I have a client with a learning disabilitiy who agreed to their relative putting in a claim for CA. They signed the CA form declaring that they understood that other benefits could be affected if the award was made. As a consequence, my client has lost SDP, IS, HB/CTB etc. Can any of you clever people out their advise me what to do please? All I have is a letter to my client form Jobcentre plus dated 6th Jan infoming them that they are no longer entitled to IS, this is how the claim for CA was discovered when the SDP wasn't included in the letter. I have scoured the CPAG WB and TC Handbook to no avail as the decision to award CA was correctly made on the infomation provided by the carer. Can I appeal and if so on what grounds, I was thinking of going along on the lines of incapacity, any help would be appreciated?

You would possibly have to plead that the consent was invalid using the doctrine known to us lawyers as "non est factum" - that the document purporting to give consent was a nullity as the claimant's mind did not accompany his signature. I seriously doubt that this is a decision that is appealable because it is not about your client's benefit (directly, anyway) and it can only be reversed if the relative withdraws their claim for CA.

"non est factum" is incredibly difficult to prove. Does your client have an appointee? If not, you will struggle to show that he did not understand was he was doing - look, for example, at the case of CAO v Sheriff reported as R(IS) 14/96 which is about overpayments and relates to a case under the Court of Protection. The commentary at 1.96 of the Sweet and Maxwell green volume deals with this.

You could perhaps in this case look at undue influence by the relative, which could make the agreement void, but I think your client may need legal advice.

Thanks for your reply. It is a typical case of the average Joe Public not realising the complexities of the benefits system. My client has been looked after since birth by the mother who recently died and both my client and the mother were claiming CA for each other. On the mothers death, a relative stepped in to help as my client is extremely vulnerable and because the mother claimed CA the relative just assumed she could do the same and so did my client, who signed the form but cannot actually read. You say the relative could withdraw her claim for CA, as it is such a short space of time since she made the claim,could she take the chance that this wouldn't be deprivation of income to claim or increase benefits or I am just being too cautious as it was a genuine mistake and the carer was extremely upset about all this?

the deprivation rules are only concerned with your own benefits or those of your family (without checking the reg I assume the definition of family is the same as used for all benefits).

If this relative is close family or she has any worries about withdrawing it she's only got to remember she wouldn't be entitled to CA anyway if she no longer engaged in caring for at least 35 hours pw so that's a way out

I feel like I'm in Albert Square with all this talk of faaamlies

look at the mental capacity act

presumably, in the circumstances, the DWP know that your client has limited, if any, capacity and perhaps should have double checked?