In this month’s Benefits Newscast
David, Will and Charlotte discuss: Fair repayment rate; PIP beyond State Pension age; What Advanced Customer Support does; Severe Disability Premiums; ADHD & higher rate mobility component of DLA; All migration letters to be sent by September 2025 in Great Britain.
Fair repayment rate
Policy change – not legal change (regs still say 40%), see para 4(1) of the
UC etc (Claims and Payments) Regs 2013:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/380/schedule/6
Change in priority of child maintenance deductions:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/387/regulation/2/made
DWP response to Social Security Advisorty Committee on the modifying
regs:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-universal-credit-personal-independence-payment-jobseekers-allowance-and-employment-and-support-allowance-claims-and-payments-modification-r/the-universal-credit-personal-independence-payment-jobseekers-allowance-and-employment-and-support-allowance-claims-and-paymentsmodification-re#the-secretary-of-states-statement-in-response-to-the-social-security-advisory-committees-report-dated-21-february-2025-on-the-universal-credit-personal-independence-payment-jobseekers-allowance-and-employment-and-support-allowance-claims-and-payments-modification-regulations
In N. Ireland:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2025/73/contents/made
Claimants being given a chance to make representations before rent arrears deductions:
15% can be exceeded administratively for child maintenance deductions to be made, see paras 5.10 – 5.12 of the explanatory memo.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/387/pdfs/uksiem_20250387_en_001.pdf
PIP beyond State Pension age
Reg 25
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/377/regulation/25
Reg 26
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/377/regulation/26
Getting disability premium added to following an award of a qualifying disability benefit
Reg 6 (2)(e)
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1999/991/regulation/6
For Housing Benefit: reg 7(2)(i)
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2001/1002/regulation/7
For UC, PIP, new style ESA & JSA: reg 23
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/381/regulation/23
What Advanced Customer Support does
Severe Disability Premiums?
ADHD & higher rate mobility component of DLA
PM v SSWP [2025] UKUT 85(AAC)
https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukut/aac/2025/85
Reg 12(5) DLA Regs 1991: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1991/2890/regulation/12
Roll out of PADP
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2024/166/regulation/50
All migration letters to be sent by September 2025 in Great Britain
https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/pdfs/Letter_from_Neil_Couling_to_External_Stakeholders.pdf
Benefits Newscast Transcript May 2025
David Stickland: [00:00:05] Hello. Welcome to our May Benefits Newscast. And this month it’s myself and Will Hadwen joined by Charlotte Richards and we’re going to share things that are changing or topical stuff, important stuff that we think we should let you know about. Three things brought by Will. Three items by Charlotte. Will, I’ll turn to you first. What’s the first thing on your list this month, please?
Will Hadwen: [00:00:29] Yes. Okay, so the first thing on my list is what’s being called the Fair Repayment Rate by DWP. And that is to do with deductions from your Universal Credit. Now, deductions for a while now have been, capped at 25%. So things like paying back in advance, having an amount taken for rent arrears, fuel arrears, water, court fines, child maintenance, etc. And that is going to be reduced for assessment periods that start on or after the 30th of April, to 15%. Now it’s worth saying that although that means that your deductions will be lower in many cases. There are some exceptions to that, unfortunately, and the exceptions haven’t changed. And in fact, the minimum rent arrears deduction of 10% is one of the exceptions, if, the DWP think it’s in your best interests. What has changed is that Child Maintenance has gone up the priority list of deductions. So if there isn’t enough Universal Credit, to make deductions, when you look at the number of deductions or the percentage, child maintenance has the highest priority, whereas it didn’t before. So that is a change.
David Stickland: [00:01:49] Got it. Thank you. And can you say a bit more about the best interests issue. I think you spoke about rent arrears right?
Will Hadwen: [00:01:59] It’s very it’s very interesting. So yeah the best interests, concept – it’s in the regulations. And the regulations say there are two circumstances in which they can take more than this 15%. One is they don’t take any account of the ongoing costs of fuel and water. So that’s simply something that they’re allowed to take as well with that and it doesn’t come as part of the 15%. But then also they can exceed the 15% for housing costs arrears. So that service charge types arrears, rent arrears, fuel costs and they can pay that amount where the deduction appears to be in the claimant’s best interests. So there was a case that you might have heard of, taken by someone called Nathan Roberts where basically they were saying, well, how do you know if it’s my best interest? And how do you know if I even still owe this debt? Because you never asked me about it? And the DWP VP F accepted that judgment and they are looking at ways of asking claimants before they make the rent arrears deduction, but they’re not necessarily accepting that that applies across the board to other deductions. So they’re saying that both that case and the earlier Timpson case, which was about legacy benefits, are specific to those cases. So we haven’t yet got to a situation where the DWP necessarily always have to check with you about all deductions, but about rent arrears, yes.
David Stickland: [00:03:26] Right. So this isn’t something that the claimant can control. It’s not something that the claimant has to consent to. But there may be some conversations that should be had between the DWP.
Will Hadwen: [00:03:38] Yeah. Especially if if you are seeing more than 15% of your standard allowance being taken, then it’s worth getting advice, because it could be that there is a best interest decision that’s been made, in which case then, well, how do they know it’s in your best interest? And then the other point would be if there’s ongoing deductions for water or fuel. Sometimes what we’ve seen is more being taken than the actual ongoing cost of consumption. So that’s worth checking as well.
David Stickland: [00:04:09] Right. Great. Thanks, Will and did they have they have we got any examples of best interest type situations.
Will Hadwen: [00:04:21] Well, I think the point with rent arrears is that you could be at risk of eviction, you know but I don’t think I mean, I think that’s why the Roberts case was successful. I don’t think there’s really, until recently, been any attempt to find out whether the arrears are still outstanding, how close the claimant is to being evicted or anything like that. And so that’s why the DWP have announced that they are going to look into a process of gathering that information.
David Stickland: [00:04:51] Right. Yeah. To check that those things are, in fact the case.
Will Hadwen: [00:04:54] To check the best interests.
David Stickland: [00:04:57] Right, yeah got it. Lovely. Thanks. Will, Charlotte, let’s turn to you. What’s the first item you’ve brought with you today? I wonder?
Charlotte Richards: [00:05:04] Well, my first item is to do with getting PIP beyond State Pension age. I’ve had a case in my day job where we’ve had a few issues with this. So, as you know, the rules state that you can’t claim PIP, make a new claim for PIP when you’re over state pension age, which at the moment is 66. It’s going to go up again next year very gradually. Yeah. So this person that I was dealing with had made the claim in time but is now over State Pension age. But the claim was due to end because it was a fixed award. So we tried to get the renewal claim in. They didn’t send any forms out, and we were being told on the phone by PIP that the person needed to claim Attendance Allowance instead, which is incorrect. If you, so I wanted to just go over the rules again really about what happens in this kind of scenario. So the rules state if you get PIP before you turn State Pension age, then you can continue to get it beyond State Pension age. And that includes any kind of renewal or supersession. What you can’t do is gain or increase the mobility component once you’re over State Pension age. So if you’ve got the mobility, say you’ve got daily living, standard daily living and standard mobility, you can carry on getting that. But say in that position your mobility got worse. You thought you might be entitled to the enhanced rate if you’re over State Pension age at that point, you can’t do that.
David Stickland: [00:06:46] Right? So you can keep what you’ve got, but you can’t get a higher rate than otherwise.
Charlotte Richards: [00:06:51] Of the mobility. You can increase the daily living, but not the mobility. So they’re the rules around that. You can, if you got the mobility component within the last year or even if you got PIP within the last year and you’re over State Pension age, you can make a claim for PIP again. But beyond that you can’t. You can’t do it. So it’s really yeah. Just to point that out because PIP, we’re telling my client otherwise that they needed to move on to Attendance Allowance.
David Stickland: [00:07:25] Okay. And for people that are listening and thinking, well, I’ve got clients who are in that position, they’re over 66. They’re getting PIP. And you know what? What happens if they get on the phone to PIP? And PIP tells them to claim Attendance Allowance and they go away and do that. They put the phone down and pick up the phone to the Attendance Allowance helpline and try to make a claim there. What should we expect to happen in that type of situation?
Charlotte Richards: [00:07:50] Well, in that situation, what should happen is that instead it would be treated as a kind of change in a change of circumstances for PIP, or what we call a supersession. So they should be basically reassessing the PIP claim rather than processing an Attendance Allowance claim. That’s what should happen.
David Stickland: [00:08:09] And I suppose the only thing that could go wrong with that type of scenario is if the PIP award does come to an end and then a claim for Attendance Allowance is made, at that point, the claim to Attendance Allowance would be accepted. Have I got that right?
Charlotte Richards: [00:08:23] Yes, it would be in that. In that sense, if they haven’t got an ongoing PIP claim and they make an Attendance Allowance claim and they’re over state pension age, then yeah, that Attendance Allowance claim would be accepted.
David Stickland: [00:08:35] Right. So I guess it’s important for people to know that when they’ve got claimants in that situation, the important thing is to make sure the PIP renewal is is continued. It continues and is made.
Charlotte Richards: [00:08:47] Yeah, because I’m seeing more and more cases where renewal forms aren’t sent out. Or it might be that for instance, you were awarded the PIP following a tribunal. Often that means that they don’t get sent a review form. So people kind of fall between the gaps. And also another thing to highlight is if you’ve got people coming up to State Pension age with disabilities, health issues, especially if they’ve got mobility problems, is get that claim in before they turn State Pension age, because as you know, there’s no mobility component in attendance allowances, only the daily living well not daily living. There’s only the equivalent of the of the daily living, the care needs for Attendance Allowance.
David Stickland: [00:09:33] That’s a good it’s a good point that it may be that acting quickly in that situation allows you access to the mobility component, when otherwise you won’t have it.
Charlotte Richards: [00:09:41] Exactly.
David Stickland: [00:09:42] Yeah. Good. Thanks, Charlotte. Good stuff. Will, back to you for your second item, please. You’re on mute at the moment. There we go.
Will Hadwen: [00:09:57] My second item is about the Advanced Customer Support teams in DWP, and we didn’t know very much about them when we for a long time we knew they existed, but not much more. And they’ve released their first report about the Will Hadwen: Advanced Customer Support teams which they promised they would do a while ago. And it’s really interesting. It clarifies the structure more than anything else. So from this report, we know that there are what’s called the Will Hadwen: Advanced Customer Support senior leaders and they support frontline staff with vulnerable claimants. So we can’t refer clients directly to these, Will Hadwen: Advanced Customer Support senior leaders. But we can suggest that that is done if we’re worried about how a claimant’s being treated and feel that their situation isn’t being dealt with appropriately. And one of the things that you learned from this report is that, any referrals to that team are actually triaged by delivery team before it’s decided whether it’s appropriate for them to go to the Will Hadwen: Advanced Customer Support. They do a little bit of work with stakeholders like local authorities, and there are some examples given of when they’ve done proactive work with social services, council housing departments, NHS, so it’s unfortunately for most advisors, unless you happen to work for one of those organisations, it’s more of an awareness that these team exists because we can’t directly involve them. They also have a large involvement with the visiting officer team. So if there’s a request for a visiting officer, then the advanced customer support have a team which decide whether a visiting officer should be sent out. So that’s interesting as well. And there’s quite a lot in the document about having a more flexible visiting service where instead of the option is, well, you can go to the job centre or you can have a visiting officer at home, there might be other buildings, other venues where the claimant feels more comfortable. So other things they do include reviewing the serious cases. So DWP speak for when things have gone really, really badly and perhaps resulted in claimant’s death and making sure that they, they take all of this information back and improve services. There’s some quite odd things in there. There’s a, there’s a bit about the use of AI to identify when someone needs urgent help by analysing the sort of words they use, and also developing a system across DWP so that you can record what specific needs a vulnerable claimant might have. The example given is a quiet space to talk to DWP and I know that many of us feel that this really should just be standard. You know, you’re talking about your finances, you’re talking about your disability. Why? Why isn’t that standard? But anyway, useful reading and we’ll of course put it in the sources.
David Stickland: [00:12:58] I’m sure it is useful. And I’m thinking about those people who may be working in a non-benefit specialist role, it’s definitely something to be aware of. I think I’m wondering about what those people in a non-benefits role, or perhaps if you’re fairly new to benefits, but you are working with vulnerable people, what you can and can’t do in this sort of context or where you might be able to make a difference practically.
Will Hadwen: [00:13:22] Yeah. So I think if you see that there are patterns of problems where the DWP aren’t adequately supporting vulnerable people, then, it’s really good practice to try and find out who your partnership manager is locally and feed the problems back to them and they can always go and ask the Will Hadwen: Advanced Customer Support team if they feel that it’s appropriate to do.
David Stickland: [00:13:46] Great. Thanks. Will, that’s good stuff. Charlotte, we’ve definitely got time for your second item and maybe the third one briefly. So let’s find out what’s next on your list.
Charlotte Richards: [00:14:00] It’s a reminder, really, about severe disability premiums. And the fact that they can still be added on to people’s old legacy benefit claims, if appropriate. So an example might be you’ve won a PIP appeal or other disability benefit appeal, which at the moment, well, certainly in the area where I work are taking well over a year to be heard. It might be that you have, for example, somebody on ESA and Housing Benefit, you’re waiting for this PIP appeal to be heard. They’re finally awarded it, but in the meantime, they’ve been migrated onto Universal Credit, which we know is happening at pace at the moment. So and then they’ll have if they win their PIP appeal might have a large backdated award. Going back might be one, sometimes two, sometimes even three years. And if that meant that the fact that they were awarded that qualifying disability benefit means that they would have qualified for the severe disability premium, possibly enhanced disability premiums in their old benefit that they’re no longer on their ESA in the example I gave, then you can go back to ESA even though they’re not getting it anymore and and get them to backdate that money that’s owed, to the start of the period that it’s owed from even though they’ve moved on to Universal Credit or whatever.
David Stickland: [00:15:33] Great. And again, I’m thinking about advisors and I guess for all of us, I think what you’re saying is it’s important for us to check the history if someone’s migrated to Universal Credit. When was that? What what was the situation before it could be, like you say, going back a number of months, years, quite often in the case of PIP appeals being determined, it could be that there’s some arrears that some significant back payment arrears that that could be paid but may need to be checked.
Charlotte Richards: [00:16:07] Definitely. Yeah. I mean, they can be quite significant on top of like the amount that you might have won in a PIP appeal you would then get potentially, you know, it could be thousands in severe disability premium back dates as well. And just a reminder as well if you get that as large backdated amounts. And we’re thinking about capital that they’re ignored for 12 months from when they’re received. So you know we might be getting concerned that people are, you know, they’re going over the capital limits and things, but they are ignored for 12 months.
David Stickland: [00:16:39] Should be disregarded. Yeah and it’s a tricky one, isn’t it? The severe disability premium. I mean, lots of people won’t know what it is or, um, you know, wouldn’t wouldn’t really know what to check. I suppose what we’re saying is, you know, look for ESA, Employment and Support allowance, the history of that it could include in Housing Benefit too, but particularly Employment and Support Allowance could include, you know, what we describe as the severe disability premium. I mean we don’t want to get into it now, but it’s. Yeah. How can we help people with that sort of briefly.
Charlotte Richards: [00:17:13] Well, very briefly, the criteria for severe disability premiums are that you’re getting qualifying disability benefit, which would be PIP daily living might be Attendance Allowance, Pension Credit or something like that. Or the the Scottish equivalent disability benefits. You live on your own and nobody is claiming Carer’s Allowance or the carer’s element of Universal Credit for looking after you. And when we say living on your own, if the only other people who are living with you are also in receipt of a qualifying disability benefit. They kind of ignored for the purposes of this and you would still qualify for it. So yeah briefly.
David Stickland: [00:17:57] So look out for ESA. Look out for PIP. Because often that’s the often that’s the qualifying benefit. If you’re not sure contact us and we’ll check it with you.
Charlotte Richards: [00:18:05] Yeah.
David Stickland: [00:18:06] Great. Thanks, Charlotte. That’s really good. Um, helpful stuff. Will back to you. Third item, I think and you’re on mute again, just to let you know.
Will Hadwen: [00:18:18] Last item is a case, and it’s a case about the higher rate mobility component of Disability Living Allowance. There are very different routes to get that and just to remind you, it’s for children under 16, in England and Wales and in Northern Ireland. They can get the higher rate mobility component if they’re severely mentally impaired. They have severe behavioural problems. And they also meet the high rate care component conditions as a way of sort of getting their high rate mobility component added on in these circumstances. And in the DLA regulations, severely mentally impaired, is defined as an arrested development or incomplete physical development of the brain, which results in impairment of intelligence and social functioning. So there’s a specific definition, but it doesn’t say what conditions might lead to that impaired development and impaired social functioning. In this particular case, the claimant had ADHD and the tribunal initially said, no, we don’t accept that. And we don’t think that that counts, that we’re going to essentially reject the medical evidence on that and say it’s not sufficient. And the Secretary of State conceded that that was was wrong and that they should have gone beyond just talking about current medical opinion on ADHD and had a look at what was actually happening in the claimant’s case. And because of other behavioural issues that the claimant had speech and language problems, difficult, difficult, quite high, difficult behavioural issues and autistic spectrum disorder as a whole it could be accepted that there was incomplete physical development of the brain. And it’s a very difficult argument to make especially because you’re talking about a child. But it is something worth looking at in those more extreme cases. So it’s worth saying about all the routes to the higher mobility component.
David Stickland: [00:20:23] Thanks. So we’re not saying that in all cases involving a diagnosis of ADHD, this is going to be the case. But it’s something that needs to be looked at in the round along with everything else to form a..
Will Hadwen: [00:20:36] Yes look at everything else that’s going on. Yeah. Yeah. And a couple of other really, really tiny things. One is that we’ve now got full rollout of Pension Age Disability Payment. That’s the Scottish disability benefit that replaces Attendance Allowance. And the other is that they’ve sped up managed migration yet again so that everyone’s going to get their letters by September. That’s in Great Britain anyway. So that’s yeah. Not an especially welcome, welcome announcement for advisors.
David Stickland: [00:21:07] No but important for us to share nonetheless and I think that brings us to our close for today. Charlotte, I’m afraid your final item, I don’t know. We’re going to have very much time to talk about. So, rather than give you the impossible task of summarizing it in incredible, incredibly short period of time, we will end it there. Thanks to you both for this month. And we’ll see everybody again next month. Again. Cheers. Bye bye.
Charlotte Richards: [00:21:37] Bye bye.