Claimant aged under 18 moved into young persons hostel. U18s section have advised they need to provide birth certificate or passport as proof of ID to claim IS. Claimant has neither of these, and it would cost her to get new ones. Has no money to pay for them as IS not in payment!

Before now, DWP have accepted licence agreement from hostel as proof of ID without a probelm. Question is, can they insist on birth cert/passport in the circumstances?

Thanks all

Hi,
Is it actually proof of ID that is purportedly required or proof of age? Reg 7 of the C&P regs allows the SofS to request such evidence in support of a claim as he feels fit. And as the SSCBA prescribes a lower age limit for claiming benefit, that would not seem unreasonable on the face of it. However, I thought that proof of age was required in order to obtain a NINO, which presumably your client has? If so, proof of age can be verified by IS using departmental central index.
If it is proof of ID that is required, not so sure. May be worth asking under which statute this info required and 'haggle' over acceptable alternatives!

Thanks for the response.
Claimant does have an NI number. It turns out claimant's father is a Citizen of Italy. Father & Mother are going back to Italy to live, but claimant wants to stay in UK, hence she is now in Young Persons Hostel. This was mentioned during interview, and as a result DWP are demanding birth cert or passport to prove claimant is English.

Ah, if it's not just proof of age then I fear it's a bit more tricky. I take it that she is of British (or dual) nationality. I'm not an expert (without looking into it with a fine-tooth) but my gut reaction is that the dept may take the view that she still has a potential source of sustenance available to her (albeit in Italy). I guess that the starting point for deciding the reasonableness of her remaining is that of nationality and heritage, hence the request of the docs in question. Were she in fact born here and has therefore never held any passport, could you not argue that absence of same proves a lifelong residence in Britain? (Tenuous, I know but surely someone can't be forced into obtaining a passport purely for verification purposes? - which is why I suggested pinning the dept down to stating the jurisdiction under which they are seeking it).
Sorry, not much help I'm afraid but I am intrigued to know what happens ....

From page 1022 CPAG handbook,
"In some cases, the decision maker may refuse to accept evidence that you are who you say you are. Some claimants may have particular difficulty supplying evidence, or feel they have been discriminated against. Press the decision maker to be clear about what is required and why, and complain if you feel any requests for information are unreasonable."

Unreasonable is usually defined as in the particular circumstances, so it would be unreasonable to request information the client does not have.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I have just found out that the claimant's mother has a 'certified copy' of her birth certificate and is sending it to her. This should do the trick. If not (or if there's a long delay), it will be interesting to see their response to the points you have raised.

Cheers