Case completed April 2022.
Anna (not her real name) is a 65 year old lady who lives alone. She is a British national and has lived in Brent all of her life. She is a Brent Council tenant who has not been able to work for several years due to ill health.
Anna accessed BHCAC’s Outreach Welfare Benefits Advice session at the Willesden Green library. After a Work Capability Assessment carried out by Universal Credit, she had been informed through her journal that she was fit for work and that she had to seek work 35 hours a week.
Anna did not agree with the decision and was very nervous that she would be sanctioned because she would find looking for work full-time to be impossible due to her ill health.
BHCAC Caseworker took the case on and submitted a request for a Mandatory Reconsideration providing the grounds and medical evidence Caseworker believed showed that she was not well enough to work.
The Mandatory Reconsideration Notice did not change the original decision and disregarded our grounds.
Caseworker firmly believed this to be incorrect so submitted an appeal to the First-Tier Tribunal requesting that they find that she has Limited Capability for Work and Work Related Activity. Caseworker again submitted extensive medical evidence.
It took about three months to go to Tribunal. During this period BHCAC Caseworker had several meetings and conversations with Anna to support her and advise on how to approach the hearing, including requesting an adjournment when she suffered a bereavement.
Caseworker also spoke to her on the day of the hearing to provide additional support and to run through our grounds once again.
The Tribunal allowed the appeal acknowledging that our grounds for appeal were legitimate. She was found to have Limited Capability for Work and Work Related Activity. This decision was applied from March 2021 to April 2022.
As a result, Anna receives an extra £343 per month from Universal Credit and is not required to look for work. She also received a backdated payment of over £4000.
In addition to Caseworker’s work on her Universal Credit appeal, BHCAC also assisted her with an application for Personal Independence Payments.
She was awarded the standard rate of the Daily Living Component. She now receives £60 per week and a backdated payment of £1,540.
Anna is very happy with the outcome.
She stated that when she came to see BHCAC at Willesden Green library she had very little hope that the DWP decision could be changed and was suffering financial hardship which has been entirely alleviated by the support she received.