Bedroom tax appeal and anti-test case rule

As permission has been granted to appeal against the decision made by the high court judge, as it is going to the court of appeal does this mean if the appeal is found in the appellant’s favour would this mean that the anti-test case rule would not apply, in terms of would it result in a change in legislation rather than being a test case? If this occured and the legislation changed then client’s would not be affected by the anti-test case rule??

Any further thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated as I feel as if I am going round in circles!

The anti-test case rule only kicks in if the lead case involves an appeal against a decision by a local authority.  See para 18(1)(a) of Schedule 7 to the CSP&SS; Act 2000.  As the MA case is a direct attack on the Regulations with the Secretary of State as respondent, I don’t believe the outcome will overturn any local authority’s HB awarding decision.  Therefore if they succeed against the odds in having the bedroom tax struck down, then as I understand it the effect will be to make it as though there never was a bedroom tax - for anyone.  I am not betting on it myself, but if it happens there is no restriction on arrears in “look-alike” cases as far as I can see.

There is another obstacle for affected claimants to overcome though: establishing a ground for revision.  The handing down of new case law rules out the ground of official error and it is also expressly excluded from the reasons why an application for revision may be entertained out of time.  Instead the new case law provides a ground for supersession from the date it is handed down.  Therefore to get arrears back to April 2013 claimants would have to appeal out of time to the Tribunal against the April awarding decision.  The Tribunal can accept an appeal out of time for any reason and will do so automatically if the Council does not object.  The existence of the appeal then gives the Council an alternative ground for revision.  So it’s a bit elaborate but it can be done.

It’s not going to happen though.