Guidance

LA Welfare Direct lite 9/2019

Updated 4 March 2024

Contact

If you have queries about the:

• technical content of this bulletin then contact details are given at the end of each article

• general content and distribution of this bulletin, contact [email protected]

Who should read

All Housing Benefit staff.

Action

For information.

Student uprating 2019-20

Disregards for travel, books and equipment

1. The rates for the travel grant disregard, books and equipment disregard have been frozen since 2010, and are again this year. For the academic year 2019 the disregard rates will remain at £303 in respect of travel and £390 in respect of books and equipment.

Loans, grants and tuition fees

2. Grants were abolished for students who began their courses on or after 1 August 2016 and they can only apply for a tuition loan and a maintenance loan. Students whose courses began before that date continue to be eligible to apply for a maintenance grant as well as a tuition loan and a maintenance loan.

3. You can find more details about the financial support available to new students and existing students at student finance loans and grants and student finance for existing students.

4. If you need further information on student uprating please contact [email protected].

Funeral Support Payment

5. Funeral Support Payment is the replacement for Funeral Expenses Payment for those eligible living in Scotland. It will provide support to people on lower income benefits with a contribution towards the cost of a funeral.

6. Social Security Scotland will administer and pay Funeral Support Payment and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will stop paying Funeral Expenses Payment for those living in Scotland.

When is Funeral Support Payment being introduced?

7. Social Security Scotland have announced that claims for Funeral Support Payment can be taken from 16 September 2019.

Effect of Funeral Support Payment on Housing Benefit

8. The necessary legislative package is being put in place to ensure that Funeral Support Payment is disregarded wholly and completely for income purposes including Housing Benefit (HB).

Further guidance will be issued once the regulations are in force.

9. You can find more information about Funeral Support Payment or you can phone Social Security Scotland on 0800 182 2222.

New emails addresses for form LA17 (legacy benefits only)

10. Local authorities (LAs) are required to use form LA17 to tell DWP about a change of circumstance or discrepancies in a HB or Council Tax Reduction claim.

11. The new email referral addresses are:

• Employment and Support Allowance - [email protected]

• Jobseekers Allowance - [email protected]

• Income Support - [email protected]

• Pension Credit - [email protected] (will change from previous email address from 23 September 2019)

Severe Disability Premium transitional payments

12. When Universal Credit (UC) was designed, a decision was taken not to replicate the 7 disability premiums which exist in the legacy benefits.

13. Instead, the money used for these premiums was recycled into a higher rate for those who are assessed as having limited capability for work and work-related activity (LCWRA).

14. As a result, approximately a third of claimants gained when they moved to UC, a third saw no change and the remaining third potentially lost out.

15. The group of claimants who most likely lost out upon a move to UC were those who had received the Severe Disability Premium (SDP) in their legacy award.

16. In recognition of this, a gateway was introduced from 16 January 2019 so that claimants who are entitled to the SDP, or had been within the past month and were still entitled to it, have remained on or claimed legacy benefits, including HB.

17. In response to a recent High Court judgment, the SDP Gateway will be removed from January 2021.

18. Those who had already moved to UC prior to 16 January 2019, and those that will move to UC after January 2021, will be considered for SDP transitional payments.

19. You should refer to SDP questions and answers for:

• SDP transitional payments
• SDP Gateway
• Data sharing and the SDP payment

20. If you have any queries regarding the content of this article you can contact [email protected]

SDP questions and answers

SDP transitional payments

Q1. When will UC start making the SDP transitional payments?

Following the regulations coming into force on the 24 July 2019, DWP have started making payments to eligible UC claimants. As of 29 August 2019, DWP has made transitional payments to over 6,000 claimants.

Q2. When will the claimant get their payments?

DWP aim to make payments to eligible UC claimants as soon as possible. They’ll first identify claimants and assess their eligibility. However, this is not a straightforward process and will take time.

The SDP transitional payments are currently being worked on in chronological order. Claimant’s making enquiries are being informed that they’ll be contacted in due course.

When DWP review a claimants’ claim, they send them a letter via their UC journal to tell them if they’re eligible for the SDP transitional payment or not.

If the claimant is eligible, DWP will tell them how much they’ll receive and when UC will make the payment to them.

Q3. How much payment will the claimant receive?

The amount paid will depend on the claimant’s individual circumstances. The first lump sum payment will be a total of a monthly payment for each full assessment period since the UC claim started. UC will then continue to make ongoing monthly payments to the claimant as long as they remain eligible for these payments.

The SDP transitional payments have been adjusted to take into consideration the increased rate of LCWRA payment in comparison to the legacy equivalent. These rates are:

In the case of single claimants:

• £120 if the LCWRA element is included in the award
• £285 if the LCWRA element is not included in the award

In the case of joint claimants:

• £405 if the higher SDP rate was payable and no person has since become a carer for either or both of them
• £120 if point above does not apply and the LCWRA element is included in the award in respect of either or both of them
• £285 if point above does not apply, and the LCWRA element is not included in the award in respect of either or both of them

Q4. How will the claimant know if they’re eligible?

When UC review the claimants claim, they’ll identify claimants with the following criteria:

Claimant who became entitled to UC within a month after they were entitled to SDP with:

• Income Support
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
• Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• UC award has not since ended
• the claimant has not had a change in their relationship by becoming, or ceasing to be, a member of a couple

The claimant(s) still receives either:

• Personal Independence Payment daily living component at standard or enhanced rate
• Disability Living Allowance care component at the middle or higher rate
• Armed Forces Independence Payment
• Attendance Allowance or Constant Attendance Allowance (CAA)

And also if no person has become a carer for a single claimant, or in the case of joint claimants if SDP was payable at the higher rate or both rates, or if SDP was payable at the lower rate, the claimant who was the qualifying partner.

If the claimant meets the above criteria, the appropriate rate will be applied from the when their UC started.

Q5. What actions will UC take to check if a claimant is eligible for the payment?

UC will check entitlement to the payments based on the claimant’s circumstances at the date they moved on to UC against a one off check when UC review the claim.

Conducting the one off check will ensure that the SDP transitional payments are made to claimants who:

• are still entitled to UC
• remain in the very specific circumstances recognised by the conditions of eligibility for SDP
• have not formed a couple or separated from their partner

Q6. If a claimant used to receive Enhanced Disability Premium (EDP), will they get a payment?

SDP and EDP are different premiums with different qualifying conditions.

The transitional payments that are being introduced for those who received SDP recognise their very specific circumstances. They’re not seeking to provide full transitional protection which will be available to those whom the DWP moves to UC with no change of circumstance.

Q7. A claimant used to receive SDP through their HB, will they get a SDP transitional payment?

Claimants who qualified for the SDP as part of the HB award only will not be eligible for the SDP transitional payments. These claimants never received an additional cash payment specifically for SDP and do not all experience losses when moving to UC. Indeed, some claimants gained when moving to UC.

Any HB only claimants who have lost out on moving to UC, usually due to their income or earnings, can contact their LA who may be able to help through their Discretionary Housing Payment scheme.

Q8. Will the one off payment affect a claimant’s ongoing UC payments?

No. The ongoing payments will be paid to eligible claimants at the end of every assessment period, but separately to the UC award. The additional payment will not show on the UC statement.

The SDP transitional payments will be disregarded as part of the benefit awards for 12 months or the duration of the claim, whichever is longer.

Q9. If the claimant’s circumstances change, will they still receive ongoing payment?

A claimant’s additional monthly payments end when they:

• cease to meet the eligibility for UC
• become or cease to be a member of a couple

If a claimant’s work capability assessment decision awards them an additional amount for LCWRA, their ongoing monthly SDP transitional payment changes to £120.

SDP Gateway queries

Q10. When will claimants be able to claim UC and receive the SDP payments?

From January 2021, UC will accept UC claims from claimants currently receiving SDP. Until then, claimants currently receiving SDP will not be able to make a new claim to UC.

Q11. Why can’t claimants claim UC and receive the SDP payment announced now?

Anyone currently entitled to or receiving SDP will not be able to make a new UC claim to ensure that they continue to receive the payment without delay.

Data sharing and the SDP transitional payment

Q12. Will the LA still receive the information through Automated Transfer to Local Authorities?

Where a claimant makes a new claim or has a change in their circumstances in their legacy benefits, the information will continue to be shared through ATLAS (Automated Transfer to Local Authorities).

Where the claimant is signposted back to the legacy benefits, if the claimant makes a claim for ESA with an associated HB claim, then the claim data will come through on a Local Authority Claim Information (LACI) for ESA claimants.

The LA should only receive a LACI where the claimant is entitled to SDP.

Q13. Will the data share from UC to support the Local Council Tax Reduction (LCTR) claim include the SDP transitional payment information?

As the payment will not be made as part of the UC claim, the SDP lump sum payment and ongoing SDP payments will not be available on the data that we share for LCTR.

Even if we changed the scheme this information will not be available to share with the LAs at this point.