The D&A Regs are for HB (and CTB) and are nothing to do with DWP’s investigation. You can only terminate for failure to provide information if it was you, not DWP, that asked for the information, because the information request can only come from HB Reg 86 – see reg 13 D&A Regs.
My view is DWP can only ask – not tell – you to suspend while they investigate an HB issue, and should then pass on any evidence that might revise the HB to you for a decision, because it’s not them that administers HB.
The answer is in your last paragraph: the legislative process has not been followed and it must be corrected by reinstating HB as the termination is unlawful. Taking a case on this basis to a tribunal is asking for trouble, IMHO, as the appellant will win and you will get told off; the judge may even mention in passing that a claim for maladministration could be made by the clmt. Especially if DWP’s investigation produced no evidence that HB was wrongly awarded.
