Spring update: MR and more

The Early Warning System collects case studies from welfare rights advisers. We use this evidence in CPAG's campaigning, policy and legal work.

We're pleased to be re-launching our quarterly briefing for advisers.

In this edition

Underpaid UC: carer and disabled child elements
New mandatory reconsideration policies
The government's PIP consultation
Managed migration to UC

This briefing is funded by the Legal Education Foundation and an Improving Lives Through Advice (ILTA) grant from the Access to Justice Foundation and the National Lottery Community Fund.

Underpaid UC: carer and disabled child elements

If a UC claimant is also getting carer's allowance, or if a child they're responsible for is getting DLA, then the chances are that they are entitled to extra UC elements.

But these extra amounts are not paid automatically by the DWP. We regularly hear about claimants missing out on them for months or even years.

This long-running problem was the subject of a 2022 Early Warning System briefing, and in 2023, CPAG raised the problem again in its You Reap What You Code report. Unfortunately, since then, the case studies have kept coming in.

So, in February the Early Warning System published another briefing, pushing the government for improvements to the UC system which would stop these underpayments from happening.

Particular thanks go to Sarah Batty and her colleagues at Durham County Council for their support with this work.

If you have a question about missing UC elements, including about the rules on back pay, you can contact CPAG's telephone advice line or email [email protected]. You might also find it useful to consider one of CPAG's template pre-action letters, such as JR64.

New MR policies for PIP and attendance allowance

In late 2023, advisers told us about two separate problems they were having with mandatory reconsiderations (MRs) for disability benefits.

First, advisers got in touch to say that MRs were not being registered by the DWP in many attendance allowance cases. Instead, the DWP was responding to MR requests with 'explanation calls': contacting claimants directly to reiterate their decisions, and only proceeding to register an MR if a claimant still insisted they were not satisfied. After hearing about this issue from a number of advisers, we made a freedom of information request which shed more light on the 'explanation calls' policy.

Second, advisers contacted us to say that PIP MR notices had changed. In most cases, the letters were now shorter and more basic than they had been previously. When the Early Warning System queried this with the DWP, we learned that it was a deliberate policy change, with the new approach being described as 'standardised decision reasoning.'

We had concerns about claimants' access to justice, so in April the Early Warning System published a joint briefing with RNIB and Age UK asking for both of these problematic policies to be scrapped and for the DWP to carry out a wider review of the MR process. The briefing was distributed to DWP civil servants, MPs and other policymakers.

Particular thanks go to Claire Andrews and Dominic Milne at RNIB and Paul Treloar and Clara Donnelly at Age UK for their support with this work.

For advisers currently grappling with these policies, there are relevant template letters on the CPAG Welfare Rights website. Template FTT2 can be used in many cases where the claimant has made an MR request but the DWP has failed to produce an MR notice.

The government's PIP consultation

In April, the DWP published Modernising support for independent living: the health and disability green paper.

Preceded by a divisive speech from the prime minister, the green paper opens up PIP eligibility criteria – and the form PIP awards take – for public discussion.

The four chapters of the green paper do not contain any fixed plans or proposals, but ask:

whether a diagnosis 'could provide a more objective assessment of need than the current functional assessment';
which PIP activities could be removed, merged or added;
whether the ‘aids and appliances’ and 'prompting' descriptors serve their purpose;
whether the required period of three plus nine months for PIP is appropriate; and
whether cash PIP payments could be replaced with vouchers, a catalogue or reimbursement scheme, or funded treatment.

The document has already provoked widespread public criticism from claimants and advisers.

The consultation is open to claimants and advisers, and closes on 22 July 2024. We will be using your PIP case studies to inform CPAG's response.

Keep an eye out for more coverage of the prime minister's speech and the green paper in June's edition of the CPAG Welfare Rights Bulletin.

Managed migration to UC

The last phase of the move to universal credit is well under way, with tax-credits-only claimants receiving their migration notices by the end of March 2024.

In April, there were a few significant developments:

the DWP started sending migration notices to income support claimants and many housing benefit (HB) claimants;
it was announced that migration for ESA-only and ESA-and-HB claimants is being brought forward from 2028. It is now due to start in September 2024;
the Public Accounts Committee produced a report on managed migration, 'rais[ing] alarm over risk of vulnerable claimants losing benefits'.

CPAG continues to campaign for improvements to the migration process, with monthly emails to MPs sharing your case studies.

To support this work, please keep telling us about your clients' experiences. At the time of writing we're particularly keen to hear about income support claimants and missed deadlines/near misses.

Please tell us about your cases by completing an online form or emailing the Early Warning System. If you have a client who would prefer to talk to us directly, please share our contact form for non-advisers.

You can read CPAG's latest report on managed migration on the Managed migration project page.

Do you have something to tell us?

Hearing about your cases has a profound impact on our work.

Some of the topics we are looking out for include:

DWP's anti-fraud activities – Has your client had their UC suspended or terminated after being contacted by the Enhanced Review Team?
The benefit cap – We would like to get case studies from debt advisers showing its impact on families.
Overpayments – Is the DWP refusing to waive recovery of your client's no-fault overpayment?

Submit a case online or email the Early Warning System to tell us more. We can also be reached by phone on 020 7812 5205.

If you know an individual who would like to contact us directly about their own case, please let them know about our contact form for non-advisers.