URGENT HELP REQUIRED with APPEAL HEARING on MONDAY

I have a friend who has an UC appeal hearing on Monday. I heard about it yesterday! His statement is below, which will need to be tidied up. I work for a small voluntary advice centre, which concentrates on ESA/PIP/AA and DLA issues. We receive funding. I have to pay the subs to Rightsnet and CPAG for example and provide the other resources. We do not have the resources to offer a full blown UC service. We signposts clients to the CAB, which gets funding. I have done UC/ WCA appeals but not admin appeals. Any help, which a member can offer will be much appreciated for eternity. Attached is the appeal bundle. I have authority to share it with RN members.
Thank you in anticipation of your help. Terry Craven
I started my new job at Virgin Care in Runcorn on 23/09/2019.  It was on this day that I messaged the Job Centre (Belle Vale)/DWP to inform them that I’m now starting full time work and that my intention was to discontinue my UC.  It was at this point I thought I’d done enough in that I swung by the Job Centre during the previous week to pre-inform them of this change of circumstances.  They said to simply just message them via my journal (Online Portal) which will effectively close down my claim.  As I was unemployed for a full UC Assessment Period prior to then, I was also due a full payment.  It was on the morning of the second day of my new job that I woke up at around 4am coupled with pain.  I called my Mum and she drove me to Whiston Hospital (please see attached note of this) and after a painful and nauseous time it transpired that it was suspected gastritis.  Needless to say I went straight to bed after being discharged and as such rested myself the following day also as I couldn’t physically go too far.  Couldn’t have wished for a more understanding/cooperative management by the way.  It was during this period of being incapacitated that I’d missed an e-mail from the DWP stating that although I’d started my new job that I still needed to “accept my commitments”.  Suffice to say I didn’t notice this due to the inertia of being sick and not through being too complacent.
Fast forward now another week on 04/10/2019 as I logged onto my Portal to find that my claim had been closed for not accepting my commitments.  Naturally I panicked as I wasn’t due to receive my first pay packet until late October.  I attempted to call them straight away but was too late so made another attempt that following Monday.  After eventually getting through to someone who suggested that I appeal this matter and do I have any supporting evidence.  That next day I popped into the Job Centre with the letter from the hospital and got them to scan it for me which I thought would lend weight to my side of the argument.  After waiting out I received a message in my Journal informing me that my claim is still closed and that my reasoning and evidence wasn’t strong enough to warrant any reversal of this decision.  It was then that I’d decided to go down the tribunal/litigation road and as such applied for this service. 
Generally I’m very diligent in looking for work and always make a concerted effort to create a good impression at interviews and this bout of unemployment was no exception.  I feel that without expecting any special dispensation that I have a cogent enough reasoning to advocate my case.

[Edited by Shawn to remove attachment}

I am very concerned that this is a huge load of personal data which isn’t anonymised at all and I suggest you take the attachment down.

The nub of it seems to be that your friend was on UC with an AP of 4th to 3rd and had agreed a claimant commitment putting him in the intensive work search groups. He reported a change of circumstances in that work had started on 23/09. A message was input on 23/09 asking him to agree a new claimant commitment (no work-related requirements) by 29/09. He hadn’t agreed it by 01/10 so they closed his claim backdated to 04/09. The DWP say they only needed to give him 7 days to agree the new commitment and there is no reason to extend that deadline.

Elliot Kent - 21 March 2020 03:15 PM

I am very concerned that this is a huge load of personal data which isn’t anonymised at all and I suggest you take the attachment down.

Hi The CASA ... I’m afraid I agree with Elliot and therefore have removed the attachment ...

Apologies - Shawn

Elliot Kent - 21 March 2020 03:15 PM

I am very concerned that this is a huge load of personal data which isn’t anonymised at all and I suggest you take the attachment down.

The nub of it seems to be that your friend was on UC with an AP of 4th to 3rd and had agreed a claimant commitment putting him in the intensive work search groups. He reported a change of circumstances in that work had started on 23/09. A message was input on 23/09 asking him to agree a new claimant commitment (no work-related requirements) by 29/09. He hadn’t agreed it by 01/10 so they closed his claim backdated to 04/09. The DWP say they only needed to give him 7 days to agree the new commitment and there is no reason to extend that deadline.

Hi Elliott

The posting of the bundle with all the details is a mistake I shall scan it in tomorrow.

Are you saying the appeal will be disallowed?

I think its quite complicated.

On the face of it, s.14 WRA 2012 gives the SSWP the ability to direct that an updated claimant commitment is agreed to in whatever way she likes. The DWP are wrong to assert that there is some sort of 7 day limit - that has been wholly made up and the legislation they have cited doesn’t support their case on that.

Is it then within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal to engage with the SSWP’s exercise of that discretion - i.e. to resolve the appeal on the basis that the SSWP did not give the claimant an appropriate period of time to agree to the new claimant commitment? What if the SSWP had directed the claimant that they needed to sign the agreement within an hour or face the closure of their claim? It’s not clear.

If not, then the appeal would be limited to considering whether there were exceptional circumstances which justified extending the deadline.

There are then I think issues relating to the nature of the claimant commitment which he was being asked to sign. The purpose of the new claimant commitment was to reduce what he was being asked to do. He had gone from being subject to the intensive work search requirements (which are inclusive of a requirement to check the journal and keep DWP up to date) to no work-related requirements (which are only those requirements). Is there an argument that a claimant can only be expected to agree a new claimant commitment if it actually entails doing something new or modified which he had not already committed to doing?

And was it not premature to move him into the no work related requirements group, given that - as he points out - he was not going to receive any wages until beyond the end of the AP? For UC purposes, he was still unemployed as he wasn’t receiving 16xNMW weekly for the AP in question because of when he wouldn’t be paid until a subsequent AP, so he didn’t meet reg. 90 of the UC Regs.

These are all arguments which might need to be developed. He should ask for an adjournment and find someone to take the case on properly.

Stepping back from it, its pretty ludicrous that the DWP are essentially saying that they stopped this man’s income because he didn’t respond with sufficient urgency to their demand that he formally commit to doing less than he had already agreed to do.

A big thank you is due to Elliot, your comments were very successful. I submitted your comments in a written submission first thing yesterday morning. Subsequently, my client was telephoned yesterday morning to inform him his appeal had been allowed. Thank you for all your help. you’re a star

I’m glad it worked out for him. I would be curious to see an SOR if the DWP request one.