Hi everyone,I have a rather unusual query and i wonder if anyone can help.

I have a client who had their CA award terminated when the cared for persons DLA award expired. The DLA renewal had in fact been sent in in plenty of time but the DBC seem to have mislaid it. they corrected the error and paid back to the date of the expiry of the first claim and the award was therefore continuous. No one renewed the CA award and it remained unpaid for a couple of years. client has recently reclaimed it (successfully )but now wants back payment as it should never have stopped in the first place. I don't think backpayment as such is possible as it is outside the limit in statute but could a Tribunal order any any time review of the original decision on the grounds of official error. I have looked through the Decisions & Appeals regs but I can't see anything relevant, has anyone got any ideas?

Ta!

ps apologies if I have missed something obvious

so CA should have been put back into payment automatically when DLA was? have you tried pointing this out to the DWP? you never know...

Problem with an official error review is that part of the definition of 'official error' is that the claimant didn't contribute to the error. Arguably they did contribute here by not reclaiming CA or at least informing CA of DLA award. Assuming the decision stopping CA was more than 13 months ago.

I would probably be inclined to ask for an official error review by the CA Unit, who may take a looser view that a Tribunal, followed up if need be by a compensation claim.

Richard Atkinson