Client has been on long term Incap with age addition foe a number of years - Dyslexic and other learning difficulties - found small job in spring 2004 - 5 hours a week at local school. Went to local CAB who advised her to tell local HB/CTB section - which she did, but CAB did not advise her to tell local Incap section. Had she done so, she would have been given permitted work forms and everything would have been OK.

She has recently (Feb) taken on more hours taking her to 17hrs pw. She then decided to tell local office in April. They promptly stopped benefit, and there is an overpayment of some £900.

Question, can permitted work application be back dated, given her particular circumstances....

Interesting - its a bit harsh. You have six weeks to inform the JC+ in cases of the PW higher limit route and any time before the work ends for the others. You do have to inform the JC+.

The client could also reclaim IB and ask this to be backdated up to 3 months without having to show special reasons. Cl. will still need to provide med. certs for the period.

Could you argue it's not recoverable because disclosure was not reasonably to be expected in these circumstances (either using incomplete advice or mental health argument or both)?

I have seen this in the past and failed utterly to find anything useful in the PW rules - be interested to know if you find anything. Non-recoverability has sometimes worked for me. (I have also tried to use a convoluted and somewhat unlikely technical argument in addition to the above but it has not yet met with success ... can send it if you like!)

There are two commissioner decisions, CIB/3925/2003 and CIB/1985/2004, where it was held that overpayments, caused by work undertaken but not notified to the DWP within the permitted work notice time limits, were not recoverable on the grounds that disclosure was not reasonably to be expected.


However, following the tribunal of commissioners decision in CIS/4348/2003, appeals made on this ground would need to be accompanied by requests that they are not heard until after the Court of Appeal give their decision in B v Secretary for Work and Pensions.

(all the above commissioner decisions are available online, and summaries of all three, together with links to the full decisions, are also available in the briefcase area of rightnset).

Isn't it crucial whether there was an unambiguous request for information?

hi sue,

yes I agree, although you would need to be able to argue in any individual case that there had been no unambiguous request for information.

Although in CIB/1985/2004 (cited in my previous posting to this thread), Commissioner Howell held that a DWP leaflet on exempt work did not give clear instructions about reporting changes in circumstances , he also held that instructions in order books were more clear (so that the claimant won his appeal on the basis that he had always been paid benefit to his bank account).