There is no failure to disclose if a claimant has been misled by a benefits officer into thinking s/he did not need to report a fact.

If a claimant relies on information in DWP publicity, for example a poster or a leaflet - could it me argued that there was no failure to disclose if the publicity was misleading?

Any thoughts, decisions, etc welcome.

I think you would need to try and argue there was a "reasonable" failure to disclose.

Commissioner Mark in CIB/2126/02 held that wrong advice from a DWP officer could override information available to a claimant in their own order book. The claimant in this case was given information by a DWP officer on the Benefit Enquiry Line that bled them reasonably to believe disclosure to their local office was not expected.

You would need to argue that a DWP leaflet or poster was similarly as misleading.

Ken I've always thought the DWP were sometimes bleeding awful, but actually inflicting grevious bodily harm???

CIS/5117/1998 might be useful for you to look at.

It's a different matter - here the claimant claimed that a BA officer helped him to comeplete the form, and also there were issues about the form being incorrectly completed and so "defective". I think it also refers to the effect of silence in relation to a material fact.