29/03/20 to 04/04/20

This week again was taken up with dealing with changes in Universal Credit monthly awards affecting ctr claims. Those with significant changes were updated. Any that were non-qualifiers I also updated. Some started to qualify & some didn't. Some had an increase in entitlement & some had a reduction. For those whose ctr entitlement ended due to the UC change we have a standard non-qualifier letter which I sent out. Some were clearly Persons from Abroad but this had never been picked up on. I made clear notebook entries for these & also input a 'Personal Status' which clearly shows their PFA status at first glance. Most were EU nationals exercising their Treaty Rights by working. For a couple of others that are not EU nationals I have written out for proof of their immigration status as we had never seen proof of this. Also dealt with some brand new ctr claims which I have registered awaiting more information such as a breakdown of the UC award or details regarding household composition.

Also learned something I hadn't known or had forgotten relating to PFA's. In October 2019 I was dealing with a claim from an EU national who had never worked & never exercised her Treaty Rights. Her only income was Carers Allowance for her son who was in full-time education. Her ex-partner had worked in the past on a self-employed basis. I noticed Appeals Documents relating to the claim and a Tribunal decision in which the partner's self-employment was decided to have been genuine & effective. I checked with our Appeals Team if that Tribunal decision could now allow me to award ctr on the basis of having a child in education. I was told that self-employed work did not mean an EU national was exercising their treaty rights however for the purposes of making a 'child in education' decision. A month ago I came across a claim where an EU national had gone self-employed after being in the UK for some time working in a 'normal' job, i.e being paid a wage by an employer. I had sent a Right to Reside form for completion in order to make a decision regarding their worker status. It wasn't returned. When I rechecked my work now that the calendar month had gone by I realised I was wrong to send the RTR form as an EU national in self-employment is still exercising their Treaty Rights. The original case only related to deriving RTR from a child in education. I had forgotten this last month when I came across the self-employed case.

I have updated my notes regarding how to process claims from EU nationals.