‘The office dealing with your claim’

Does anyone know of any caselaw dealing with the exact definition of ‘the office dealing with your claim’  - client was getting IS and SDA paid in one single payment. When she changed address she rang the benefit centre paying these claims, her address was changed for SDA but not for IS and her IS eventually lapsed as she failed to reply to some letters, probably regarding a change of circs(these may have been sent to her old address).

She has reclaimed but a backdating request has been refused as IS have taken the view that she did not notify a change of circs to ‘the office dealing with her claim’ . I can understand that , following Hinchy, that the DLA unit and the office dealing with a combined claim for SDA and IS are two separate entities but I wonder if the distinction is quite so clear when looking at two departments in the same building with the same telephone number. CIS/2650/2009 made some reference to the internal procedures of the DWP (in the context of an overpayment) and I wondered if there was anything similarly relevant to these particular circumstances..

Any thoughts or observations gratefully recieved.

No specific CDs for you however I agree with CPAGs overview….
“Following Hinchy and other authorities, the basic duty of the claimant (at least as far as regulation 32(1A) is concerned) remains to disclose to the ‘office handling’ the claim. The primary task here will be to try to identify that office by checking the instructions issued by the DWP in the communication regarding what changes need to be notified. As provided in Hinchy and earlier decisions, the claimant will be expected to do that much, but not to identify separate sections within that office if that is not done for them. More generally, the questions of whether the claimant was clearly and unambiguously informed of her/his responsibilities, and if the office handling the claim actually knew about the change also remain relevant.”

If your client has letters from JC+/DWP in relation ot the IS/SDA claim and they were sent from the same office or BDC then I feel your client has met her responsibilities, furthermore when you call a BDC you have to press option 1 for IS, option 2 for JSA, option 3 for ESA etc etc I have never been prompted to press any number for SDA so how could your client have been expected to do so?

Thanks to both of you, that is more or less exactly what I was looking for!