mike shermer
Welfare Benefits Officer, Kings Lynn & West Norfolk Borough Council, Kings l
Member since 23rd Jan 2004
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RE: History lesson please- IVB, first AWT for IB etc
Thu 11-Mar-04 08:25 AM |
In days gone by, spent in another life, we used to use the old sec 25 regs to good effect in appeals - many an over enthusiastic AO would omit to follow the regs in their eagerness to disallow benefit on the grounds of some very iffy AWT medicals...........
If the review decision you are speaking of was the one in Jan 98, then that would have been under Sec 25 - as I remember, under those regs the AO had in practice to make two decisions - the first identifying the grounds for the review: only when he had identified those grounds could he then go on to actually reviewing the claim and producing a decision.
As both decisions are appealable, the AO (as was) has to specify in writing exactly what evidence/grounds he had to initiate the review - (without that one didn't know what one was appealing against). Without that protection, we would have had AO's reviewing cases at random ad infinitum etc..........
Thinking aloud, if this review was carried out after the client had attended an AWT medical and failed to get the requisite 15 points, then not meeting the requirements for an ongoing award of IB would be the change of Circs the AO would need to produce two decisions - (1) change of circs triggers review (2) failure of AWT triggers loss of IB. However, if it was carried out before being subject to an AWT medical, then it is difficult to see on what grounds he did so - unless he had other evidence. Merely becoming subject to the new AWT regs at the time wouldn't have been grounds.
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