Tue 05-Jun-07 01:25 PM by benadvice

Hello,

I currently have a case where a customer made an application within the specified time periods for a funeral grant. After checking up on this a couple of times and being told that everything was ok, her local councillor chased it up for her and was told that no claim had been received.

She was instructed by the DWP to make a new claim immediately, even though she would now be out of time to make her application. She duly did this, and was notified that her claim was out of time so she couldn't qualify.

We appealed against this decision, and guess what - they didn't receive the appeal!! How is that for bad luck?

We have now got them to accept a late appeal, but they are still saying that my client didn't make a claim at the appopriate time. Is anybody able to advise me on some case-law or tactics in this case?

the date of claim is the date it is received in the office.

it is this fact that is in dispute and it will be a question of evidence.

there is no more presumption in favour of the Secretary of State than for the claimant. if the SoS asserts 'no trace of a claim' they have to say where they have searched/checked for it, to substantiate their assertion. there is a clear contradiction between 'no trace' and telephone conversations about the claim which has now disappeared..., of which they should have some record or even recordings, but perhaps your client has...

there is case law i'm sure, but i don't know it off-hand...

as for tactics - what is supposed to happen just isn't happening, and i don't know the best way to deal with it... your client shouldn't have to go to a tribunal to get her funeral payment because the DWP has lost her claim...the Secretary of State can administratively remedy lost claim forms and should do in this case, by the sound of it - but ... i am in search of new tactics my self, and open to suggestions...

For a good discussion of the issues in these kinds of cases, including the role of the Interpretation Act, see CG/2973/2004.

This centre doesn't do representation, which means that the last tribunal I repped in my last job kind of sticks in my mind...and it was about a lost claim.

It was actually a claim for sickness benefit lost in November 1987, so it would have stuck anyway, given the amount of arrears involved.

Although there was some documentary evidence of enquiries made from time to time mostly by the client's husband about the progress of the claim, the two of them were their own best asset. I invited the Chair to weigh their evidence and, if he thought they were honestly recounting an accurate memory of events at the time and since, then he should find that the claim had in fact been made and instruct the Department to make a decision on it. He did.

Last I heard they had received a fair old wedge of arrears and interest, and were waiting on the outcome of a further compensation claim for losses on an endowment policy they'd had to cash in early because of lack of money to live on.

So, if your client is a good witness in her own cause, you might not need much more.

Just happened upon

http://www.osscsc.gov.uk/aspx/view.aspx?id=2061

Can't help thinking that if the Commissioner had decided a claim had been made in this case, your tribunal should have less trouble agreeing it had been made in yours.

the problem here is the appeals backlog and the strict date order policy...currently they are writing appeals lodged in November 06...my search for effective solutions for clients is becoming increasingly desperate...i'm considering copying all comp0laint letters to john hutton, and recruiting swampy and a team of crack squirrells to ...oh that's enough of that..