JSA claimant requires appointee

I have an 18 year old client with asperger’s.  He receives DLA middle rate care component and lower rate mobility component.  His mother is his appointee for his DLA and also for ESA.  The DWP visited them after he turned 16 and agreed that an appointee was necessary.
He had a WCA for his ESA and was awarded the usual 0 points.  An appeal was submitted, but having interviewed him, his mother and his social worker I cannot see any prospect of him being awarded any points but I can also see why he needs an appointee. 

He would be better off on JSA than the assessment rate of ESA.  If a claim for JSA is made, who has to sign on, agree a JSAG, provide fortnightly job searches etc?  Is it the claimant or his appointee? 

Has anyone encountered this situation before?

Might be a bit of a long shot but if he cannot score any points might he fall under Reg 29 instead?

Surely he would attract some points in the functional areas of coping with change, getting about and coping wtih social situations at least? If not, I would be worried that his DLA award could be at risk.

You havent explained how his aspergers manifests itself in your clients day to day life.
I think the above may be right about reg 29 if he cannot be expected to safely function in the workplace without a risk of health to him or his workmates.
If he has an appointee then he cant reasonably be expected to gain useful employment anyway.

1964 - 16 February 2011 01:26 PM

Surely he would attract some points in the functional areas of coping with change, getting about and coping wtih social situations at least? If not, I would be worried that his DLA award could be at risk.

He insists that he is able to cope with changes and there is no evidence to the contrary.  He might not be able to cope if he didn’t get the support that he currently does, but that’s unlikely to get him any points.

He has no problems getting to familiar places.

He has no problems with social situations.  He cannot visit new places alone because he gets lost, but he insists that even when this happens he has no fear or anxiety.

As far as his DLA goes, it’s an old award and there has probably been an improvement in his abilities to cope with his condition.  LR care and LR mobility would seem appropriate at present.

I had two case involving simlar problems with clients of the same age group and ESA.  In my cases both had been statemented by the Local Authority during school years, but at the end of schooling the support from the LA stopped and the the clients went in to the benefit system.  The problem i found that once the support had stopped it became difficult to establish what the facts were as they seemed to just fall into a hole so to speak, and the claimants themselves would say that they could carry out the tasks (or could but only with a substancial ammount of support) however it was apparent that the clients couldn’t do the tasks and the condition had not changed significantly from when they where statements and they still required a large amount of support on a daily basis (hence they had DLA as in your case).  I also found the GP’s to be of little help in such cases.

I went back to the statements from the LA and argued to the Tribunals, that altough it was old evidence this showed the problems the cleints had and that this had not changed significantly in the years since the LA support ended.  I argued both the congnetive function descriptors as appropriate and Reg 29.  Both appeals were succesful.

I don’t know if this will help your case as i don;t know the details, but i found it a useful approach.