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ESA case summaries from Law Centre (NI)
Thanks to Law centre (NI) for sharing these ESA case summaries with us -
Damages for WCA assessment disabled access issues:
Atos has agreed to pay £2,000 compensation for a Law Centre (NI) client over disabled access issues at Royston House Work Capability Assessment centre in Belfast. This man with mobility issues was refused access to the Belfast assessment centre due to problems with Atos’s evacuation procedures and had to travel to an alternative centre outside of Belfast. The Law Centre represented this ESA client in a claim for damages under the Disability Discrimination in the County Court.
From 14 November, people with mobility issues are offered assessment in ground floor premises in Belfast. However, people who had to travel to alternative assessment centres in the last six months due to lack of disabled access at Royston House can take an action for damages in the County Court for breach of the Disability Discrimination Act.
This potentially affects large numbers of people as over 1,600 claimants had to travel to alternative assessment centres based in Ballymena and Portadown in 2012-13.
Advisers need to be aware that a strict six-month time limit for lodging appeal applications applies.
ESA: moving from NI to other EU country:
Law Centre (NI) helped a woman who, because she had moved to Spain, was having problems with continuing to receive Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) due to complex issues of jurisdiction. The Law Centre adviser managed to secure back-payments of £9,000 and have her placed in the Support Group of ESA so that she can continue to receive her much needed benefit even after welfare reform is introduced. This case established that when the original decision was made in Northern Ireland, the claim should be dealt with under Northern Ireland legislation, rather than GB legislation, and the appeal heard in Northern Ireland.
This is an important result, and of particular interest to advisers operating close to the border with the Republic of Ireland.
The issue of what rules apply to claims and appeals when a person exports Incapacity Benefit or ESA within the EU has arisen on an ongoing basis. A number of Law Centre (NI)’s clients were people who had moved for instance to Donegal and had had appeals listed in England and claims determined under GB rules. The jurisdiction under which cases are determined can make a crucial difference to a client’s entitlement.
Note: Although Incapacity Benefit is now discontinued, some appeals may still be affected.
Civil service injury award impact on IB and ESA:
The Law Centre successfully represented a former civil servant who had appealed a decision to reduce her Incapacity Benefit because Northern Ireland’s Social Security Agency had said her civil service injury award was equivalent to a pension and therefore affected her entitlement.
The issue was whether the additional and separate payment that our client received under the civil service injury award scheme was a pension. The Department of Finance and Personnel, which is responsible for the scheme, provided evidence that payments under the scheme are not pensions but are discretionary and solely attributable to accident or illness.
An appeal tribunal allowed the appeal and the Department for Social Development missed the deadline for appealing and had to implement the decision, although the Department stated that it disagrees with the decision.
The client has now migrated to Employment and Support Allowance and the Law Centre has a parallel appeal running for ESA.
This issue affects many former civil servants in Northern Ireland. Those affected need to lodge appeals and then the appeals will be stayed pending final resolution of the issue.