AM v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Universal Credit): [2024] UKUT 137 (AAC)
Upper Tribunal Administrative Appeals Chamber decision by Judge Church on 13 May 2024.
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Judicial Summary
This appeal concerns the proper interpretation and application of the disregard provision in Regulation 11(1) of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013 in respect of temporary absence from Great Britain for the purposes of the basic entitlement conditions in Section 4(1)(c) of the Welfare Reform Act 2012.
The claimant had an award of universal credit. He travelled to Ethiopia for a family emergency, expecting to return to Great Britain three weeks later. However, coronavirus restrictions were imposed on travel from Ethiopia (designated a “red zone” country) to Great Britain, delaying the claimant’s return by several months.
Regulation 11(1) of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013 permits a temporary absence from Great Britain to be disregarded for the purposes of the basic entitlement condition in Section 4(1)(c) of the 2012 Act if (a) the person was entitled to UC immediately before the period of their temporary absence, (b) the absence is not expected to exceed one month and (c) the absence does not exceed one month.
A supersession of a universal credit award on the grounds of a change of circumstances takes effect from the first day of the assessment period in which that change of circumstances occurred. One must therefore look at whether there has been a change of circumstances on or before the last day of the assessment period to decide whether an award must be superseded from the first day of the assessment period.
I allowed the appeal on the basis that the First-tier Tribunal, having accepted that the claimant intended to return to Great Britain less than a month after he left, and not having made any finding that he had changed his intention, or otherwise made any finding that the “expectation” of when he would return had changed, the Tribunal, was bound to find that the conditions in Regulation 11(1) of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013 for the disregard of temporary absence from Great Britain applied up until the date on which the claimant’s period of absence from Great Britain exceeded one month. That date fell in the assessment period after the date from which the Secretary of State had (erroneously) superseded the claimant’s award.