MA: owed an appealable decision letter from 2016?

Dear all

Looking for a view on a case where the claimant was never paid MA.

She is a UK citizen who usually in the UK on a self-employment basis (dancer/acrobat).  From March 2014 to May 2016 she worked as a dancer/acrobat in Germany on a fixed term PAYE basis.  She did not intend to live in Germany permanently - she had to go where the work was, as entertainers often have to do.

In September 2015 she discovered she was pregnant and had to stop doing her work immediately for health and safety reasons but continued to get full pay from the company. She started to wind down her temporary settlement in Germany and was travelling back and frith between Germany and the UK from Sept 15 to March 2016, by which time she had found somewhere to rent again in the UK, and resumed living in the UK on a permanent basis.  Throughout this time she remained registered for self-employment ion the UK and was submitting tax returns (nil income).  Unfortunately she did not pay class 2 NIC voluntarily.

From March 2016 she continued to receive pay and then the maternity pay amount owed from her company - a total of 14 weeks’ pay, 6 weeks before the baby’s birth and 8 weeks after.  Her fixed term contract ended in May.  The baby was due on 27/06/19 and born on 06/06/19.

She made a clam for MA in the UK.  We don’t have a decision letter on her entitlement.  All we have are letters from DWP dated 31/05/16 telling her that the DWP are requesting a SMP1 form from the employer.  The next dated 06/06/16 says ‘we cannot look at whether you can get Maternity allowance because you have told us that you were recently employed aboard’ and that the International pension centre would be dealing with it. 

The IPC didn’t get back to her.  She tried to chase for years but got nowhere.  She first approached us about it late last year.  We chased DWP and got email replies saying it was Germany’s responsibility and she should take it up with them.  We contacted german lawyers who advised that she would have been entitled to a form of maternity allowance from the German state following her maternity payment from the employer, but only if she were resident in Germany.  She never made a claim for this benefit and too late now.

I want to use the info they have given me to argue that DWP should have found the client was entitled to MA due to her UK residence (taking into account the maternity pay paid from Germany).  So far they have not produced a decision letter despite several asks and escalating the matter with the MP.

It is now several years on.  I am concerned nothing more can be done, but then wondering, if she were owed a decision letter on her UK MA entitlement but it was never created, could she still appeal if she got one now.

What do you guys think?  Views very much appreciated as I am at my wits end.

EKS