Seem to come to a brick wall with this one, i wonder if anyone out there with more knowledge of being abroad than me, can magic up some caselaw up for me, or any advice.

My client is full British Citizen (orginally from Iran). He has quiet severe mental health issues. He went to Iran to look after his 90 year old mother who had just had an oporation (we have a letter from the doctor in Iran to say his mother needed aftercare). The client's mental health also deteriorated when in Iran. He was in Iran four four months.

He did not tell the benefits agency that he was going to Iran as he did not know he had to. So they kept paying him when he was out of the country. He has now got a Income Support overpayment.

He has taken this to appeal, and we are awaiting a Tribunal date. The ground he gave for appeal was that "he feels that he has been unfairly treated, that he had no way of knowing that he needed to inform BA, and that they are questioning his honesty". The Tribunal service have accepted this as reason to hold a Tribunal (i was a bit surprised, but full credit to them).

Now he has come to me, and I am having problems, finding any law to challenge this.

He did also have a HB abd CTB overpayment, but they did a disctretionary write off when we asked them. We also asked Income Support, but they have flately refused.

whilst I look for something similar that I came across a number of years ago, I am curious as to how the BA found out that he was out of the country? Also is his mental health issue documented?

Thank you for your reply.

Client is a council tennant, and the council informed Income Support that the client had not been seen at his address for three months.

The client sees his doctor regularly. I do not have medical evidence, but i know other advice organisations in the area have used medical evidence for benefits related issues (DLA), so it is probably obtainable, or direct from the GP. As far as i can tell he doesn't have a CPN.

I should also mention that the client's English is not good.

IS have also said they have paid the four weeks.


Mnay thanks.

I spent sometime looking but could not find the case I had in mind. I put two links here which should hopefully provide you with some CDs to dig into; and some ammunition. Also you could do a search of the rightsnet (though it'll require a lot of sifting through).
http://www.cpag.org.uk/cro/wrb/wrb196/reporting.htm
http://www.cpag.org.uk/cro/wrb/wrb185/Overpayments.htm
You said he has "severe mental health issues", why is he not getting DLA ? Perhaps you could assist him with this so that even if the o/p decision can't be altered then at least he'll get more money via DLA which might, depending on rate, also increase his IS applicable amount.

Have you any evidence that he was given details of the changes he has to report when his IS claim was awarded or last reviewed? He is only under an obligation to report a change if he has expressly been told that he must do so. Sadly, I would guess that the answer is probably "yes, but he never read it."

If he is claiming benefit on the grounds of incapacity, then he is only entitled to IS abroad if he has gone abroad for medical treatment, for up to 8 weeks: and that doesn't mean getting ill and needing treatment when out there. So it looks as if there is an OP and the only issue is recoverability.

thank you for your reply.

I will go through the tribunal bundle to see if any evidence of expressly being asked. As you say, probably will be a case of yes but he never read it.

Thanks again

Thank you very much for this

He is already getting DLA by the way, some 26 week rule prevented him from getting an overpayment of this as well.

I have had a quick scan through the information you sent. CDLA/1823/2004, seems to suggest some hope on mental health grounds, however CIS/4348/2003 seems to distroy this. Does CDLA/1823/2004 superceed CIS/4348/2003 or does it still stand.


Many thaks again for your help.