Income support suspended

sulkisu

I just wanted to update this thread in the hope that it will be useful for others in a similar situation.

Following on from my last post, my cousin was asked to confirm in writing that she was a lone parent with a child under five and that she did not return to work due to childcare problems.

She did this and has now had her claim for IS reinstated - it has also been backdated to the date that it was suspended.

The fact that she has a job to return to was not an issue - they do not consider her to be in remunerative employment. It is still unclear why her support was suspended in the first place, especially as she had been claiming since 2012. Her daughter has a development delay and attends therapy sessions three times a week, which might have had an impact on the decision but needless to say, it is a weight off of her mind.

missapril75

sulkisu wrote: »

The fact that she has a job to return to was not an issue - they do not consider her to be in remunerative employment. It is still unclear why her support was suspended in the first place, especially as she had been claiming since 2012.

Nice to see it resolved.
I would guess someone just read something about remunerative work or not availing themselves of an income and put their own definition on it - just as in football when offside is considered and people put their own definition of "gaining an advantage" whereas the official definitions are very specific - but it is strange how it was picked up this far into a claim.

My best guess is that being a career break, when the claim was originally processed, someone put some kind of marker for a future date to see if there had been a return to work. Perhaps when that date came up, someone then thought "hang on a mo" and then erred in applying their own definition rather than an official one.

I've seen it happen and it's more likely to happen with something out of the norm like this.