Webinar - Suspending relief: universal credit award reviews
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About this course
Date: Wednesday 5th February 2025
Time: 1:30pm - 4:00pm
The DWP devotes considerable resources and has a number of teams dedicated to investigating existing and past awards of universal credit to make sure they were or are correct.
For claimants having their awards reviewed, that can mean having to provide significant amounts of information or evidence about their circumstances, as well as the risk of having payment of their award suspended, often for months, whilst the process is ongoing.
A result of a review can be that a claimant’s award, or an element of it, is removed from an earlier date, or even from when it was made, generating large overpayments which claimants can be required to repay.
This webinar will focus on equipping advisers to assist claimants whose awards are being reviewed, or who have had a negative decision following the review process.
Topics covered include:
The reasons the DWP might investigate a claimant’s award, the various DWP teams and some practicalities involved in supporting claimants dealing with these teams. In particular, we will look at the role of the Risk Review Team and the teams contained within it, and its relationship to the Integrated Risk and Intelligence Service.
The rules and practice about suspension and termination of awards. We will look at what the legislation and caselaw says, what the DWP’s guidance on suspensions and terminations says, and how this compares with what is happening in practice. This will enable advisers to understand the steps that can be taken to try to get suspensions lifted and also how terminations following suspension can be challenged (often due to the failure of the DWP to comply with requirements imposed on them by the rules).
The issues that may arise after a review, when the DWP make a decision to retrospectively remove entitlement to some or all of an award. We will focus on what the DWP must show, when challenged, to justify the change to the award retrospectively in this way. For example, delving into issues of when or if the failure of a claimant to respond to an information request allows such a decision to be made, and if so the extent to which this can later be remedied by simply providing the missing information.
Speakers will include:
Lynsey Dalton – CPAG Solicitor with experience of dealing with review issues.
Martin Williams - CPAG Welfare Rights Adviser with experience in cases raising issues about decision making rules and procedure.
Owen Stevens – CPAG Welfare Rights Adviser providing advice on all aspects of universal credit.
Method of delivery and timings:
The webinar will run from 1:30pm to 4pm on Wednesday 5th February 2025.
It will be delivered live online, via Zoom, and there will be an opportunity for attendees to ask the speakers questions.
Participants will receive an email link, a few days before the webinar, to allow access to the event.
Ticket prices start from £68 for CPAG members and £85 for non-members.