Severe Disablement Allowance & SDP

I have a client who is in receipt of Pension Credit GC which includes an SDP however she does not receive any of the current qualifying benefits.
Historically my client tells me that she was entitled to Severe Disablement Allowance and was transitioned to Income Support and then Pension Credit over time.
Could the SDP be as a result of SDA, just wondering if anyone knows for sure before I get up in the loft for the backcopies of Disability Rights Handbook.

Did you ask whether she’s previously had a qualifying benefit in payment that has since stopped?

SDA doesn’t (or didn’t) bring about any entitlement to a severe disability premium/addition that I can recall Exceptionally severe disablement addition did though.

Hi Paul,  My fear is that she has been in receipt of DLA previously and it has stopped. She was hospitalised under the Mental Health Act about ten years ago and it may have been stopped then and never reinstated. This is a lady who stills struggles to cope with life and I was clutching at straws with the SDA question.

It may be that she was receiving DLA when she was hospitalised and that it was suspended and never looked at again.  I’d say worth a call to DLA to ask as it may be that she still has a suspended DLA claim which can be put back into payment and a back payment made (although they might argue over that as someone should have requested that any suspension be lifted when she left hospital - possible to challenge that though).

Presumably the PS checked her entitlement to SDP when this was awarded as they wouldn’t normally pay it if it’s not due and it sounds like PC has started since she left hospital.

Don’t forget that last year, DWP did a trawl of historical overpayment cases related to SDP being paid despite the qualifying benefit having stopped at some point in the past.

Trawl of pensioners on PC with SDP - overpayments of sdp being recovered

So I don’t think you can necessarily rely on Pension Service having properly checked eligibility when client moved over to PC as such. But Mairi may have a point about reinstatement of DLA if that was suspended and hasn’t been put into payment since.