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Anyone work for Job Centre or Universal Credit? Have a question :)

1 reply

janekpi · 06/07/2023 21:11

Just wondering whether anyone where can please answer a question, ideally someone who understands more than I do about how Universal Credit claims work.
I relative of mine (British, although lived as an expat abroad for last 15 years or so) moved back to UK a about 6 months ago and was rejected for a UC claim as they hadn't lived solidly in UK for at least 3 months before making the claim.
So, they intended to re-apply shortly after the 3 months had elapsed.

After being here 5 months (and presumably meeting UC application criteria), they had to go back to country where they'd lived before to see an ill parent and help them with some practical matters, being there for approx 4 or 5 weeks.

My question is would they be eligible to re-apply for UC given that they've now offically lived in UK for around 7 months (albeit with a few weeks ago to see relative at around the 5 month mark?).

So far they've been reluctant to re-apply as don't want to get rejected again, so they've been living off some modest savings. This is all nearly gone (certainly a lot less than the £16K threshold).

OP posts:
Bromptotoo · 07/07/2023 12:36

Not a JC/DWP employee but I've spent three years of my life advising on the subject.

The initial issue for any UK Citizen is Habitual Residence:

https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/habitual_residence_test#:

Three months is sometimes used as a rule of thumb to show one is habitually resident but it's not written in law/rules etc. If other points, see link, show the UK to be your home and centre of interest then it could be (much) shorter. Maybe too late/too much agg to contest it now but had the claimant approached an adviser (eg CA's Help to Claim) thought might have been given as to how to get the time down to a few weeks or even days.

In order to make a claim to UC you need to be physically in the UK. However there is some latitude for absence, usually up to a month, once a claim is established:

https://www.gov.uk/claim-benefits-abroad/universal-credit

If you've had a claim in the last six months there is a process to re-claim using your previous account:

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/claiming/reapply-for-universal-credit/

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