I hope there is someone who can advise me on this as I know the gentleman involved has had a pretty tough time of it following an incident which has left him with post traumatic stress.

Basically his mother passed away in october with cancer. My tenant has a psychiatrist who he sees monthly as he suffers nightmares and is very anxious. He cannot walk properly and struggles to manage his day to day affairs, has learning difficulties unknow whether this is result of an incident.

The funeral cost was £1,918.50 the tenants brother applied with the help of a benefit agency for a funeral social fund grant, the brother got my tenant to sign this form with the advice of the agency. The letter came back to my tenant refusing a grant as there was another family member who was no estranged from the deceased and also identifying that my tenant was in no position to pay.

The brother has offered to pay half the total cost and now the funeral debt agency are after the other half from brian, this totally over £900. The difficulty is that the brother is responsible for putting my tenant in the situation he is in with regards to his physical difficulties. His brother attacked my tenant a few years ago leaving him with a broken leg he now has no hip.

What I want to know is can I apply for a social fund grant for my tenant for the other half of money outstanding or is there anyother avenues?

Gratefully yours who has any advice

Presuming that the funeral took place shortly after the death in October 2003 it is now too late to claim a Social Fund Funeral Payment (time limit 3 months from date of funeral).The payments themselves are very restricted and are limited to £700 plus the 'reasonable costs of specified items/expenses'-which are usually the cemetery or crematorium fees.

As far as your client is concerned,if he has already claimed and been turned down because of his brother (not being estranged/iro a qualifying benefit),then the situation is the same as it was when he claimed before.

Unfortunately your client cannot get help from the Social Fund but other avenues could be explored.Did he/his mother/his father ever belong to a Trades Union or Guild? Any military associations?

Surprise surprise, it may not be as straightforward as our Appeals Officer would make out - you have stated that your tenant's brother applied for the grant, as well as stating that your tenant signed the form - who exactly made the application? Is it the case that the tenant's brother may have been able to claim the funeral grant himself? When was the decision refusing the application made, because they may be in a position to lodge a review against the refusal (see http://www.irs-review.org.uk/irsreview/review.htm for more details on lodging a review). For basic information on eligibility for funeral grants, have a look at http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/life/benefits/the_social_fund.htm#Funeral_payments

You really need to get some expert advice and quickly on this matter - it could well be that the decision to refuse a grant is correct but I would prefer an approach that tests this supposition rather than assume anything. There is a CAB in Oxford (I presume Banbury Homes are located nearby - if not, you can try to use http://www.justask.org.uk/directory/index.asp?lang=en to find an adviser closer to you)

Oxford CAB
95 St Aldate's
Oxford
OX1 1DA
Telephone 08701 264114 (24 hour automated advice)
Fax 01865 202715

Opening Hours
Monday 10am - 12 noon
Tuesday Closed
Wednesday 10am - 12 noon
Thursday 2pm - 6pm
Friday 10am - 12 noon
Sat 10am - 12 noon

I must admit to finding it deeply distressing that we are now seeing an increase in officials from DWP/IR posting on this site with responses that basically state that "No, the decision is clearly correct, there is nothing else you can do, get on with it" - as we all well know, there are many erroneous decisions made when people apply for benefits and tax credits, hence the need for appeals and the high success rate at tribunals. I do appreciate seeing the views from the other side - I just wish that we didn't see so much presumption of correctness.

I thank all that have replied to my question, his mother used to work at tescos, so there may be a union there or my tenant use to work for the American Air Force although not directly for a moral welfare recreation centre who I think were employed by the American Air base.

I will look into the websites and see what this brings up. I have spoken to CAB in banbury one of their legal workers although their response was that unless I went down the route of proving he signed 'under duress' then arguing with the decision would be near impossible. 'under duress' as his brother got my tenant to sign on the basis that most of the costs would be covered by the grant.

The debt agency are after maximum payments but I have said that he is on incapacity benefit and can only afford £2 a week maximum, you can imagine they are not happy with this as will take a long time to pay off. As my tenant has no bank account they are saying it will have to be postal orders, I am in the process of trying to get them to produce payment slips, at least while all this is being looked into.

Many Thanks

I took sew272's information at face value i.e. that the brother filled in the form and got the client to sign it. I also assumed , perhaps wrongly ,that the timing of these events was outside the 3 month limit.

Social Fund funeral payments are not subject to review by the IRS as I'm sure you are aware,but by all means appeal.I personally never say that a decision is 'correct', merely that it seems to have been made within the legislation,if it has,but I am equally happy to do all that I can to get a wrong'un overturned.If I have been unable to persuade the decision maker to change a decision, or cannot do it myself because there are no grounds,then I will let the Tribunal know that I support the appeal and leave it to them.