Forum Home → Discussion → Work capability issues and ESA → Thread
SDA & Therapeutic work in 2003 - regs or info
Hi All – Happy New Year to you all.
Can someone point me in the right direction or tell me where I can find the rules/regs for Therapeutic work or permitted work for Severe Disablement Allowance back in 2003??
I have a client who has Downs Syndrome, sight impairment and other associated disabilities. Her mother believes that in 2003 she asked if her daughter could work whilst receiving SDA & IS. The job centre said that she could work less than 16 hours. She did this, but then in 2007 she received a letter telling her that she has been overpaid £8,000 SDA and £4,000 IS.
Client has always disputed this, however, amounts are still being deducted from the client’s benefits.
I have written to the DWP twice now and they tell me that the IS is recoverable (which I believe it is), however they state that the SDA is still with the appeals team (after all this time).
Last correspondence from them was in November 2012. I am now writing a letter of complaint as the appeal has never been referred to an Independent Appeals Tribunal and also I believe the client was able to work during the period in question, under rules mentioned above. I just cannot find regs or information around that time?
Can anyone help?
This is a link to the original 1995 regulations which contains the regulation you want (reg 17) which, I believe, was in force in its original form in 2003.
The 2002/03 ed of CPAG (p712) says the ‘therapeutic work’ rules were replaced by ‘permitted work’, on 8th April 2002. In which case, they would be essentially as now, with an open-ended £20 earnings disregard, but a higher earnings disregard only for a short period or for supported work, or work done under medical supervision.
Thanks for getting back to me - i found the information i was looking for. It was the amount or earnings and hours someone could work before SDA was not payable back in 2003.
Enjoy the snow!! ;)
I don’t think that the position is clear cut. It all depends on exactly what your client was told by the Jobcentre and how she understood it. Was she told she could undertake permitted work (which she could) and/or that if she did undertake PW it could affect her IS? There may be an overpament of benefit, but it is not necessarily recoverable.
I suggest you take a look at regulation 32 of the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1987:
Information to be given and changes to be notified
32. …
(1A) Every beneficiary and every person by whom, or on whose behalf, sums payable by way of benefit are receivable shall furnish in such manner and at such times as the Secretary of State may determine such information or evidence as the Secretary of State may require in connection with payment of the benefit claimed or awarded.
(1B) Except in the case of a jobseeker’s allowance, every beneficiary and every person by whom or on whose behalf sums by way of benefit are receivable shall notify the Secretary of State of any change of circumstances which he might reasonably be expected to know might affect-
(a) the continuance of entitlement to benefit; or
(b) the payment of benefit
as soon as reasonably practicable after the change occurs by giving notice of the change to the appropriate office …
If the DWP seeks recovery of an overpayment they must rely on either para (1A) or para (1B), and must make clear which (CDLA/2328/2006).
In Hooper (Hooper v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2007] EWCA Civ 495), a case which concerned the permitted work rules, the Court of Appeal confirmed that the first duty of disclosure under regulation 32(1) only applies where a claimant has been given ‘clear and unambiguous instructions’ to disclose a material fact. In Hooper, the Court of Appeal found that the instruction given in the information leaflet was not sufficiently clear and unambiguous. On this basis your client is under the second duty, and the question is then whether it was reasonable to expect disclosure in the claimant’s particular circumstances.