I have a client whose new IS claim has been refused on the grounds that he is co-habiting. His alleged partner is also claiming IS (and being paid, as a single person).

He wants to appeal against the decision.

Is there anything wrong, in the meantime, if they claim / are paid as a couple while we are waiting for the appeal? We could couch any declarations along the lines of "we have been told that we have to claim as a couple, and as doing so pending an appeal about our circumstances".

There is no other way he can get money pending the appeal is there?

i have a similar case at the moment where the clients were a couple once but ceased to be,the woman is being paid benefits as a single person but the man is being treated as part of a couple and wishes to appeal against this decision.would be very interested to hear how you get on or how others have done with similar cases.

Isn't this the worst?

I've had two cases where disputing claimants have claimed as a couple 'under duress' and made that clear and got it recorded. Very unsatisfactory I can't see a way around it and wish there was an equivalent to the PCA 20% deduction rule.

I also had a case where we had to make joint claim under duress. We made it very clear that it was being made under duress under direct instruction of IS. We did win the appeal so the joint claim was not held against them.

In this case it was made more ludicrous by fact that they would not have qualified as a couple, only the woman qualified on her own beacuse she got SDP as they were joint tenants. Even the council had accepted they were not co-habiting.

Thanks for your comments.

I think I was a little thrown as I havn't come across a "couple" who were in a position to make a joint claim pending an appeal before.

A slightly humorous footnote: I had one of these about 10 years ago, when the local IS office would always send a rep. The two individual claims were almost instantly rejected due to cohabitation (on no real evidence) and they claimed as a couple the next day. It was about a week between claims.

At the beginning of the appeal hearing the Chairman, bless his doddering old socks, said:

"To be clear, this appeal relates only to the week prior to your claim as a couple?"

Just for once, the PO and I were in harmonious chorus when we assured him that the later joint claim had been made under duress and was 'without prejudice'.

We won the appeal, by the way. The local office then did the sensible thing (dunno if it was legal or not) of dividing the couple rate IS already paid into two, and saying that half had been paid to each claimant on account for the period to date !

Jim