UC Claim Closure - one day's notice!

UC Claim Closure - one day's notice!

Originally posted by Flying Visitor

DWP letter dated 23/10/16.

If information not received by the following day (24/10/16) claim will be closed!  
http://freepdfhosting.com/5d574fce95.pdf

The person has contacted a journalist who has raised this FOI request:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/means_checking_claimants#outgoing-611946

Perhaps everyone should do this!?

another reference to claim closed

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/414606/response/1021568/attach/html/3/2610%20Reply.pdf.html

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request of 27 June 2017. Please accept our
apologies for the delay in replying. You asked:

I am encountering cases in which claimants to Universal Credit who have made an online
claim in a full service UC area have had their claims closed if they miss an appointment with a
work coach. There appears to be no provision for allowing 'good cause' for missing an
appointment.

Claimants have been told that this is 'policy' - I would like to have written details of this policy,
and a copy of any guidance as to its application.

On reading the UC Claims and Payments Regulations, I cannot see any provision allowing for
the closure of a UC claim if the claimant misses an appointment. Please provide the legal
underpinning of the above policy

Admin wrote:UC Claim Closure - one day's notice!

Originally posted by Flying Visitor

If information not received by the following day (24/10/16) claim will be closed!  
http://freepdfhosting.com/5d574fce95.pdf?

Erm no, the letter actually says no money from 24 October (the day following the date on the letter) and closure if no contact is made by the following month (24 November).

I will point out that the DWP don't pay any UC for 7 days from the end of the return period anyway so why have they cut money off 7 days before it was due to be paid?

As the DWP never send out letters 1st class by the time the recipient got that letter it would be at least the 28th of October, still 2 days before any UC payment was due.

The DWP letter raises the issue of workers not getting any UC if their employer hasn't done a return to HMRC in good time and how the DWP washes their hands of any responsibility in the matter (employer's aren't threatened with a financial penalty). I simply don't see how a worker would know whether or not a return had been done unless they double checked that their employer was doing their payroll correctly (not something an employer will appreciate). If the employer has failed to do the return then it falls to the worker, not the employer, to simply report their earnings anyway to the DWP outside the HMRC system in a "belt and braces" kind of way. Piss up and brewery come to mind.

On reading the FOI the DWP also appears to presume that employers can send a nil return to HMRC, but I know for a fact that a lot of employer payroll software doesn't allow a zero figure at the end of a working month and hence no "zero" return can be made.