(Extra Division, Inner House) Appeal by the Secretary of State against a decision of the Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber) raising the question of what is meant by ‘social support’ as that expression is used in Activity 9 descriptor c in Part 2 of Schedule 1 to the Social Security (Personal Independence Payment) Regulations 2013.
Held: the Secretary of State’s approach failed to recognise the potential for overlap between the ‘prompting’ and the ‘social support’ categories. They are not mutually exclusive categories. The critical distinction between descriptor 9b prompting and descriptor 9c support lay not in a difference in the nature of the help provided but in the fact that, with social support, there is a necessity for the help to come from a person trained or experienced in assisting people to engage in social situations. Having given the example of psychological support given by someone trained in psychology, which would clearly count as ‘social support’, it went on to say: ‘But there may be cases where the support is in the nature of encouragement or explanation but, because of the claimant’s mental state, will only be effective if delivered by someone who is trained or experienced in delivering that type of support to that individual. In such a case there will not be a qualitative difference in the help given, but the help can be regarded as ‘support’ because of the necessity for it to be provided by someone trained or experienced in delivering it.’
Judges:
Lord Brodie, Lord Drummond Young, Lord Glennie
Citations:
[2017] ScotCS CSIH – 57, 2018 SC 1, 2017 SLT 1045, 2017 GWD 29-468, [2019] WLR(D) 460
Links:
Statutes:
Social Security (Personal Independence Payment) Regulations 2013
Jurisdiction:
Scotland
Cited by:
Appeal from – Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v MM SC 18-Jul-2019
This appeal relates to personal independence payment, which is a non-means tested allowance paid to certain people with long term health problems or disability. The appeal’s focus is upon one of the markers used to determine whether a claimant’s . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Benefits
Updated: 16 April 2022; Ref: scu.593570
