SSWP v AT: What happens if Govt wins appeal?

We have a client whose UC claim has been stayed pending SSWP v AT. We believe we can demonstrate hardship.

If we succeed in getting UC paid for the client, what would be the impact if the govt were to subsequently win the court case?

Would this produce an overpayment of UC and would it be recoverable?

Client has some mental health/learning difficulties and we need to be able to explain clearly the benefits and risks of seeking to get the UC claim unstayed.

We might hope that, if it were to come to that, whoever is the Secretary of State at that point would have the good grace not to even try to recover anything paid on this basis.

If they did, I do not think that they would be able to recover the payments. That is because for the purposes of any time revision under the D&A Regulations, ‘official error’ does not include errors of law only identified as such by a subsequent court decision. This is normally used the other way (to prevent people from being able to take advantage of test cases retroactively) but I suspect it would work in the claimant’s advantage in this instance.

I would suggest however that if your client can sensibly be dissuaded from making hardship reps on the basis that there is some possibility that, several years from now, they might be asked to pay the money back - they are probably not in the sort of hardship which is being looked for.