Hi
You could try a data protection request to see if that gives you any further idea as to why they thought she may have qualified for the disability element.
However, I am not sure the why is necessarily relevant to the dispute, although I can understand her wanting to know what went wrong. The fact that it was incorrectly included means she was overpaid. It could well have just been an error, I have heard of cases where a dirty mark on the box of the form is enough for the RDC system to pick it up as a tick/cross and award it.
The question is whether HMRC should recover the overpayment. If she has already disputed then she appears to still fall under the old reasonableness test.
It will be worth checking the award notices to see if it showed the disability element. HMRC generally use this to defeat disputes. Was it on the award notices? Did she notice it and inform them? If not were there any extenuating circumstances as to why? Did she renew with the disability element etc..
Anyway good luck, as is often the case with tax credits it may remain a mystery.
Victoria
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