Where a new claim has been treated as ‘defective’ as relevant information was not provided. If that information is then provided within the one month appeal period and they have given a good reason as to why they were late responding; when the claim is reinstated using the original application form, should the claim be assessed as a ‘new claim’ or a ‘change in circumstances’ for stats purposes, as the original defective claim has already been counted once?
I’m getting a little confused, as the training notes we received from our software provider state that “if the claimant rectifies the defective claim within the appeal period this must be treated as a further new claim for statistical purposes”.
However, I’ve been reading through circular A13/2009 and Appendix 4 No. 5 states “should the decision on the claim be ‘revised’ with the revised decision that the claim should have been successful, it will be treated as a change event and recorded in HB/CTB Field 254 under Option 12 – Outcome of appeal/reconsideration/revision’. The revision to the claim will not count towards the indiciator”.
I’m not sure if the previous parargraph only covers a claim that has been assessed awarding ‘nil’ entitlement, or if it covers a ‘defective’ claim also.
Any advice you can give me will be much appreciated, before I contact the software provider and make a fool of myself!!
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