Help. Please.
I have now helped a number of clients get the IS reconciled following an ICB appeal. This is easy if they have been having the reduced rate, but much more complicated where they have been receiving JSA.
The DWP insists on a new claim (I am not entirely convinced this should be necessary, but in practice it would take longer to fight than doing the form , and the client needs the full benefit ASAP) as they insist on checking the clients current circumstances.
The claims are then passed to the new claims department. I had a manager for existing claims say to me the other day that claims could not be reconcilled where JSA had been claimed. We feel confident that this can be challenged (as claiming JSA must not predjudice the ICB appeal etc), and in practice the claims are eventually being reconcilled, with full backdates paid.

However I now have a client who claimed IS until she failed the PCA. She then claimed for 3 weeks as a single mother. By the time home visits were arranged she and her partner were back together. They made full statements about this and put in another IS claim. Which was rejected (unsure why it was not paid at a reduced rate). Client then claimed JSA until the ICB decision was revised before it got to appeal.
She made a new claim for IS, and the office closed down the JSA claim on the same day. The DWP appear to have lost this form, their computer contains references to the claim as a single person, but they cannot access (after some weeks) the full file which should show this issue as resolved.
Currently they are saying they are not sure that this claim can ever be reconciled because the last IS claim was refused for other reasons. We believe this to be unfair, as she will not be put back in the same position as had she not wrongly be failed for the PCA. We still insist it should be one continuous claim. However if we are wrong she will receive no money for the children from IS as the last claim was made after April. We are running out of time to apply for CTC if necessary.
In the mean time we wish to request interim payments, because her claim cannot be decided because the DWP cannot locate documents. However they insist a new claim should be made, because no interim payments can be made until they have a "statement of circumstances".

Sorry about the essay. The real questions seem to be :
1)Should they be insisting on new claim forms where clients have won ICB appeals ?
2)Will the interim refusal of IS as a single mother prevent this claim being reconcilled to the old claim ?
3)Is there anyway to insist on interim payments without a new claim form ? Otherwise they can just continually lose the documentation and refuse payment.

Thankyou. VictoriaJ.

The way I see it is that the rules of supersession should mean that:

1) A failed PCA will result in withdrawal of IS if there is a claim for JSA, or redcued rate IS if the claimant insist on not claiming JSA.

Either way, the basis for the supersession is that the claimant at that point is deemed capable of work.

A successful appeal means that the superseding decisions are revised by the Tribunal. The starting point is the claimant was not capable of work.

There can be no entitlement to JSA if the claimant is not capable of work, so there may well be an overpayment of JSA, but that can be recovered under the duplication of payments provisions in the SSAA.

The effect of the Tribunals decision as far as I can see is that the grounds to terminate incapacity benefit and/or IS have ben shown not to have existed and so the decison to terminate should be of no effect and so the original IS claim must be restored.

The Secretary of State can of course require information from time to time, but that is not the same thing as being able to insit on a new claim before restoring entitlement.

I too have always understood that a sucessful Appeal against an Incap decision reverts the claimants position back to what it was before that decision was made - therefore all benefits that were in payment at that time must be reinstated (and backdated) as if there had never been a break: less of course any reduced I/S or JSA paid in the interim period.

Slightly off the subject, what we do see however from time to time, is a new questionnaire being sent out to the client within a few months of the decision - one i had a couple of years ago landed on the doorstep six weeks after he had won the appeal....but thats another issue.

Thanks.
Yes - my thinking was that insisting on a new claim form puts a client at a disadvantage to someone who had never had an incorrect decision, and after winning an appeal you should not be disadvantaged. The DWP seem to be asking in case the circumstances have changed. I suppose the position with notifying DWP of change of circumstances is complicated, because you wouldn't know you were under any obligation to, until the IS claim was reinstated, and DWP probably think things will be missed.
However if there was a change of circumstances, client could advise them at that point.
Is it worth arguing though ? (It is in principle, but when your client has no money to live on the delays may just be unacceptable, plus it is nicer not to have alienated the DWP staff you have to deal with day after day).