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Tribunal backpay
soplou89
Member Posts: 21 Listener
Hello. First post. So i won my sons tribunal from November 2017. As i was waiting i had more evidence and because im new to this i phoned the DWP to ask about sending it in they said it'll be easier and quicker with new evidence to do a new claim, so i did. Also refused. Anyway i left it. Went to tribunal august 18 and won HRC from nov 17 till january 19 as the tribual award letter states. Now ive found out that cause i lodged another form whislt waiting even tho it was refused the tribunal decision doesn't stand??? Is this right. I had no idea and wasnt informed , im absolutley devasted. please help. Will they do what tribunal says and pay november 17 till jan19
Replies
Yes, that is correct i'm afraid. Any decision for a new claim will overrule a Tribunal decision. It was a bad decision to start a new claim while waiting for a Tribunal. You will be backdated the money up until the date you started the new claim though.
Did you ask for a mandatory reconsideration on the new claim?
is there anyway i can argue this
im so annoyed and feel like giving up. all that wait for nothing. i was distraught after the tribunal as it was a massive grilling
im so mad and upset
is there anyhting i can do to argue it as the tribunal paperwork states 25/11/2017-01/01/2019
As for how you sort this mess out you are better guided by others on this site.
You do also have 13 months to ask for a mandatory reconsideration, with good reasons of course. You could try going down the MR route for the new decision made in April, followed by another tribunal if that fails. I'd hold on to see what others advise before doing anything else. OR get further advice from your local welfare rights or other disability advice centre near you.
It appears now that they were wrong in closing down a claim and to make matters worse they told me to put a new claim in as I was not allowed to appeal against their decision.
Obviously I complied with what they said. The result of which was the loss of benefit for nearly 9 months at the rate of just under £50 a week. Additionally I had to pay full council tax of £34 a week and help with the mortgage interest of another £44 a week, making the total loss of just under £5000. On top of this we
had to pay our bills and live which resulted in both our savings being used as well as a credit card.
so my son isnt on HRC as it stands now regardless of the decsion
Thanks
I'm feeling very low atm so just gonna forget about it all
When you appeal a decision for PIP a tribunal are looking at the period from 3 months before the date of claim as far forward as they feel it appropriate, The moment you put in a new claim your appeal is limited to the day before your new claim regardless of the outcome of the new claim. The appeal becomes about what’s called a closed period. A tribunal might want to award for longer and indeed can do who but the effect of the 2nd claim is always to limit the appeal to the date before any new claim.
To be fair this is perfectly logical. Imagine what would happen to those people who put in claim after claim after appearing theur first refusal. Those subsequent claims could all legitimately result in different and overlapping awards and if you wanted them all to be the same period you would have to challenge each one individually. The appeals system would quickly grind to a halt (and yes I know that it’s legitimate to argue that it has anyway).
Can you unravel this? Yes, but not via the tribunal.
What should happen is that DWP should now be asked to use the tribunal decision as evidence to supersede the refusal of the 2nd claim. A supersession is just a request to look again at the decision with very specifc grounds to do so. The grounds would be that the decision is now known to have been made in ignorance of a material fact i.e. that the tribunal award ran for longer. If DWP refuse to supersede that’s fine. You don’t have to go for another MR. You can simply appeal their refusal to supersede.
Now, before you embark on this I would like to make 2 further suggestions.
1 - get yourself proper representation.
2 - have a think about whether the tribunal decision was in fact correct. Would there be legitimate reasons to review the entitlement in 2019 or is it factually the case that an ongoing award would be more appropriate? If the latter is true then you need to ask for a statement of reasons and a record of proceedings with a view to appealing to the UT on a point of law re: the evidence for a time limited award.
You can use the decision as it stands to supersede the 2nd claim refusal but if you can also get the tribunal decision changed to ongoing that would also help.
The tribunal regardless of dates written will only pay till the day my 2nd claim was refused
I can however phone dla and ask them to reconsider the 2nd claim because of the tribunals decision and they may allow the claim due to the tribunals decision?
If I were to do this I have a few questions
Will it affect when I receive my back pay as I have things I need to pay for for my sons care.
How long will this take
What's the chances of them agreeing
In terms of time-scale there’s no way of telling what impact it will have but there’s no guarantee you’d have the time limited/closed period arrears quickly either so you have nothing to lose.
Is there any where I can go to help me draft a letter
Thank god all is not lost thanks
But if that fails will I get backdated to the date the decision on the 2nd form was made or when I sent it in
You've made me feel tons better
Tbanks
I had a call from decision maker yesterday who has said they are honouring the tribunals decision and paying me the full award
Payment for full backpay has been issued