dla awarded after appealing

In March 2009 I was asked to appeal a dla decision to award Mobility component for 18 months only after client was worried about not being able to renew her motability contract. The appeal process included several visits to tribunals and a medical examination at home. The medical persuaded the final tribunal to remove bothe mobility and care components completely. We were not happy with the way the judge and other members of the panel treated the lady I was representing so using caselaw provided by b&w appealed to the Upper Tribunal stating what I considered were errors of law. We were unsuccessful with them. However, at the time of writing to the Upper Tribunal we submitted a second application for dla. A new medical was carried out which persuaded the decision maker to award Higher Mobility and Lower Care components back dated to the date of the latter application. We are considering requesting that the award be backdated to the date that the former award was rescinded.

The moral of this story is don't be greedy.

Do I take it that the appeal tribunal(s) put your client on notice that they had the power to remove components/entitlement?

If not, that in itself would have been grounds to appeal to the UT on the grounds that there had been a breach of natural justice. However, if your client elected to proceed with the hearing having been given the warning, that would eliminate this ground of appeal. Obviously, I can't comment on the other grounds of appeal submitted to the UT as I don't have access to the casepapers.

On the question of backdating your clients current entitlement to the date her previous DLA entitlement was terminated, this in all probabilities will be precluded because there are no circumstances whereby a DLA claim can be backdated from the date of the (new) claim. The only recourse would have been to have the FT tribunal's decision set aside by the UT and referred to a different tribunal, who would have been at liberty to overturn the previous FT tribunal's decision. Unfortunately this did not happen in your client's case.

The FTT did not give notice to change entitlement. At the appeal we notified the tribunal that the dwp had removed entitlement.They had not been informed. They then terminated that appeal and advised that we appeal both the original appeal and the decision to remove entitlement, consolidating both. It was at the final FTT that the tribunal refused to change the decision of the dwp. It was then that we appealed to the UT who stated that there were no errors in law and that the FTT judge was very experienced.

chris in cardiff wrote:

In March 2009 I was asked to appeal a dla decision to award Mobility component for 18 months only after client was worried about not being able to renew her motability contract. The appeal process included several visits to tribunals and a medical examination at home. The medical persuaded the final tribunal to remove bothe mobility and care components completely. We were not happy with the way the judge and other members of the panel treated the lady I was representing so using caselaw provided by b&w appealed to the Upper Tribunal stating what I considered were errors of law. We were unsuccessful with them. However, at the time of writing to the Upper Tribunal we submitted a second application for dla. A new medical was carried out which persuaded the decision maker to award Higher Mobility and Lower Care components back dated to the date of the latter application. We are considering requesting that the award be backdated to the date that the former award was rescinded.

The moral of this story is don't be greedy.

Had she 18 months left on her award or had she been awarded 18 months ? if she had been awarded more than 18 months how long was the original award ? also was this her first award that was coming to an end ? say something like her first award was 5 years ? also what was the original health reason that got her the award ?

chris in cardiff wrote:

The FTT did not give notice to change entitlement. At the appeal we notified the tribunal that the dwp had removed entitlement.They had not been informed. They then terminated that appeal and advised that we appeal both the original appeal and the decision to remove entitlement, consolidating both. It was at the final FTT that the tribunal refused to change the decision of the dwp. It was then that we appealed to the UT who stated that there were no errors in law and that the FTT judge was very experienced.

As it was the DWP who removed entitlement and not the FTT, the appeal tribunal would be looking at the appeal down to the date of decision, to ascertain if the DWP was correct in terminating entitlement, taking into account all the evidence before them.

As the UT judge decided that the FTT did not make an error of law in deciding your clients case, unless any error of law can be identified in the UT decision, that is effectively the end of the matter.

Thank you Crazydiamond for your comments