I have a client who lost his entitlement to Income support because his DLA high care reduced to DLA mid care and therefore lost his enhanced disability premium. He has appealed against the decision as he says he coulld not reasonably have known that a reduction in his DLA would lead to him not having any entitlement to IS. The DWP argument is that he should have realised it would affect his IS and should have notified the change of circs. They have quoted R(SB)54/83. I cant find this decision. Can anybody shed any light on chances of success?

We're back with B aren't we. What instructions was he given on changes to report for IS? If the isntructions clearly say words to the effect of "if any other benefit you are getting goes up or down" then I don't think there is much chance. Can't imagine what your cited case is about, but it's a jolly long time ago.

R(SB)54/83

is on Rightsnet at:

http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/pdfs/rsb/54_83.pdf

Though, as Ariadne says, this is a rather old case and the current caselaw is driven by the Court of Appeal decision in B v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions reported as R(IS)9/06.

If the IS entitlement letter lists the DLA and then says "...is not counted" in respect of it, then your clients argument carries a lot of credence. Other than that, mirror previous contributors...