[2024] UKUT 340 (AAC)

This is a case about establishing a claimant’s identity (and that of her children) for the purposes of making a claim for Universal Credit (UC).

This appeal is a further example of the occasional gap (some might say the occasional chasm) between what the law says on the one hand about the adjudication of claims for benefit and how the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) actually operates its decision-making arrangements on the other.

The claimant in this appeal was (or so it appears) previously known by a name which gave her the initials HCU. The claimant is now known by a different name which gives her the initials PHC. The initial ‘H’ stands for the same forename in both instances, while the initial ‘C’ stands for different names. I use her initials (whether previously HCU or more latterly PHC) to preserve the claimant’s privacy.

In this decision (unless quoting directly from documents in the appeal bundle) I refer to the Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payment, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance (Claims and Payments) Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/380) by way of shorthand as the ‘UC etc (Claims and Payments) Regulations 2013’. Likewise the Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payment, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/381) are referred to as the ‘UC etc (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations 2013’.