DWP revised decision?

Hi there,

I recently attended a DLA tribunal to appeal my award of LRC (14/09). My appeal was unanimously regected by the panel and was notified to me by post on the 14/09. I was all prepared to write to them to ask for a Statement of Reasons so that I could decide whether to take it further but have come into a letter today from the DWP advising me that they have reviewed my claim so that I won't continue with the appeal and have awarded my MRC backdated to the date of my application. This letter is dated 21/09 and the backdated money has been paid into my account.

So my question is will the DWP's new decision override the tribuanl's since it was dated after the tribunal? Or will the tribunal decision still stand? If the tribunal decision will still stand then will I need to pay back the what I have been paid in backdated money?

To say I'm confused is an understatement! Any help/clarity would be much appreciated.

A tribunals role is to decide whether or not a Decision Maker's decision (acting on behalf of the Sec of State for Work) is legally correct.

As it appears that another Decision Maker has reviewed your claim and awarded you
MRC then in my opinion the tribunals decision is no longer valid as a DM has made your current award.

I'm not a qualified WRO, but my husband Jim (Jima1) who's also a moderator but currently offline is a retired WRO and was a DLA tribunal member for 10 years and I've mentioned your post to him and he shares my opinion.

You can check out the case law on this HERE

Hope this is of help.

Pat

That's great. Thanks for getting back to me.

Kind regards,

Pauline

Hi,

Just had a read of Jim's social security law books and this confirms our opinion.

Superseding a tribunal’s or Commissioner’s decision

[SSCS (D&A) Regs 1999 6(2)(c)]

Decisions of tribunals and Commissioners can be superseded in either of the following situations:

where they are made in ignorance of a material fact, or based on a mistake about a material fact where there has been a relevant change of circumstances since the decision was given.

If the decision to be superseded is more advantageous to you than it would otherwise have been if the tribunal or Commissioner had known all the facts, payment of benefit will be changed from the same date that the tribunal’s decision or Commissioner’s decision took effect. In any other case, the payment would increase from the date of the application or the date the new decision is made. [SS Act 1998 10(5) SSCS Act (D&A) Regs 1999 7(5)]

Pat.