP has given you the LCW/LCWRA labels, it doesn’t mean that you cannot work.
Sometimes there are limits on what work you can do, but basically, if they give you the lCW/LCWRA labels and you get the extra LCWRA-Element, you will still be able to return to doing work that is consistent with your health difficulties.
Get back in touch with us if you find a work possibility and we can confirm that DWP will be cool with it.
Personal Independence Payment
Well done for getting to the tribunal stage.
Here is my youtube channel with short videos about each part of the PIP assessment.
It’s not quite finished yet. I haven’t done the mobility sections. But check back in a few weeks.
Employment and Support Allowance
There is a benefit called new-style-contributory-Employment-and-Support-Allowance (Ffs!) that you might be able to claim.
It wouldn’t actually increase your income – but it may still be worth claiming it.
We can ignore it for now, but we should maybe think about it a bit more once Universal Credit has finished your WCA/HJ
Here is a bit of information about it
I hope this is helpful.
If you get stuck dealing with any of it, get back in touch and we will do our best to point you in the right direction.
Best wishes,
Mike Bolton
Benefits Explainer