Removing appointee with DWP

HillStreetBlues

The legal text concerned is  either S33 2A or 2C  of The Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1987
2) Where the Secretary of State has made an appointment under paragraph (1)–
(a)he may at any time revoke it;
(b)the person appointed may resign his office after having given one month’s notice in writing to the Secretary of State of his intention to do so;
(c)any such appointment shall terminate when the Secretary of State is notified that a receiver or other person to whom paragraph (1)(c) or (d) applies has been appointed.
So the DWP  (working on behalf of the SoS) can revoke it (a)
Or another person has been appointed (c)
It's simply untrue that the only way  is for the appointee to resign as that's only one of the three options.

AFAIK having a POA will override an appointee as they can make legal decisions.

huckster

Have come across this before. Visiting officer should gather evidence and enable referral to Decision Maker to decide whether to remove the appointee.  But Decision Makers reluctant to make decision, therefore nothing happens. Eventually local Council Social Services get involved and with their help the appointee is removed or replaced.

Should not be this difficult, but it is, because often decisions don't get made until there is a level of satisfaction with support the claimant is receiving locally.

superM

DWP visited out property yesterday and agreed to assign me appointee to the claim. Claim will be updated in couple of days.

My mother in law also in receipt of pension credit which I didnt know.

There was severe disability premuim and carer premuim included in the pension credit which will be removed.

There will be an overpayment but it will take a few weeks for recalculations.

I understand she is not entitled to severe disability premuim because she is living with us. Howevere carer premuim why she was getting that? Is that when you looking after someone and receiving carers allowance? 

Unfortunately didnt click my mind at that time to ask. 

Thanks
MS

poppy12345

superM said:

 Howevere carer premuim why she was getting that? Is that when you looking after someone and receiving carers allowance? 

Yes, that's exactly what it is. Although Carers allowance is an overlapping benefit with state pension. So if your state pension is more than the carers allowance then you won't receive the carers allowance payment but you'll have an underlying entitlement to it, which would be the carers premium.

superM

Thank you. She does not receive state pension because there was no NI Paid so she isn't entitled to one. However pension Credit is based on income so she is entitled to it 

Can a person in receipt of disability benefit can look after another disable person and vice versa? 

So if there was a carers allowance then likely there would be an overpayment to pay back on that too.

She had an appointee which was responsible to inform DWP of any changes of circumstances. So wouldn't appointee should be responsible for the overpayment not her? 

Thanks 

elsien

Yes, it is possible for two disabled people to care for each other, depending on the nature of their disabilities.
ultimately though , your mother-in-law has had the money at least in the eyes of the DWP

superM

Thanks Elsien for your replies.

Overpayment may be around 2k with my quick calculations
 
I sent a letter to DWP in Sept. I was not aware what benefits she was in receipt of so I sent it to PIP I received no reply. 

After the phone call with DWP I was made aware she is getting Attendance Allowance. I written a letter again begining of Oct requesting change of appointee, change of bank details and address.

I also asked for the payments to be stopped until the matter is resolved. I enclosed copy of citizenship card and passport for ID purposes.  Payments still continued to go out and none of the details were updated. 

Now I think iit was DWP responsible to protect taxpayers money and put a hold on the benefit payment to avoid an overpayment.  It was not done. Surely payments from Oct to end of Nov wpuld not be responsibility of my mother in law? 

Thanks again 

superM

Anyone?  Thanks

elsien

May depend on the decision maker at the time.

 I had a case where someone’s mother who was appointee hadn’t been declaring some  income for her son, which should have been taken into account with the means tested benefits. She passed away before it was picked up on. I tried to argue that it wasn’t his mistake so he shouldn’t be responsible for repaying  it. Think it did get knocked off his benefits in the end but at very small amounts per week.

And if you weren’t the appointee at the time then putting a hold on benefits while they look into it could potentially have left your mother-in-law short of money.
I think you need to wait for a formal decision to come back with an amount and then look at an appeal mechanisms are open to you.

superM

DWP visited on 27 Nov. The visiting officer told me the bank details and appointee will be updated urgently within 3 wotking days.

They did not action anything until I called them on 4 December.  They updated Attendance Allowance but not the Pension Credit.

I called Pension services today and my bank details has been uodated now. They have written off payments from 11th Oct till now due to DWP delays.

I had to call carers allowance and asked them to put a stop on the claim so once thats been removed carer element will be adjusted on the pension credit.

The problen is due to DWP delays 600 pounds Winter Fuel payment has also been issued to previous appointee. I did send a letter Winter Fuel beginning of Nov but they did not change anything.

Is there anything can be done about the 600 pounds now?

Allot of money has been thrown away because of DWP delays.