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Top Decision Making and Appeals topic #4037

Subject: "Premature revision" First topic | Last topic
gcharter
                              

Welfare Rights Officer, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
Member since
26th Feb 2004

Premature revision
Mon 24-May-10 04:37 PM

Mon 24-May-10 04:38 PM by gcharter

Hello people, hoping someone can help with this case of the DM getting a bit too keen. Child DLA claim was refused. I put in a revision request with a very basic outline of our argument. I got back a letter from the DWP saying:

“Please reply by 26/05/2010. If you do not reply by this date we may look at their claim again without your further evidence.”

On 17th May I wrote (more in hope than in expectation):

“I am currently waiting for further information from Xxxx's school but cannot guarantee that I will have this in time to pass it to you before 26/05/10. Please get in touch with me before making a decision. Thank you.”

However what did annoy me was that they then revised and refused to award on 19/05/2010, which was a full week earlier than the deadliine that they had given me. I am going to ask them to set it aside on the grounds that if a tribunal pulled a similar stunt then it would be a set aside but does anyone know if there is a formal mechanism for this? Or any suggestions generally (other than "It's half five, go home, have a beer.")

  

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Replies to this topic
RE: Premature revision, nevip, 25th May 2010, #1
RE: Premature revision, gcharter, 25th May 2010, #2
      RE: Premature revision, nevip, 25th May 2010, #3
           RE: Premature revision, gcharter, 25th May 2010, #4
                RE: Premature revision, ariadne2, 25th May 2010, #5

nevip
                              

welfare rights adviser, sefton metropolitan borough council, liverpool.
Member since
22nd Jan 2004

RE: Premature revision
Tue 25-May-10 02:20 PM

There is no formal mechanism as tribunal set aside rules don't apply to the DWP because set aside rules are there to ensure parties are not disadvantaged unfairly by the appeal process under the common law right to a fair hearing.

I understand your frustration but I'd simply lodge the appeal and get any further evidence to them as soon as you receive it.

  

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gcharter
                              

Welfare Rights Officer, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
Member since
26th Feb 2004

RE: Premature revision
Tue 25-May-10 03:12 PM

Cheers Nevip, I know what you mean.

I am expecting to end up at appeal in the end anyway. It's a child DLA claim with an unhelpfully enthusiastic school report and I would trust most of our local tribunals to read between the lines on a school report, but not a DM.

However I am still feeling somewhat cross and inclined to argue with them. A colleague says that she did once get them to back down in a similar situation but has no idea on what grounds they did so.

  

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nevip
                              

welfare rights adviser, sefton metropolitan borough council, liverpool.
Member since
22nd Jan 2004

RE: Premature revision
Tue 25-May-10 03:27 PM

Hi again.

I get really annoyed with this sort of thing. I do a lot of children's appeals. I get tired of seeing those pro-forma school reports where the school not really understanding what is requested of them try making out that the child is doing well thus implying the school is doing well with the child.

I then write to the school enclosing a very detailed questionairre (the only time I use questionairres in fact) explaining what information is relevant and why. I then get back a wholly different view to that given to the DWP. With a good back up letter from a consultant paediatrician the decision is usually overturned by the tribunal. Most cases should never have to go that far. Very rarerly do the DWP back down in these kinds of cases faced with further evidence. Highly annoying for the parent(s).

  

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gcharter
                              

Welfare Rights Officer, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
Member since
26th Feb 2004

RE: Premature revision
Tue 25-May-10 04:14 PM

Yes, I have spent a chunk of the day trying to get hold of the school's SENCO so I can get the Individual Education Plan, because that is often a nice lever to open up what their report actually meant, but I am half expecting her to be quite defensive when I do catch hold of her. I am sure she will be lovely.

I haven't had much luck with schools and questionairres myself. That just seems to escalate things to involving the Headteacher round here. We are planning on doing outreach to schools to explain our role and how they can help their kids. We shall have to see how that works out. In the meantime our tribunals are now starting to volunteeer the view that school reports are not a lot of use so we must be getting through to them : ) We also find that the argument that school is actually a small proportion of a child's overall life is quite effective.

  

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ariadne2
                              

Welfare lawyer and social policy collator, Basingstoke CAB
Member since
13th Mar 2007

RE: Premature revision
Tue 25-May-10 05:50 PM

It actually helps if the child is at a special school or in a group of children with special needs. The school wants to encourage the child and say nice things about them and the progress they are making and is often unwilling to appear negative.
Some strong points I have come across: even if the school says "no behavioural problems", the parent may have lots of letters from the school about the problems in class.
Another is that a school catering for children with very severe educational difficulties may have different ideas of what is "normal" from any other school.
Finally, if you have a child on Ritalin or similar, they may be fine while it is working. But Ritalin is a fairly short-lived stimulant that interferes with sleep, and so it is not usually given in the evening. That means that the child gets home just as it is wearing off. And it is very well documented that many children cope best with a firm regimented approach and don't get it at home, so home and school behaviour are very different.

  

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