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DLA claimant cancelling their claim
Hello
Has anyone come across the situation where a claimant with severe mental health problems rings the DLA Unit and says they are better and their claim is stopped? Presumably it went to a DM who just accepted what the tenant said. It is actually part of the tenant’s illness to believe they are better when actually they are becoming unwell.
This happened 3 months ago and I’m wondering whether it’s possible to get the old claim back in payment rather than making a new claim for PIP. Anyone have experience of this? Maybe by requesting a late appeal on basis decision to stop was based on a mistake of a material fact?
Thanks
I can’t see why this wouldn’t be appealable. If a late appeal is admitted then it would be a complete rehearing of the decision so there would be no need to show mistake of fact as such.
The problems I foresee are getting a late appeal accepted with mandatory reconsideration now in the way, and possible issues about credibility. Does the decision notice mention rights of appeal / mandatory reconsideration?
Yes, if the decision was made after 28 October 2013 you will need to have a mandatory reconsideration before going to appeal.
Mistake about material fact is one of the grounds for having an ‘any time’ reconsideration (supersession). BUT if that ground is used, then a favourable decision can only take effect from the day when you asked for the decision to be reconsidered. (see page 267 of the Disability Rights Handbook if you have it).
So it would be better to request a late ‘any grounds’ revision of the decision, on the basis that the delay was caused by special circumstances (ie the claimant’s mental health problems / lack of insight), submitting as much evidence as possible to back this up.
You’ll only need to request a MR if the decision notice tells you you need to request one. Whichever way if you write an appeal letter asking that it be treated as a recon if needs be that would cover all the bases.
As to the termination; I deal with a lot of people with lack of insight and you might be well advised to look to an appointeeship; if there’s no family you could see whether Manchester City Council runs a Corprate Appointeeship scheme; a referral to your local Mental Health Social Work team would be in order to investigate the issue.
Appointeeship wouldn’t stop them ending a claim though would it? You’d need a Deputyship to achieve that and that’s a MCA decsion.
Appointeeship wouldn’t stop them ending a claim though would it? You’d need a Deputyship to achieve that and that’s a MCA decsion.
In practice DWP won’t speak to the claimant if there’s an appointee.
A lot of Local Authorities are loathe to pay the fees to set up a Deputyship; our CoP team are difficult to persduade to apply if it’s just benefits in question.
Should have updated earlier….
Turns out the claim has just been suspended. The claimant has been sent a review form out which I will complete with her. Her mother has started the process of becoming her appointee as she lacks insight
Thanks
I seem to recall there is DM guidance on this subject, where a claimants judgement is impaired due to poor insight into their mental illness
in a previous post I came across a case where a client contacted the dwp to stop his DLA claim as he felt god wanted him to give it up (this was also part of the clients illness).
luckily in this case the dwp suspended the claim only and after looking into the facts behind it the money was re-instated.
Moot point now but I’m surprised no-one has picked up on the fact that you can’t just “cancel” a claim once there has been a decision to award. There have to be grounds for supersession. A bald statement of “I’m better now” says absolutely nothing. At best it could lead to a suspension on the basis that “a question has arisen” but that’s it.
On the occasions I have been faced with the madness of DWP actually cancelling claims etc. I haven’t bothered with supersessions etc. I’ve just gone for the jugular with a formal complaint including citation of the relevant legislation and the caselaw; an upfront challenge to produce one shred of evidence to back grounds for supersession and… has worked every time.
It’s important to know what was actually said, there’s a difference between saying “I’m feeling better”, and saying “I don’t want to claim DLA any more”. Every claimant should be able to withdraw their claim if they choose. Eg see CDLA/1589/2005.