Blind and HRM, over 65 years of age

Please forgive me if this is an obvious question, I’m afraid I don’t deal with many blind clients, the very excellent Cornwall Blind Association generally deals with this group.

I have just taken on a client whom is now in their early seventies but has been completely blind since they were in their fifties. They get DLA MRC and LRM.

According to Sch1 , para 1 of the DLA regs an award of DLA Mob for someone over 65 can be superseded provided that the qualifying disability was present before the claimant was 65. The claimant didn’t qualify for HRM until the rule change of April 2011 but could we now ask for a supersession on the grounds that they now qualify and would have done so had the rules been different when they first got DLA.

Has anyone done a claim like this or have any thoughts.

Thanks

I notice it is a while since this has been posted so maybe you have already found the answer.  I think the problem is that the ground for supersession is a change of circumstance which is the change of legislation.  The supersession would only take effect from the date the change of legislation takes effect [Reg. 3(9)(a)(ii) Social Security and Child Support (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations 1999]. Your client would have been over the age limit of 65 when the legislation came into effect, and thus would not have qualified at that point.  Whether it is possible to qualify on the basis of the new legislation, by showing that he met the new condition before reaching 65, I therefore have my doubts, but I would be interested in any other opinions on this………

Do you mean reg 7(9)(a)(ii)?  If so, that is where the supersession begins on the SoS’s own initiative.  It might be that sub-para (d) applies.  Either way, the point is moot as the change of circs (the change in the law as you rightly said) occurs after the claimant’s 65th birthday and thus debars him from HR mob by virtue of para 1(3) of schedule 1 of the DLA Regs.  So I would agree with you.

Thanks everyone, That is what I thought but you know how it is when you look at something over and over again and you begin to doubt yourself…........... (or am I just getting old and frazzled)

Pete. (55 going on 80?)