“I understand that more recently the DLA unit automatically issues a broadcast via the interface between the DLA and IS computer systems to the local IS section advising that DLA has been awarded and that entitlement to the severe disability premium (SDP) should be considered. At the end of the award a further broadcast is made advising of the end of the DLA award. I also understand that some local IS sections maintain control within the IS system allowing not only the end date for DLA to be actioned, but also allowing regular checks on the other conditions of entitlement to SDP to be made. Although the broadcast from the DLA system is automated all the action at the local IS section is input to the IS system clerically.”
“Where it is determined that, whether fraudulently or otherwise, any person has misrepresented, or failed to disclose, any material fact and in consequence of the misrepresentation or failure –
“(h) for requiring any information or evidence needed for the determination of such a claim or of any question arising in connection with such a claim to be furnished by such person as may be prescribed in accordance with regulations;
“18. Pursuant to these powers, the Secretary of State has made theSocial Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1987 (SI 1987/1968 as amended). Regulation 7(1) deals with the duty to provide information at the time of the claim:
“… every person who makes a claim for benefit shall furnish such certificates, documents, information and evidence in connection with the claim, or any question arising out of it, as may be required by the Secretary of State …”
“(1) … every beneficiary and every person by whom … sums payable by way of benefit are receivable shall furnish in such manner and at such times as the Secretary of State … may determine … such information or facts affecting the right to benefit or to its receipt as the Secretary of State … may require …, and in particular shall notify the Secretary of State … of any change of circumstances which he might reasonably be expected to know might affect the right to benefit, or to its receipt, as soon as reasonably practicable after its occurrence, by giving notice in writing (unless the Secretary of State … determines in any particular case to accept notice given otherwise than in writing) of any such change to the appropriate office.””
“As a matter of common sense… if one poses the question: did the failure of the claimant to disclose the fact that his wife was in receipt of unemployment benefit have as at least one of its consequences the overpayment of the supplementary benefit?, the only reasonable answer that one can give is “yes”.”
“For the same reason the misrepresentation on the appellant’s review forms could properly be considered to be a cause of the overpayments, so that the overpayments were made “in consequence” of the misrepresentations, even if a further cause was a failure on the part of the Benefits Centre to take due account of the information provided by the local authority.”
“The reasoning that has led me to uphold the Commissioner’s conclusion would suggest that the Benefits Agency was entitled to recover overpayments not just for the two periods to which this appeal relates but for the entirety of the period covered by the appellant’s income support review forms. Payments were made throughout that period on the basis of repeated misrepresentations, and the misrepresentations would appear to have been a cause of the overpayments throughout. It is difficult to see why the receipt of information from the local authority in February 1997 and again in April 1999 broke the chain of causation, as the Commissioner expressed it in paragraph 14 of his decision. At most the failure to act on the information would seem to have been an additional cause of the overpayments as from the date of receipt of the information; but that would not preclude recovery of the overpayments. Since the decision was taken to claim overpayments only for the two specific periods, nothing turns on the point; but I mention it in order to make clear the implications of my judgment.”
“In the present case, I accept that the local office was in possession of the relevant information. Whether the memorandum from the incapacity benefit section to the income support section went astray and never reached the income support section, or whether it was received by the income support section but due to an oversight never acted upon is not known but in my opinion is immaterial. Ms Arnold invites me to infer that had the claimant disclosed the information of the cessation of entitlement to carer’s allowance to the local office, it would have been acted on. Putting it at its lowest, on the balance of probabilities that must be right, and is not called into question by the fact that on a single occasion the internal memorandum was not duly processed in one or other of the circumstances outlined above, and I find accordingly.”