BENEFITS EXPERT: How the second lockdown may affect your benefits

The furlough scheme will now be extended to the end of the current 2020/2021 Tax year i.e. 5/4/2021. This will mean employers will be allowed to continue receiving government funding to pay workers salaries at 80% of normal salary if their employees are unable to work, the cap remains at £2500 per month. Readers are advised to have a benefit check to see if any additional support is available such as Universal Credit. Some readers may have already claimed UC during the first lockdown period and then have seen the claim closed open return to work with an increase in salary. In such situations a new UC claim will be required.

A one off payment of £500 is also available if you are advised to self isolate via Track and Trace or if you have tested positive for COVID-19. This can be paid for both employed and self-employed workers, the payment is guaranteed if you receive means-tested benefits such as UC, IBESA, Tax Credits, etc. If you do not receive such benefits you can still make an application however the payment in this situation is discretionary.

Medical assessments for benefits such as ESA, PIP and UC were suspended during the first phase of lockdown and client's continued to receive benefits until as such time as face to face assessment were introduced or in some case phone based assessments were carried out.

If claimants were advised a phone assessment was to be carried out but failed to participate in such an assessment would NOT have their benefits stopped. This will no longer be the case as of 2/11/2020. If you are notified of a phone assessment this will be carried out and failure to participate could result in benefits being suspended. The DWP have confirmed client's will be contacted if they fail to attend a medical in order to ascertain if claimants had a good reason for not participating in the assessment and will not withdraw benefits until contact has been established. We do anticipate some claimants may slip through the net so if you do find your benefits have suddenly stopped and have had no recent contact from the DWP then seek advice about this.