2.1 Release

This update is largely one of enhancements to the eClaim and each item is listed below.

Item One -Enhanced Benefit List layout

Up until this release the list of Benefits shown on the benefits page has been ordered alphabetically without consideration of how these would actually be used and which are the most commonly used.

To alleviate this we have enhanced the eClaim to now have logical groupings, which can be seen below.

Item Two - Enhanced UC behaviours for 3+ children

The eClaim already has a tonne of logic to cater for exempt tenancy categories of Universal Credit recipients. That is to say claimants that will still be able to apply for Housing Benefit as a result of being exempt from applying for the Housing element of Universal Credit. 

This release adds in the ability to treat families that have 3 or more children as eligible to receive Housing Benefit where their living situation means they would get Housing Benefit.

So, now, irrespective of the tenancy type or whether they receive Universal Credit or not a family with 3 or more children will be able to provide tenancy information etc. and claim for Housing Benefit.

Item Three - Additional Questions when the form is completed by someone other than the claimant or council

Now when a person indicates the form is being completed by someone other than themselves/the council the following questions will be asked:

• Is the claimant aware that you are completing this form on your behalf?
• Does the claimant wish to make you their appointee (to take responsibility for their benefit claim)?
• If yes  it provides a check box with the following text (which can be edited by a council)
• I agree to:
  • tell the council if a deputy or power of attorney is appointed,
  • tell the council when the claimant becomes able to deal with their own affairs,
  • give the council four weeks notice in writing when I wish to stop being the claimant's appointee,
  • tell the council about any changes that may affect the claimant's entitlement to Housing Benefit or Council Tax Support (examples of these changes are given on our website) and
  • repay any overpayment of Housing Benefit that the claimant is responsible for.

Item Four - Only send the Evidence List on emails to the customer

Now there is a new setting which means a council can decided whether to attach the entire content of the form submitted as a PDF as an attachment or not. 

I.e. Right now by default it will send the Form PDF and the Evidence List PDF. This new setting below:

ApplicantEmailIncludeFormPDF

Means that you can choose to keep it on the email receipt by setting it to true.

Or remove it and thus only the evidence list is attached by setting it to false.

Item Five - Non-dependants PIP

We have ensured that where a non dependent is added that it is possible to set them as having an income of PIP Daily Living Component and/or PIP Mobility component.

Item Six - Contribution Based ESA/JSA

A site indicated that when ESA C / JSA C were selected the form was behaving as if they were passported and hiding certain pages. On checking the latest version this issues was not presented and as such has been resolved.

Item Seven - Intermittent Server Errors

Customers reported that sometimes an error was presented i.e. System Exception causing a failure to submit a form/progress a form. We have carried out multiple changes to prevent these but please contact john.mcmahon@ieg4.com directly if you get any of these AFTER upgrading to this version.

Release Version

The following are the release versioning details. This is going to seem confusing however, this is now going to be updated each time we do a release, which was not happening previously. This also makes more sense when we talk about v2 of forms.