benefits tribunal help

christine_chris_chrissy

Macro wrote: »

Why do they think that he was living with you from 2003-7?

A nasty neighbour in spite I have a statement!
Did I say it was a long story

healy

unemployedJCP wrote: »

DWP rarely bothers sending anyone to Appeal Tribunals. The Council is likely to turn up.

Appeal Tribunals are aimed against you. They have no legal powers of enforcement. You aren't likely to be against DWP or your Council but the Secretary of State - who ironically creates the Tribunal laws. Any twists of the truth they make is acceptible but you make any of the same you could lose your case.

Appeal Tribunals are normally worse than a Tribunal. Am I right in thinking they have created the "Statement of Fact" and you have to try and disprove it? Thats more difficult then if they have to defend against you.

Tribunals are not aimed against the appellant, they are complete re-hearing of the case and are independent as far as IS/IB/ESA/DLA etc appeals go. It would not be acceptable to a tribunal if the DWP twisted the truth.

Vixie_Pixie

unemployedJCP wrote: »

Am I right into thinking that they are accusing you of failing to report a Change of Circumstances?

Claiming whilst not doing that is fraud so allowing you to take it to an Appeal Tribunal clearly shows they have no case for a prosecution. If they really had a case it would have been an Magistrates Court appearance.

That was my immediate thought. It looks to me to be a superseded decision by the DMs. IMO it appears that OP has notified both depts of when her partner moved in and that IS have sent a decision notice to HB confirming the end of IS entitlement - this bit makes sense giving the amount of IS overpaid.

What i don't get is why they have withdrawn HB from 2003. I think if the OP was fraudulently claiming from this date she would have had an interview and would have been cautioned at least and her IS would have been withdrawn back to 03 as well - her IS hasn't been which appears to me to be an error by the LA.... Unless of course they have other reasons for this...which is why i asked OP for the overpayment reasons on her HB notification letters.

Vixie_Pixie

healy wrote: »

Tribunals are not aimed against the appellant, they are complete re-hearing of the case and are independent as far as IS/IB/ESA/DLA etc appeals go. It would not be acceptable to a tribunal if the DWP twisted the truth.

the tribunal would figure out that the DWP was twisting things and would very quickly point that out!!

Vixie_Pixie

christine_chris_chrissy wrote: »

A nasty neighbour in spite I have a statement!
Did I say it was a long story

thats naughty!

they cannot just take the word of a malicious statement - they would have to have other evidence of that!

christine_chris_chrissy

unemployedJCP wrote: »

Am I right into thinking that they are accusing you of failing to report a Change of Circumstances?

Claiming whilst not doing that is fraud so allowing you to take it to an Appeal Tribunal clearly shows they have no case for a prosecution. If they really had a case it would have been an Magistrates Court appearance.

Thank you yes I have just done another reply & lost it sorry

Vixie_Pixie

hth

http://www.freerepresentationunit.org.uk/get-advice/social-security-advice

you will have to get your local CAB to refer you - but this is the best i can find i'm afraid

leemack

First things first, I'm assuming that you've made your appeal to the DWP and to the council? What stage are you at the moment?

First stage is the DWP and council reconsider their decisions, there is unlikely to be any change to their decision at that stage unless there was a glaring error by the decision maker or you provided additional supportive evidence.

Then the case is sent to the tribunals service an independant body who look at benefit law, the evidence provided at appeal and decide on the correct decision in your case. This is what you need representation on and asap as supportive evidence will need to be collected and a submission made stating your case before the tribunal date.

appeal tribunals are independant of any criminal prosecution or other action that may be taken against you if deliberate fraud is suspected, for instance administrative penalty, caution or prosecution. If this course might be taken you would normally have a taped interview under caution first.

Look for a welfare rights organistaion in your area to represent you, some cab's don't have the resources for appeal representation and some solicitors do not have detailed benefit knowledge to help you with this - which area do you live in, maybe someone knows of a good welfare rights in your area?

In the meantime start collecting evidence. Did your benefits stop in 08 when you informed of your change of circumstances? If not do you have receipts or proof that you informed them. Prior to the change of circumstances where was your boyfriend living? Do you have proof of this? Where was his mail going? Was bank accounts or credit registered at a different address. Does he have anything official from an address other than yours? All these things will help your rep in preparing a case.

Vader123

I can't see how anyone can offer subjective help without knowing the full details of the case and the evidence against the OP.

Offer help for representation, yes, but the circs are unknown.

Vader

Macro_3

Vader123 wrote: »

I can't see how anyone can offer subjective help without knowing the full details of the case and the evidence against the OP.

Offer help for representation, yes, but the circs are unknown.

Vader

Precisely. To suggest that it is an LA error etc on the evidence given is daft. To get to tribunal stage, the circs leading to an overpayment of this nature would have been scrutinised by appeals, audit and legal, possibly fraud too, and/or similar for the DWP no doubt if it was joint working. So either the OP's LA is taking a case to tribunal based on hearsay by a neighbour where the OP has been calc'ed in error and the mistake has not been noticed, despite scrutiny by the departments above, as stated by the OP, or there is an awful lot more to this case than there appears to be.

Either way, specialist legal advice is needed. Any speculation other than that is pointless.