IS - new appeal or customer service complaint?

In 2009 my client put in an appeal against a decision to award her IS from 26.6.08 rather than 22.4.08 (the issue was around her income as a student and her decision to defer her studies from 22/4/08). The appeal was late but it was accepted by the tribunal.  She then heard nothing. I later started working with her and we discovered that the DWP had never put in a submission, despite requests from the Tribunal, and only after I contacted the Tribunal Service and a Direction was issued in September 2010 did the DWP appear to engage with the case.

Last week my client got a letter saying that the appeal had lapsed as the appeals officer had ‘revised the decision and the new decision is a more favourable one’.  However, the ‘favourable decision’ is simply that the DWP accept her IS application from 22.4.08, whilst still maintaining she cannot be paid until 26.6.08 due to her student income.

My client maintains that her appeal was not just about backdating but also about asessment of income, but she does not have a copy of her original appeal form, and the BDC dealing with the case say that they no longer hold her records, although we could write request that they be brought up from the archives. 

I suppose what i’m trying to work out is whether it is worth putting in a fresh appeal, given the time it’s taken to get to this stage, or if it would be worth instead pursuing some sort of customer service complaint. Not only because of general DWP incompetence with paperwork , but also because while this has been going on my client put in a further appeal relating to a PCA decision and this has been unable to be heard because of the previous appeal holding it up, therefore she has been on reduced level IS for over a year. We are now waiting for a hearing date for that one….

Right I’ll stop now, If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

Many Thanks

Write directly to TTS, setting out the events outlined in your post and point out that the revision is not favourable to your client as the bottom line outcome doesn’t change the amount of benefit.  Ask for a hearing to be listed accordingly.

Separately, make a formal complaint to the DWP regarding their outrageous abuse of process.

Thanks for this.

I will definitely make a complaint to DWP. 

Should I try to get hold of the original GL24 appeal form before lodging a fresh appeal or just go ahead? My concern about going ahead is that a) if all that was originally asked for was that the claim be considered from an earlier date, then that has actually been done, so no grounds for appeal and b) I also think they probably have assessed her student income correctly ,but I’m not sure how the rules deal with people like my client who have recieved their grants/loans but then defer their course, with the grant/loan having to be paid back. Or is that a questions for a separate thread?!