clnt with R2R, IS to JSA and genuine prospects of work test

This case is shared for illustration of issues that might arise for other claimants.

Our client who is a lone parent EU national who has been in UK (originally with her husband) since 2004. She has not lost her continuity of residence since.

In Oct 12 she made a claim for IS and a tribunal found that she had a R2R under I(EEA)Reg 15A(3)&(4) - derived R2R as primary carer of a child - a decsion which was conceeded by the DWP on the day of the hearing by an additional submission!

In Feb 14 she was required to claim JSA due to age of her youngest child.

In June she was required to attend a GPOW interview and entitlement to JSA was ended by a decsion of 5/9 as DM concluded she did not have a GPOW.

In our opinion I(EEA)(Amend) regs 14 SI 1451/2104 - which amends I(EEA)Reg 6 - only applies to claimants with ‘retained worker status’ or are ‘jobseekers’. The note to DMG Memo 15/14 para 2 confirms this is the DWP’s interpretation of the amended regs.

You can all imagine the entertainment I have just had drawing this to the attention of a DM who insisted the GPOW test applies to all EEA JSA claimants.

All the usual avenues being pursued!

Quite apart from that error in the scope of the GPOW test, one of these days a Tribunal is going to have to decide whether GPOW (which appears in immigration legislation) means something different from and tougher than normal JSA conditionality.  DWP seems to assume automatically that it must.  They may be right, on account of that word “compelling”, but there seems to be a popular view that GPOW is a tightening of JSA eligibility rules when in fact it isn’t a social security measure at all.

Thanks for sharing this, Peter, and I have actually got a thread going where I hope to collate all such stories, share experiences, and find solutions.

If you could cross-post this to: http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/7076/, it would be much appreciated.

As stated in my post in my previous thread, I intend to make several FoI requests on this issue, and your input on salient questions would be welcome.