The claimant appealed refusal of her claim for arrears of housing benefit.
Held: The appeal was allowed. The claim had been defective in having been made informally, but ‘the distribution of benefits is different from many other areas of civil law. It is concerned not simply with recognising rights or enforcing liabilities but also with sustaining members of the community whom Parliament has decided should be sustained through the welfare state.
Accordingly, where provision is made for defective claims, the function of ‘a claim’ is not only to meet conditions on which some right to a benefit depends. It may have a lesser objective, namely that of placing the authority which is required to scrutinise a claim in a position to know that a claim for a particular benefit is being made.
Here the provision to allow defective claims placed in the authority a duty to scrutinise a claim to establish what claims were included. There was no need for a claimant always expressly to set out each benefit claimed.
Lord Justice Mummery, Lady Justice Arden and Lord Justice Elias
[2009] EWCA Civ 1260, Times 27-Jan-2010, [2009] NPC 137
Bailii
Housing Benefit (General) Regulations 1987
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Regina v Medical Appeal Tribunal (North Midland Region), Ex parte Hubble 1958
The claimant sought to receive money out of insurance funds fed by contributions from all employers, insured persons and the Exchequer. The procedure for determining whether the claimant is entitled to a disability benefit was said to be more like . .
Cited – Investors Compensation Scheme Ltd v West Bromwich Building Society HL 19-Jun-1997
Account taken of circumstances wihout ambiguity
The respondent gave advice on home income plans. The individual claimants had assigned their initial claims to the scheme, but later sought also to have their mortgages in favour of the respondent set aside.
Held: Investors having once . .
Cited – Kerr v Department for Social Development (Northern Ireland) HL 6-May-2004
Wrongful Refusal of Benefits
The claimant was estranged from his family, but claimed re-imbursement of the expenses for his brother’s funeral. The respondent required him to establish that none of his siblings was in a better position than he to pay for the funeral, but he had . .
Cited – R(S) 1/63 SSC 1963
The claimant had written to make a claim under the Regulations: ‘I have received a letter about my National Insurance card. My card was lasted stamped by an employer on 4 July. I have not been employed since that date. Owing to illness I now have a . .
Cited – CG 3844/2006 SSC 2006
The tribunal considered whether an email asking for ‘information on whatever benefits I am entitled to’ amounted to a ‘claim’ for benefits.
Held: Commissioner Turnbull said: ‘In my judgment, and this is the crux of the case, the terms of the . .
Cited by:
Distinguished on facts – SG v HMRC (TC) UTAA 16-May-2011
Tax credits and family credit . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Benefits
Updated: 01 November 2021; Ref: scu.381661
