Duty to provide a MR notice?

Hello everyone,

This is the situation: the client’s JSA was incorrectly terminated by the DWP and then claimed UC (full service).  He put in a MR re the decision to terminate his JSA claim.  He hasn’t received a MR notice.

The MR notice would presumably say his JSA was terminated by error, but due to commencement order X JSA cannot be reinstated as UC has already been claimed (?) etc etc.

Does the DWP have a legal duty to provide a MR notice?

Thanks,

EC

legal duty to make a decision. if they don’t you can ask TS to list for appeal, i think, or you could even JR the refusal to make a decision on the MR…. i should think oif nothing else on the grounds that since the govt insist on the Mr procedure, there is a duty to decide an MR request and failure to do so is irrational etc…. + complaint…

Many thanks Claire.

What do you mean by “incorrectly terminated”? That’s a broad church.

Specifically, was it an appealable decision? Was an initial decision notice issued? Did the initial decision notice refer to the need to go through the MR process?

You say that the decision to end JSA preceded the UC claim. If those events were on different dates, then there may be some dispute/appeal about JSA entitlement for the period between the two dates, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the UC award was wrongly decided and can be nullified in some way.

Hi all,

To answer questions -

The JSA was incorrectly terminated by DWP administrative error which the DWP admit to.

A standard JSA award letter was issued as a result and outlined MR rights.

Yes there may be a gap between the JSA and UC start date and so JSA due.

I assume the UC has been correctly decided due to the commencement orders applying - my point was to check whether there is a legal duty to provide a MR notice in this case.