Hello everyone, has anyone heard whether the CPAG were given permission to have this JR, we were on a CPAG course on 5th Feb(many thanks to David Simmons for an interesting day)and it was mentioned that there was to be a decision on the permission to have aJR the following week. Is there any news?

cpag says ...

'Permission to apply for judicial review was granted on 6/2/08. We understand it will take up to 18 months to get a full hearing.'

'With effect from 10/3/08 the Secretary of State has given an undertaking not to issue any further letters asking for overpaid benefit to be repaid other than under s 71 Social Security Administration Act 1992 in circumstances where the original payment was made pursuant to and in accordance with a valid determination – ie not where they accept the overpayment is not recoverable.

Please note that the Secretary of State will still be able to write and ask for recovery of overpayments which are recoverable under s 71 SSAA, so where the claimant has misrepresented or failed to disclose a material fact. He will also be able to request recovery of payments not made under an award, for instance duplicate payments, or errors such as a payment of £100 where only £50 was due under the award.

As part of the JR action it will be useful to gather evidence of the prevalence of the DMC practice of seeking recovery in official error cases. If you have any examples please email sclarke@cpag.org.uk

If claimants/advisers have letters sent prior to 10/3/08 where recovery is being sought on the above basis to refuse to pay the money on the basis that the demand is unlawful (of course the claimant can always choose if he or she so wishes to pay the money back voluntarily), and refer to our JR proceedings where necessary. Our understanding is that the DWP will generally agree not to recovery in these circumstances. However, if the DWP then sue for the money in the county court then the claim could be defended on the same basis (i.e. that the demand for repayment is unlawful - as long as it is an official error case), and the county court should be asked to stay/adjourn the proceedings until CPAG's JR has been concluded.'