Terms & Conditions

[ig2kbar]

Morning all, comments on this will be greatly appreciated – bit confused on this one 😳 – This is the scenario. Claimant and his partner apply for Council Tax benefit on 20.07.2006 – the form indicated that his partner arrived from Pakistan on 19.02.2005 – her passport showed that she had indefinite leave to remain BUT she had no NINO. This is where the fun starts in light of Comm decision CH/3801/2004 – Scott Wilson. Benefit was refused and rightly or wrongly at that time the LA refused to send the DCI 1LA as it was interpreted that in order to fulfil the requirements of the legislation SHE had to make to application for the NINO (she does not work) – the customer appealed with representation from Community Advice Centre – culminating in the LA sending a DCI 1LA 13.11.2006 . Customer visited the offices again on 20.12.2006 with evidence that they had been awarded tax credits – tax credit letter dated 15.12.2006 – awarding them tax credits from 21.09.2006 – look like they had given partner a “dummy” reference starting with “OO” – she also provided evidence that a NINO had been allocated to her on correspondance dated 05.12.2006. So??? do they need to reclaim and request backdating to date NINO has been allocated? or backdate to date NINO was applied for – can the original claim form come into play in any way – any help- thoughts please 🙂

[Anonymous]

Is the original claim still open: is the decision to reefuse benefit still subject to local reconsideration/appeal? It sounds like that might be the case – there doesn’t seem to have been a definitive answer to the application for revision as yet.

That means that you could if you wanted to take the view that the claimant has finally complied with s1(1A) & (1B) and allow the original claim.

The alternative is to say that claim failed because s1(1A) & (1B) were not satisfied within a reasonable time. There is still the possibility of an out-of-time appeal against that decision, and depending on where the revision application has got to the time limit for bringing an appeal might be refreshed in any case if and when you turn the application down. Subject to that, if the original claim has been finally rejected, a new claim accompanied by the NINO could be backdated, the good cause being the fact that the claimant did not expect to have to make a fresh claim while still pursuing an application for revision of the refusal of the original claim.

Indeed, you might take the view that any protests/representations received throughout the second half of 2006 ought properly to be interpreted as a claim if appropriate – you cannot expect the claimant to appreciate what particular stage of adjudication has been reached. Let substance triumph over form.

[ig2kbar]

Thanks for that very comprehensive response Peter – you are right – the appeal has not been responded to so is still subject to revision – my only question – apologies if this sounds stupid – but thought I had read somewhere that NINO is only applicable from date it was applied for – does that make sense? at what point does the NINO become binding on the claim – does it matter that claim made in July but NINO allocated in December 😳

[Anonymous]

The way I read it, providing a NINO or applying for one is something that the claimant must do as part of the process of making a claim. It’s a similar kind of thing to providing supporting evidence – you will allow a reasonable time for the claimant to provide supporting evidence in order for the original claim to be valid. The same goes for NINOs as I see it.

It’s not like, say, capital where the claimant can only be entitled to benefit from the point when his or her capital dips below £16,000. Possesssion of a NINO is not a condition of entitlement from week to week – if it was, it would be in the Contributions and Benefits Act along with the means test rules. But instead, NINOs are in s1 of the Administration Act, which requires a claim to be made in order for benefit to be awarded. As part of the process of making that claim, the claimant either has t provide or apply for a NINO. Particularly where applying for a NINO is necessary, this is bound to take a little while. It’s for you to judge whether you think the application was made promptly enough to support the original claim: if you think the delay was excessive, you will stand by your decision to reject that claim (subject to appeal); if you don’t, then the claim is valid from the date it was originally made.

[Author]

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