UC Underpayment on old claim

[ThatUsernameIsTaken]

Hi everyone,
Hope someone can help. I am on student Finance and knew something was not right with my UC amounts, as I believed the student income they were taking into consideration was too much. I tried to raise it numerous times on my journal only to be told that it was correct. Anyway, I did my own calculations yesterday and found that I was right and they owed me £1963 for the last 10 months. Great! Here comes the issue; from September 2024 to December 2024 I was on a single claim as a student. From Jan 2025 onwards I have been on a joint claim and still a student. UC rectified the underpayment today and backdated it only for the current joint claim for the last 6 months. However, they owe me for the 4 months of the old single claim and are saying that they won't backdate that as it is an old claim and now closed. How do I contest this as it was not my fault that they got the calculations wrong and would still be wrong had I not done the digging myself?
They have been taking overpayments for my partner since he joined my claim from an old tax credits claim many moons ago, so why can't they backdate money they owe to me?
Would appreciate some help! Thank you

its correct they cant backdate you for a old claim as its closed so cant adjust the payments.

Smells like bullshit to me, under the circumstances. They'd recover it alright if the error was the other way round, closed or not closed.

You need to find the actual legislation/guidance for repaying historic underpayments, and work from that.

Exactly my point hence why I mentioned my partners deductions for an overpayment from 2019 I think. Surely as it's not my fault there must be some way or someone higher that I can take it to?

They will say the responsibility was on you to ensure you were getting the correct amount.. Ime they word their 'rules' to benefit themselves only...

How did they inform you of their decision not to repay those missing months? If you got a letter it should have info about how to appeal a decision.

So on my old journal I did raise that I thought the amount was not correct and the gentleman came back to me and replied that it was fine. I wasn't sure how it was broken down at that point. I've had to dig through guidelines to figure out what is regarded and disregarded and sure enough they agreed with my figures. I feel the responsibility is on them for this

They processed the refund for the 6 months of the live claim after I left a long journal message with all of the calculations. Gentleman looked at it and agreed. He uploaded a letter with the amount for process and I realised there were 4 months missing. I queried it on the journal and he replied saying they can't process the other 4 months as it is from an old claim

Does the letter give any info about your right to appeal or what to do if you disagree with the decision? The staff who send journal messages aren't always that well informed tbh.

Yeah so the underpayment letter does say that if I don't agree with the amount then to ask for a mandatory reconsideration on the journal and once that is done and if I don't accept, then to appeal. I have asked for the mandatory reconsideration and will see where that takes me. I was more interested to know if anyone has ever had an underpayment from an old claim. My network seems to be down today too so can't even call the CAB office!

All you can do is follow their process for disagreeing, and take it as high as possible. Do you have any evidence that you queried it at the time? I'm assuming that because your single claim is now closed, you can't access your old journal messages? In which case I would put in an SAR asking for all your journal messages and statements from the period you're questioning.

Hey thanks for that, can I ask what a SAR is? Unfortunately, I have no evidence that I queried it, as the claim is now closed, so I have no access to the old journal. I have asked for the mandatory reconsideration and I have had a reply saying that they have now raised the mandatory reconsideration with my reasonings and it will basically take as long as it takes with decision makers. I hope the decision makers can see that it is because of their miscalculations, regardless of me raising the issue at the time or not. Additionally, the fact that I have been given the underpayment for the 6 months should indicate that the 'old' 4 months should be considered as part of the same decision.

SAR stands for Subject Access Request. It means an organisation has to provide you with a copy of the data they hold about you. So you could request that the DWP provide you with all messages and statements from your claim for the relevant dates, for example.

ico.org.uk/for-the-public/getting-copies-of-your-information-subject-access-request/

www.gov.uk/guidance/request-your-personal-information-from-the-department-for-work-and-pensions

Sounds like they didn’t disregard the Parents Learning Allowance? At a guess, based on the amount.

Add a message to your Journal asking for a Mandatory Reconsideration for the earlier Assessment Periods.

The Case Manager shouldn’t have done half a job - if they re-calculated it should be for the full period or not at all, regardless of whether it crosses to an old UC claim (and in entitlement terms if you went single to joint, you UC award is continuous).

Hey thanks for your reply. Yep, all the money that I am owed is the PLA that they shouldn't have taken into consideration but I have only had 6 months refunded. I was thinking exactly what you said about the UC being continuous. We didnt make a fresh account, he was just added to mine. I've asked for the mandatory reconsideration so it's with decision makers now, or in the queue for it. They would have wanted any overpayment from a historical account back, so surely I am due mine?

Leaving a comment as I’d like to know the outcome.
I don’t see how it couldn’t be backdated.
Had a look online but couldn’t seem to find definitive answer.

If you think on, could you let us know when they reach a decision?

Of course, no problem. It will be very interesting to know what will happen. If the mandatory reconsideration does not go well then I will appeal it. It may not be a huge amount but right now I feel I need to fight them just on principle.