Dear all,

I saw a Lady yesterday who is now out of work due to illness. She has savings slightly above the level of means tested benefits. She worked for her employer for 13 years paying class 1 stamp and relevant tax.
She had made a claim for ICB but was told that her contribution record was not up to date.

She had with her all her wage slips that show the deduction of the NI and tax. DWP have refused the ICB on the contribution issue. I do not believe there to be any entitlement to any other related benefits such as DLA as a stop gap.

I understand that the Inland Revenue are investigating the matter and will have an answer for the Lady in about 5 to 6 weeks. In the mean time she is missing out on her ICB.

My question is. What can I do to push this along? On the basis of the deductions having ben taken from the wages is there anything I can argue to lever the DWP into awarding the ICB. Can anybody think of any regulation, Tribunal or Commissioner decisions that may be of use?

As ICB is based on a contribution is this potentially an HRA article 8 issue i.e. possession and property and can a contribution benefit be seen as a possession as it is paid as of right, or due to contributions not having been sent by the employer am I waffling down the wrong track? Does the fact the employer has deducted the contribution open up the door to entitlement?
Any guidance would be much appreciated

Brian. B.M.Coulson@bury.gov.uk

I don't know of any commissioner's decisions - contribution matters traditionally were considered Sec of State questions and outside the jurisdiction of tribunals, to the best of my knowledge.

If your client's employer deducted contributions which are not showing up on NI records, this could be due to either an administrative error, or theft by the employer. Either way, the Inland Revenue have to investigate to track down the source of the problem.

If deductions have not been paid by the employer, the IR will make good client's NI account, and benefit will be payable. Luckily, your client has payslips as proof.

I don't think there is very much you can do to speed the process up, other than keep track of the progress of the investigation file, and make sure the IB section are aware of the dispute and the IR investigation. The IB section won't pay until they get the go ahead from the IR. The I R should treat as urgent, because benefit is involved. The other thing is to advise client to claim IS as soon as her capital falls below the limit.

You could try requesting interim payments under reg 2 (1) (c) of Payments on Account etc regs...and see what happens. : )

jj