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 e-mail sent in September 2001 cannot sensibly be read as making a claim for benefit. The statement that the Claimant [in that email] ‘would like information on whatever benefits I am entitled to’ was in my judgment no more than a request for information as to what benefits the Claimant was entitled to. It does not display an intention to claim benefits generally, still less any particular benefit. (If, for example, there had been some disadvantage to the Claimant in claiming benefits in England, the Claimant would have been perfectly entitled to say that she had not actually done so, but had merely asked for information as to what benefits she was entitled to).’
Judges:
Turnbull Comm
Citations:
Unreported 2006
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
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 by:
Cited – Novitskaya v London Borough of Brent and Another CA 1-Dec-2009
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 . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Benefits
Updated: 18 May 2022; Ref: scu.551001