Ongoing News

Join our Members' Area- reduced rate offer! (offer applies to renewals also)

We'd like to offer you the chance to join our members area now, for £59 (plus VAT)

(reduced from £95) for your whole team for one year. Please quote code soc302 to

receive the reduced rate fee. Code valid until 15 11 2018.

MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS

The government has said ' I can confirm 55 per cent of all current universal credit customers have a benefit debt, social fund loan or benefit advance being managed by DWP. '

1.2 million claimants are now on UC.

This advice is from a Partnership Adviser in the DWP and is happy for the information to be shared-

' I’ve had confirmation today that the following dummy details can be used:

Bank Account Number: 12345678

Sort Code: 01-02-03

Retirement age is changing for women and also men. Retirement age de nes working age and has implications for the Bene ts people can claim. 

The age for claiming both State Retirement Pension and Pension Credit for men and women will be the same from from November 2018. 

Around 80% of mandatory reconsideration decisions are unchanged. At the end of July 2018, 1,885,000 people had a PIP claim in payment. 

Latest statistics show that the '...overturn rate varied by benefit type, with PIP and ESA both having 71%, Disability Living Allowance 65%, Universal Credit 55% and Job Seekers Allowance having 36% in favour of the customer.' 

The government has published useful Housing Benefit guidance relating to Universal Credit. A7/2018 (revised) 

Claimants on Universal Credit have risen by 7% in just one month as more areas engage the digital(full) service. 

Remember that under Universal Credit we have different conditionality groups(what the client needs to do to fulfill their claimant commitment and get benefit).

Caselaw (MM v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (PIP): [2018] UKUT 193 (AAC).) has confirmed that for the purposes of Daily Living descriptor 3 the following counts as 'therapy''

Remember UC is being rolled out to all areas by the end of December 2018.

The Supreme Court  has ruled in favour of a client with 4 children who had been refused Widowed Parents Allowance and Bereavement Payment after cohabiting with her deceased partner for 23 years. Both benefits are contributory and non means tested.

The government has published draft regulations that deal with lots of issues relating to the migration of current

legacy benefit claimants onto Universal Credit.

The number of live claims for Universal Credit has grown to nearly one million in June 2018. Eventually, the government estimate, there will be 8 million claimants.

As the digital (full) service rolls out to all areas this year, the numbers moving onto UC should speed up further.