I have a client who signed a note withdrawing her claim for JSA after a LTAHAW visit. She seems not to have really understood what she was doing: she thought the visiting officer made the decisions and had made the decision that she was LTAHAW. When asked to sign the note did not think she could refuse such a request from an official and doesn’t seem to have understood that she was withdrawing her claim. She has never been assessed as having learning difficulties but describes herself as not being very intelligent.

Is it possible to get a claim reinstated in these circumstances and is there anything else she can do (other than new claim)?

She could make a fresh claim and request backdating on the ground that she was given information by an officer of the DWP that led her to believe that a claim for benefit would not succeed (see reg 19 of The Claims and Payments Regs).

Hi

I think you could put in an appeal (possibly late?) against termination of jsa award on basis that cl was induced to withdraw by coercive behaviour of visiting officer and/or not properly able to understand the consequence of her action in signing the note.

R(H) 2/06 states that withdrawal of claim will prohibit any further award being made on that claim unless can demonstrate that can't manage affairs or that withdrawal was induced by 'threatening or overbearing behaviour, deception or similar improper conduct'.

See also CJSA/3979/1999 which says that termination of an indefinite award should be the subject of adjudication to make sure it was properly made and not , for example, the result of coercion or improper inducement.

I got these from commentary to reg 5 of claims and payments regs in volume 3 of Sweet and Maxwell Soc Sec Legislation (p377).

cheers Ros

You talk about "withdrawing her claim" which could be construed as meaning that she had made the claim but it had not yet been decided at the date of her "withdrawal". I'm not sure that's what you do mean but if you do there is no right of appeal as there is no decision. The backdating/misleading advice point is a better bet in such a case.

There had been no decision made when she withdrew the claim. We will go down the backdating route but the difficulty with this is the claim was made in around July / August 2009. I was considering asking for the claim to be reinstated. I'm not sure about argueing that the visting officer was overbearing / coercive as although she felt under pressure this may well be more due to her feeling nervous around authority. The visiting officer did tell her that the absence of a sexual relationship was not relevant so there may be more milage in argueing that she was mislead and for this reason it should be reinstated. Has anyone every tried to 'reverse' a withdrawal?

Might it be arguable that she does have a right of appeal? The decision that there is no longer a valid claim because her withdrawal is considered effective is not down in schedule 2 of the D&A regs as a non-appealable decision. If a decision that a claim is defective and therefore not valid is appealable why not a decision that a withdrawal is effective and therefore the claim not valid?

Any views on whether it is worth trying this or am I just having one of my funny ideas and should go and have a lie down?

Thu 07-Jan-10 07:08 PM by ros.white

In R(H) 2/06 the claimant asked for withdrawn claim to be re-instated (2 years later) and then appealed against the refusal to re-instate. In that case the claim was withdrawn before it had been decided too.

I think it's worth requesting re-instatement for your cl and then appealing refusal if you can show that it wasn't a genuine withdrawal.

I've just read that decision and I agree with Ros entirely. However, I still think you should go down the new claim/backdating route also just to cover all the bases.

Thanks all. I'll do both the new claim and appeal - always go for belt and braces where possible. Except for me trousers - just a belt.