I would be most grateful if someone could help me. I have two cases from the same area where they are refusing to pay either Incapacity or Income Support whilst waiting for a medical.
The first client is on DLA M/R care and L/r mob. She claimed I/S and Incap as her husband has left her.She is using her M/R care to live off. She has waited 6 weeks so far.The other person was turned down on appeal put in a new claim and has been told he cannot receive anything until he has a medical. This man is extremely fragile mentally. He has gone 2 months so far without any income.
Both are vunerable people who are not receiving a penny in benefits.
Is there anyway we can get around this.

Re your first client, if this is a new claim for IB/IS and she has submitted continuous sick notes she should not need a PCA medical for 6 months at least. She should ask the DWP for interim payments of benefit pending processing, or if these are refused she should ask for a crisis loan.

Re your second client, he can only re-claim IB/IS 6 months after the original decision to withdraw benefit, unless it is for a new medical condition or a significant deterioration of his original condition. They will have called him to a PCA medical to verify this. Check what the GP put on the sick notes for the original claim and the new claim. We have successfully asked for clients to be fast tracked to a PCA under these circumstances. Again he could apply for a crisis loan.

If the PCA applies to these claims, which presumably it does, then see regulation 28 of the icapacity for work reg which provide that a claimant shall be treated as incapable of work if they have provided a evidence in accordance with the medical evidence regulations (a med3 sicknote) and it has been more than six months since a previous failure of the PCA unless there is a new incapacity or a worsening of the original condition.

This also applies to income support since the determination is of incapacity for work and the IS schedule (1B para 7) refers to a person who is incapable of work in accordance with part XIIA SSCBA or regulations made thereunder (i.e. the inacapacity for work regs).

It would be unlawful to withhold benefit, or not make a decision, until the PCA is carred out. A well worded complaint/letter before action should to the trick. But you will need to find out if this is IS refusing to determine IS entitlement, or IB refusing to issue the incapable of work notice.

Hope this helps.

Thank you both for taking the time to reply. At least I have some direction to go in persuing these claims.