Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v PL
[2023] UKUT 288 (AAC)
PR v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions & Anor
30 January 2023
[2023] UKUT 34 (AAC)
Upper Tribunal
A woman couldn't get housing benefit because of complicated rules around Universal Credit and a special gateway. Even though things were unfair, the judge said the rules didn't allow her to get paid earlier, so her appeal failed.
Key Facts
- •The appellant was entitled to income-related ESA with a severe disability premium, but this premium would be lost if she claimed Universal Credit.
- •Universal Credit was the only way to claim housing benefit in her area.
- •Her PIP was ended, causing her to lose the severe disability premium.
- •The Severe Disability Gateway was introduced, allowing claimants with the premium to claim housing benefit instead of Universal Credit.
- •The appellant's PIP was reinstated, and her ESA premium was retrospectively reinstated.
- •The appellant made several housing benefit claims, seeking backdating to the start of the Severe Disability Gateway.
Legal Principles
Housing benefit backdating is limited to one month under regulation 83(12) and (12A) of the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 unless a new ESA claim was made within one month of the ESA claim.
Housing Benefit Regulations 2006
The definition of 'claim for benefit' in regulation 2(1)(c) of the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1987 does not include applications for revisions to increase benefits such as the severe disability premium.
Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1987
A document's classification as a claim depends on its substance, not merely its form.
Investors Compensation Scheme Ltd v West Bromwich Building Society [1998] 1 WLR 896
Outcomes
The appeal was dismissed.
The First-tier Tribunal's decision involved no error of law. The appellant's claim for backdating to January 2019 failed under regulation 83 of the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006, and the later claim for reconsideration was correctly backdated by one month. A separate claim was found not to exist.