MR letter

Afternoon,

Probably a stupid question but I’m going to ask it anyway.

Have a client who is severely disabled. He asked for a mandatory reconsideration on the decision regarding his Attendance Allowance claim. He received a reply stating that the original decision was being upheld.

He was going through a particularly bad period of ill health at this time so didn’t pursue this any further.

He has recently contacted me to see if he’s able to appeal this decision. He’s outside the time for an appeal to be made but when I’ve read the MR letter it doesn’t mention anything about him being able to appeal this decision.

My question is - should a MR letter give him his appeal rights and tell him what he needs to do if he wants to appeal the MR decision? If it should, is the fact that it didn’t sufficient grounds to submit a late appeal?

Cheers

John

A decision is made on the date that a decision maker actually sits down and makes it.  However, it has no legal force until notified to the claimant and contains the information that statute requires.  In this case notification, under reg 28 of the Decisions and Appeals Regs 1999, of the right to appeal. 

Technical errors in decision notices which don’t disadvantage the claimant will not invalidate the notification.  Those that do disadvantage the claimant (more than de minimis) can invalidate the notification.  In such cases the clock will not have started running until a fully compliant notification is issued.  This would be my first line of argument.  The second, if that wasn’t accepted, would be the failure to notify him of his right of appeal was a good reason for the appeal being late.

Paul,

As always thanks for your prompt and detailed response, much appreciated.

Regards

John