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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> Northern Ireland - Social Security and Child Support Commissioners' Decisions >> [2004] NISSCSC C30/03-04(DLA) (10 February 2004) URL: http://www.bailii.org/nie/cases/NISSCSC/2004/C30_03-04(DLA).html Cite as: [2004] NISSCSC C30/03-04(DLA), [2004] NISSCSC C30/3-4(DLA) |
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[2004] NISSCSC C30/03-04(DLA) (10 February 2004)
Decision No: C30/03-04(DLA)
"[The claimant] had been awarded the middle rate of the care component of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for a period up to and including 12 December 2001. On 4 October 2001 form DLA580 was received in the Department. This was treated as a renewal claim from 13 December 2001, i.e. the day after the expiry of the existing award. On 6 November 2001 a decision maker decided that [the claimant] was not entitled to DLA from and including 13 December 2001.
The issue of the refusal of a renewal claim before the date on which it is treated as made was considered by Mrs Commissioner Brown in decision C12/03-04(DLA). The Commissioner held that once the Department has treated a claim as made on a certain date, the only decision which can be given prior to that date is to award benefit; a claim cannot be disallowed before the date on which it is treated as having been made (paragraphs 35-39).
In this case the decision under appeal to the Tribunal was on the renewal claim which was treated as having been made on 13 December 2001. A further claim to DLA in respect of [the claimant] was made on 13 May 2002 and disallowed on 6 November 2002 however there is no indication in the Department's submission that this decision was disputed. Therefore the appeal before the Tribunal sitting on 25 February 2003 related only to the decision on the renewal claim i.e. the decision dated 6 November 2001.
The renewal claim was disallowed on 6 November 2001, over one month before the accepted date of claim. If the rationale in C12/03-04(DLA) is applied to this case, the decision of 6 November 2001 is ultra vires, there is no valid decision on the renewal claim and the Tribunal erred by treating the decision as valid."
(signed): - J A H Martin QC
Chief Commissioner
10 February 2004