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Overpayments of SDP due to carer claiming CA
Is anyone else seeing lots of SDP overpayments due to CA claims having been made without the ESA/PC claimant being aware ...
Is there a data matching exercise being carried out by DWP?
I thought I had seen another discussion about it on here but can’t find it.
The Guardian is reporting on SDP overpayment recovery now, alongside CA overpayments:
There’s been an earlier post on this somewhere - has the part of the CA claim where the person cared for has to sign been removed? So you could be happily claiming your SDP and someone else claiming CA for helping you without your being aware of it?
“Removed” or not - any appeal is going to need to grapple with this;
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6569cd4f1104cf0013fa7357/UA-2023-SCO-000065-ESA.pdf
I’m on a train and skim reading by phone but early in that decision it says the FtT decided the overpayment was not recoverable and DWP wasn’t appealing that. It’s about the “entitlement” point which affects continued payment of the SDP
That’s true. However, the sections dealing with the overpayment recovery decision in the FtT are glossed over - it wasn’t an issue for the UT. But it might well have been (and I think probable) that the FtT decided that though there was an overpayment, it was not recoverable on the basis that the claimant could not have failed to disclose a fact of which he was unaware - i.e. that his mother had claimed CA. And SSWP had in any event confirmed recovery would not be pursued.
But the rest of the decision is relevant here, in as much as I thought there was some suggestion that a disabled person needs to sign and consent to a CA claim - it confirms that the disabled person does not have to be aware, much less consent, in order for the CA claimant to have lawful entitlement. So yes, if the disabled person is not aware, it’s going to be possible to run a ‘cannot have failed to disclose’ argument against any overpayment - but not one that argues that the CA claimant was not entitled to that benefit, ergo no overpayment recoverable or otherwise…..
What doesn’t seem to be addressed in the decision is whether the mother was, in fact, providing the requisite care for the daughter? We’ve certainly seen two or three cases where not only is the client unaware of a CA claim being made in respect of caring for them but they state the carer isn’t providing any care whatsoever. And trying to get the CA award looked at can be extremely tricky in those situations.
There was a long thread on that scenario previously, but I cannot find it?
There was a long thread on that scenario previously, but I cannot find it?
That the one I was thinking of. What ever did happen with your case?
That the one I was thinking of. What ever did happen with your case?
We won the appeal as the tribunal accepted the evidence that as no one was caring for my client then there was no one who was lawfully entitled to CA under s70 of the Contributions & Benefits Act 1992.
The PO from the ESA Dep’t told the tribunal that she would not be seeking to appeal the decision and the SDP was re-instated for the period in question.