13 month time limit for appeals

I’ll keep searching but I’m not finding anything on the search terms I can think of.

I’m sure, in the not too distant past, I saw a UT decision that held that the 13 month time limit for bringing an appeal isn’t absolute.

Did I dream it?

I’ve got a case where only Malcolm Tucker could adequately describe the sheer inadequacy of the admin. It was erroneously “lapsed” by CTS on the basis of false information from PIP and I’ve just slipped past 13 months to refresh the appeal. I’d love to find that decision and use it to try to make a new application.

The added killer is that I found out about the lapse on the last day I might have refreshed the appeal but didn’t spot that until today. Shoot me now!

I’ve asked the to reinstate it but belt and braces and all that…

TIA

edit: I may well be thinking about this in which case shame.

The link isn’t working.

Is it PH and SM?

https://www.gov.uk/administrative-appeals-tribunal-decisions/ph-and-sm-v-secretary-of-state-for-work-and-pensions-dla-jsa-2018-ukut-404-aac

Rules specifically that if official error is a ground then 13 month limit does not apply (assuming official error is made out) - and from what you’ve said it sounds like that argument might be a goer.

(Also, with a UC case, there’s another technical argument that could assist….but not relevant here)

I think we could do with some rather more specific information.

You say the appeal was “erroneously lapsed by [HM?]CTS”. What do you mean? Did PIP tell HMCTS that they had revised the decision and HMCTS took that as fact - whereas actually the decision had not been revised at all?

If that is the case, then surely the appeal never lapsed at all and it still requires to be determined regardless of how long it has been?

GM v SSWP (JSA) [2014] UKUT 57 (AAC) discusses the procedure where an FtT has ruled that an appeal has lapsed. But there does not seem to be any obligation for an FtT to rule on the question of lapsing unless there is some dispute about it (see para 7). A letter from the clerk saying that the appeal has lapsed is not a ruling - it is not something which a clerk is allowed to rule on and the standard letter does not claim to be any sort of ruling.

I don’t see what is to stop you springing up 13 months after the apparent lapsing and saying “this appeal has not lapsed” and the FtT must rule on that - and then if it agrees with you to continue dealing with the appeal.

Or are you saying that there was a revised decision which did cause the appeal to lapse, but the revised decision was itself erroneous - in which case I suppose you could make a request for revision on the grounds of official error (no time limits apply) and then - if that does not work - invoke the PH/SM jurisdiction to appeal to the Tribunal?

Elliot Kent - 14 March 2019 10:47 PM

I think we could do with some rather more specific information.

You say the appeal was “erroneously lapsed by [HM?]CTS”. What do you mean? Did PIP tell HMCTS that they had revised the decision and HMCTS took that as fact - whereas actually the decision had not been revised at all?

Well the situation is a bit muddier than that.

PIP claim refused. Appealed, offer made then revised.

We appealed against the revised decision, subs issued promptly for the revised decision but then a few weeks later a direction arrives to DWP to provide a response to the previous appeal.

I emailed CTS along the lines of “the first appeal should have lapsed, I’ll save you some bother and withdraw it”

Months later, further medical evidence for appeal #2 is circulated and unbeknownst to me PIP contact CTS and tell them the latter appeal was lapsed. It wasn’t.

We get to the time I’d expect it to be listed, contact CTS to check nothing’s awry to discover that they think the latter appeal has lapsed.

I have applied for reinstatement but wondered whether I could refresh the appeal despite it being against a 14 month old decision. I thought I’d spotted some caselaw but it appears to have been a dream.

Isn’t that just exactly the situation I’d described?

Appeal #1 is lapsed or withdrawn or whatever - doesn’t really matter; it no longer exists. Then DWP have incorrectly said that Appeal #2 has lapsed when it hasn’t. So if Appeal #2 has not lapsed, then your client still has a valid appeal against the decision.

(If you’re not thinking of the PH/SM case, then you are probably thinking of KK v Sheffield CC (HB) [2015] UKUT 367 (AAC) which refers to Adesina v Nursing and Midwifery Council [2013] EWCA 818 as authority that the time limit can be extended beyond 13 months in exceptional cases)