Another UC one

[Bunglecunt]

Hi, I'm hoping there are some people on here who are knowledgeable about the benefits system who can give tips on what we can do.

Dh was made redundant at the end of November and we had to make a joint claim for UC. We both signed up online and attended the appointment at the jobcentre and all was sorted or so we thought and all we had to do now was wait for the first payment to come in. However I have just logged in and seen that the claim was closed mid December! We have just called them and they said dh did not agree to his commitments, dh is adamant that he did but they say he did not and that they can see he did not log in on the day he says he did

Apparently all we can do is start a new claim today and hope that they agree to backdate it to the date of the initial claim. Is that really all we can do? Dh will be starting a new job next week but he won't get paid until February, I am already working over 60 hours a week to barely keep us afloat and we have no idea when he will get his redundancy payout but there is a clause in there that they can take back anything he could have claimed so we stand to lose out twice!

Any advice anyone? I am totally clueless with this and have completely confused myself googling for information on the appeals process. We really need this money!

I'm case it's relevant - the claim was closed after 15 days and they did not contact us to let us know

I'm surprised you are entitled to much anyway if you are working 60 hours? Surely that amounts almost to 2 people working full time ? Are you self employed and not earning minimum wage per hour or something?

I don't think we are entitled to much tbh but we do live in an expensive area and hb is incorporated into it so we are entitled to something. There was a payment of £450ish available that we could take early and pay back which I was planning to do today to cover a few bills and do a food shop to tide us over. I'm not self employed and I earn more than minimum wage. It's more that we have to claim because of the clause with dh's redundancy that they will take back anything we could have claimed.

Hi there,

The difficulty with these kind of closures is that it's not normally an appealable decision... the claim just sort of lapses and there's no official decision closure per se. Does your husband have any evidence that he accepted the commitments? It may be worth submitting an official complaint if he does, or even if he doesn't.

The other thing which is just general advice with the benefit system - make sure to check that everything is chugging along! Silence from UC is often a bad sign and it's worth just keeping a close eye on things. I hope that doesn't sound patrionising, but the quicker you notice something isn't right, the easier it is to fix.

Sorry you've had a tough time. If you've made a new claim, you should be able to request a short term benefit advance where you get a portion of the payment in advance. This will then be taken off your benefit on an on-going basis once it's in payment.

Thanks rebail, that's as I thought. Dh will be starting a new job next week so if they don't backdate it we will be entitled to 4 day's money which is not worth the hassle of applying but I don't want to let them get away with this! We unfortunately have no proof that he signed it but I remember him sitting at the computer saying he had just done it, they say he did not log in that day This seems deliberate to me. We are so lucky that I have been able to get loads of overtime and working Xmas and new years day means I will get a nice bonus but not everyone has that luxury and it's barbaric that the dwp can just wash their hands of it like that

Can you look up the history on your computer to prove your husband did log in that day, and then submit this with a complaint?