140,000+ per month Joining UC-
In November 2018, 1,426,540 claimants were on UC.
'As of 29 November we have: 26 UC Service Centres. 594 Jobcentres in Universal Credit Full Service and the rollout of the Full Service will complete, as planned, in December 2018'
Book Now for our updated An Overview of Universal Credit 2019 , new Universal Credit- the tricky parts 2019 and Housing costs and Universal Credit.2019 courses
UC and Corporate Appointees
Universal Credit local authority bulletin – UC3/2018- states-
We are working on improving the Corporate Appointee process however, as an interim measure we have implemented a process that allows us to successfully deal with claimants on a case by case basis. The improvements are as follows:
● inclusion of National Insurance numbers on the payment schedule by the end of 2018
● an improved telephony claim process where we now ask that Corporate Appointees make all claims for their customer(s) using the DWP UC Freephone number 0800 328 5644 – this will enable the claim to be set up as a telephony claim and agree lternative contact methods with the Corporate Appointee – this will remove the need for Corporate Appointees to set up multiple email addresses
● new ways of working between the National Visiting team and UC Operations which is only used where a claimant has either a corporate appointee in place or where the claimant has special circumstances such as being in a secure unit and unable to attend the jobcentre
● where the claim has not been made via the telephony route, local DWP staff will identify these cases – if a Corporate Appointee has a specific customer issue, they should contact their local Jobcentre Service Improvement lead (SIL)'
We understand that the DWP have clarified that it is NOT mandatory to claim by telephone, and corporate appointees can continue to make on line claims and use the journal for the client benefit details and contacts. If you use the telephone claim process, you will not have access to the clients journal and all communication with DWP will be similar to the process for legacy benefits.
Other UC news-
RTI (real time information accuracy)-this means automatic declaration of wages via HMRC. The government say-
'The vast majority of Universal Credit claimants’ (around 98%) claims are administered in real time and accurately. In cases that are affected by inaccurate RTI data, a manual intervention can be made to ensure that claimants receive their Universal Credit award, validated against their wage slips.'
How long to wait for UC medical- the government say-
'In October 2018, 14,356 Universal Credit claimants had their initial Work Capability Assessment (WCA) completed by face to face assessment.
Of these, 703 (less than 5%) waited 3 months or longer following the date from which they returned their UC50 form.
There are a number of reasons for a delay to an assessment including non-attendance and cancellation of the appointment by the claimant.'
Direct Deductions from Universal Credit- see Page 72 of the DWP Overpayment Recovery Guide for useful info.