I have a client who was I receipt of Incapacity credits. He failed the P.C.A. assessment and entitlement was removed from March 2003. In Jan 2004 a Tribunal confirmed the decision. The Disability premium on his I.S. was retained as he was in receipt of Disability Living Allowance. However, low and behold, on the renewal recently he lost the DLA award. This is currently under appeal. Sadly the weight of the medical evidence is not in his favour I think it will be highly unlikely that he will retain his D.L.A. I have advised that he should get a med 5 backdated for a year and start submitting sicklines to try and reinstate the disability premium. However on reflection I think I should be telling him to get his sickline backdated to the date the DLA ceased. Any advice or experiences with the submission of backdated lines would be appreciated.

From the info you give I think your initial advice is ok. When your client failed the PCA in March 2003, this meant he would be deemed fit for work for 6 months (unless he had a new condition or significant worsening of his current condition).

Once 6 months was up then he could have put in sick notes for the same condition. This should have meant he went onto the 'normal' rate of IS - not the reduced rate whilst appealing the PCA decision (though this may not have happened in your case). So if the client's GP will give a backdated sick note to Sep 2003 then this should be enough to get the client the Dis Prem on his IS from now as he needs to have been incapable of work for 1 year to get this.

However, my experience of this is that the DWP are very reluctant to accept that someone can do this. They seem to take the position that someone should be actually submitting sicknotes for one year so they can subject claimants to the PCA if they deem this appropriate. Cmrs decision CIS/2699/2001 may be helpful if you have any problems with this.