Self-employment, Maternity Allowance and R2R

Client is self-employed A8 national - on MA from Jan 11 to Sept 11 then resumed self employment.

Claimed HB in Jan 11, refused due to R2R. Appeal due to be heard next Thursday. She has only come to me recently.

LA submission is on legal point only, i.e no R2R due to receipt of MA. No issues on validity of self-employment at this stage - the LA did not bother to go into this as she fell at the first hurdle with R2R.

I have faxed them the only UT decision that I could find on this - CIS/1042/2008. SOS conceded that Accession Regs did not apply to the self-employed, but also conceded (though not clear that this was what the UT were asked to decide) that as the claimant intended to resume self-employment at end of MA period, she remained self-employed whilst on MA and therefore had R2R.

The LA are not accepting this and want to go ahead with the appeal. They say it was not a decision of the UT but a concession made by the DWP that they do not agree with!

Is anyone aware of any other UT decisions to help in this case, or any other thoughts on how to present the argument?

Many thanks!

CIS/4237/07 should do the trick

Thanks for that - but client in this case is self-employed so I don’t think I can use it!