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DLA stopped due to failure to disclose improved walking ability
help please, I have a client who has had DLA high mob and low care stopped and faces an overpayment and possible prosecution. he claim several years ago and said his walking ability was 20 yards, following observations and film evidence that shows him walking 200 yards his claim has been stopped. my client argues she is no better physically and is in constant pain, the walking was a ‘one off’ . I need to do an MR now to start to challenge the decision. I should be able to get medical evidence that he has not improved, has back pain and heart trouble
[ Edited: 26 Aug 2015 at 12:15 pm by shawn mach ]http://www.osscsc.gov.uk/Aspx/view.aspx?id=3154
DG might come in handy…
DG ?
Its the appellant in the case Dan has provided a link to
Thank you John and Don, any more ideas welcome
thanks Brian
Ah the good old fraud and error department filming people for a disability determination and having no regard to any medical evidence as in their view everyone is a benefit cheat. Any fool can point a camera at someone and they often do.
that’s about the size of it, Thepadster, but as they say one picture is worth 1000 GP reports. I need to d a MR and am rather lost a to where to start, do I just say it was a one off good day and argue my client IS virtually unable e to walk , do I just advise my client to pay the money back or should I try the argument legal and throw a big pile of case law at the MR, not having seen the video evidence does not help me
If you put in an MR it is likely to be unsuccessful, but that will give you the opportunity to lodge a formal appeal, and DWP will then be obliged to let you have a copy of the visual evidence as part of their submission. If it is damning then you can always withdraw the appeal and advise your client accordingly.
Look carefully at any video evidence. I once saw an example where the footage had been looped to make it appear that the client was walking a much greater distance than she actually was. We noticed that she was walking past the same shops/people etc again and again.
Benny, thanks for that, I am very keen to avoid a tribunal and also to head off any prosecution.
Much will depend on the video evidence. Request a revision, also request a copy of the video evidence with their reply, to see it sooner rather than later, so you can put reasons in with the appeal and the SoS will reply to it in its bundle (maybe).
The interpretation of video evidence is up for grabs. Did the camera have sight of the person the entire time? How long? Is the person clearly visible? How far? How can they be sure of the distance walked - has anyone measured it? I heard of one case where the camera lost sight of a person when they walked behind a building, and assumed they kept walking while the camera wasn’t looking at them, whereas they actually stopped.
Good luck, we’re all counting on you.
I used this site SocSec and read the other postings for my first fraud case. There are loads of great advice and case law on here to allow you to research. However, what I also learned is that that case is based on the individual circumstances and as the others have said, once you get the full submission documents and the video evidence, you will know the bigger picture to work on your arguments. I took a lot of time to pick holes in the video evidence by challenging the authorisation for this and highlighting anomalies on the video times and obvious editing only to attend the tribunal for them to say we don’t need to look at the video evidence. The medical evident outweighed the questionable video evidence and the client’s DLA was reinstated.
Thanks every one for above. my main worry is that my client is adamant that rather than having got better his condition has worsened, sounds an appealing argument BUT a tribunal could say that if he has got worse that is conclusive evidence that his condition at the time of the original claim, severall years ago was much less disabling so he has given misleading information on that claim. as the decision stopping his award is only back to middle of 2014 I am afraid it could go back to original award
Helpful decision for the circumstances described
http://www.osscsc.gov.uk/judgmentfiles/j4627/CDLA 5310 2014-00.doc
Judge Poynter has given a very useful decision that appears to have significant relevance towards the approach that the DWP and FtT must take in arguing these kind of decisions.