Mandatory Reconsideration for UC

Dear All

I would be grateful of some advice please.

Firstly, I just want to celebrate and thank you for your website and recent advice as, against the odds, I won my mandatory reconsideration of my UC to move me from Limited Capability for Work to Limited Capability for Work Related Activity !!! I used this website's guides to go through my original medical report and compile evidence against their findings. It was painstaking, stressful and very hard work AND I nearly gave up. Fortunately, I persisted and it was worth all the effort.

There are 2 things I am not happy with and wish to appeal, both of which I need advice on :

1. They have penalised me by not paying arrears from 14 Dec 2020 (my first fit note) until 29 May 2021. This is because I declared myself 'fit for work' on 28 Jan 2021 and then 'unfit for work' on 2 Feb 2021. The reason for this was; when I uploaded my fit note for 5 January 2021, I had been given a dual fit note for both anxiety/depression and knee injury. Upon uploading the fit note, it asked me to declare if I was able to or not able to look for work. I concluded that, for my anxiety/depression, the answer was 'no' but for my knee injury 'yes'. I was trying to be honest. I did not feel my knee injury prevented me from looking for work. However, there was no option to state I was 'unfit for work' in direct relation to my anxiety/depression. The DWP have now penalised by saying I must serve a period of 3 months from the beginning of my LCWRA 2/2/21 - 1/5/21. I do not meet the criteria in which the relevant period does not apply. As my UC claim is calculated using a regular monthly Assessment Period, and my start date is 29th of the month, there will only award me LCWRA from 29 May 21. This means I am being penalised from 14 Dec 21 to 29 May 21, for a minor mistake. I think this is completely unjust and unfair.

2. The appeal period is stated as 1 month from the date of the Mandatory Reconsideration letter. The letter is dated 1 October 2021 but was not uploaded to my UC Journal until 3.51pm on Fri 22 Oct 21. This leaves me 9 days to appeal and as I only discovered this by accident today, and time has passed since Friday, I now have 5 days to appeal (including the weekend).

I would be extremely grateful of your comments and guidance on how to approach this.

I have already checked the link detailed in the letter and it seems I can appeal online, which at least makes the time frame slightly less stressful to work within.

Many thanks

Sherry

Hi Catherine

I found it, thank you !!

Thanks for your advice, it's a great help. I am waiting for the Citizens Advice to call me back. There only seems to be 1 lady who deals with these queries. Last time it was over a week before I received a call. Previously it was referred to another local office; after 3 weeks of waiting, I gave up and prepared my case myself using your guides.

This morning it took an hour to get thru to the national CAB who again have referred me back to my local office despite my explanation of the situation. They have raised a task to chase a call back.

I fear I will be self representing my appeal again.

However, it's extremely helpful to have the support of yourselves and the information on this website. So grateful for that.

The notes state that it's urgent callback by today. If I've not heard by this afternoon, I'll post a message on my UC journal saying that I will be appealing, I will point out that they have NOT given me 1 month and delay in uploading it to my journal, but will start the process anyway while I am awaiting support from Citizens Advice.

Sorry for the underlining, I have no idea why it's doing that on some of the message.

I will keep you posted of progress, I won the main part, I intend to win a justified backdate of arrears to 14 Dec 20 !!

Have a good day, bye for now.

Sherry

Hi Catherine

Apologies at the delay in replying, I just wanted to thank you for your help and input.

It's been a shambles with the CAB. I'll spare you the details as it gives me a headache ! I have raised the appeal and it's been accepted, so it's just a waiting game now. The DWP have until 4 Dec 2021 to respond. They have asked for evidence to support what I could and couldn't do at the time of the decision. My brother is going to write a statement of to verify this since he lives with me and falls into this category and I feel, would give much better, more concise information that my GP, as he has seen my struggles firsthand. Since I wasn't being supported by counselling sessions or my social prescriber at the time, this is the best evidence I can get. I think it will help as he can give a thorough account and supply all the information they need.

I need to raise a separate query for my brother about claiming UC, but I'll put up a separate post.

Many thanks for your help again, I will keep you posted. Your encouragement and supportive comments make a huge difference!

Kind regards

Sherry