“Selective Blindness” at UC.

On August 1st this year my client was successful in her appeal against the unlawful application of the under-occ charge on a bedroom which has always been occupied. Presumably UC would have been notified by HMCTS of the Tribunal Decision. In addition, client has now uploaded (3 times) a copy of the Tribunal Decision to her journal, addressed to the Service Centre, along with requests for the decision to be implemented.

So far…...........nothing. DWP continue to deduct under-occ charge for the disputed bedroom, despite the decision. They have not even acknowledged it’s existence.

I have now referred the case to the Regional Partnership Manager and am awaiting a response.

My question is whether anyone else has encountered this “selective blindness” to documents uploaded by clients?

I’ve had a problem with UC not implementing tribunal decisions promptly. A pre-action protocol letter sorted the matter out pretty sharpish. It’s JR146 in the CPAG pre-action protocol letters. https://cpag.org.uk/welfare-rights/judicial-review/judicial-review-pre-action-letters/delays-decision-making

This ongoing problem is not helped by the low numbers of DM’s i.e. 520 as of Feb 2023 and now we have 6.2m UC households - https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/what_is_the_current_ratio_of_wor_5

In this situtation I’d be updating the “where do you live and who lives with you” module so it’s correctly configured then telling them it’s effective from the date the Tribunal decision says it’s effective from.

Edit, yes I have, but configuring things on the account tends to sort it out. Often service centre staff can’t access some of those.