DWP 'claim closure' and UC overpayment due to failure to attend an interview

Use this template if all the following apply

• Your client has been notified that they've been overpaid UC and the amount is or appears to be their whole award
• Your client is no longer in receipt of UC
• The reason given by DWP is that your client was not entitled to UC because they failed to attend an interview
• Your client has requested a mandatory reconsideration of the decision and DWP have not replied at all or within a reasonable time. 

This letter assumes that (so can be changed)

• Your client is now in work and a deduction is being taken to recover the overpayment from their wages
• They had a good reason for not attending the interview(s)

The main legal arguments in this template are:

• Under R(C & W) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2015] EWHC 1607 (Admin), the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is under a duty to consider all claims for benefit within a “reasonable time.” What counts as a reasonable time depends on the circumstances, including the impact on the claimant and the complexity of the case.
• The duty to make a decision within a reasonable time applies equally to decisions to "revise" as to original decisions (under ss.8 and 9 Social Security Act 1998). DWP has failed to decide your client’s mandatory reconsideration request within a reasonable time.
• Further DWP had no power to revise the decision awarding your client UC because they failed to attend an interview.
• Regulation 9 UC, PIP, JSA and ESA (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations 2013/381 (D&A Regs) sets out a specific ground on which a decision can be revised at any time by the Secretary of State including where there has been an official error or a material error of fact. Failure to attend an interview is neither an official error nor a material error of fact.
• The power to require a claimant to attend interviews is set out in section 15 of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 (WRA). Under s.27 WRA, SSWP may impose a sanction in the event of non-compliance with a requirement to attend an interview. There is no power to revise a decision on entitlement.
• There is therefore no power in either the primary or secondary legislation for the DWP to revise a UC award decision for non-compliance with an interview requirement.

Information about your client

• name
• address
• national insurance number (NINo)
• date of birth (DoB)

Background facts

Such as:

• why your client claimed UC initially
• why your client did not attend the interview(s) (if known)
• the date your client's UC stopped and why
• any health difficulties or disabilities of your client or other family members
• any capacity issues of vulnerability your client has
• what financial hardship your client is experiencing as a result of the deduction from their wages (if relevant), including:
  • any risk to their being able to afford to pay for their housing, heating or food
  • any need to use food banks
  • any detriment to their health and welfare or to any of their family member’s health and welfare

Information relating to the decision

• the date of DWP's decision that your client was not entitled to the UC they received and has been overpaid, and the reason DWP has given
• details of any steps you or your client has already taken to try to resolve the issue
• the date your client requested a mandatory reconsideration

We've created this guide is to help you successfully use our judicial review pre-action letter templates: Guide to using CPAG's judicial review pre-action letter templates

Once you've finished your letter, please email it to us at: [email protected] before you send it to the lawyers acting for DWP/HMRC/your local authority. We'll try to reply as quickly as possible and will do so within 7 days.

If you have a client whose UC award has been 'closed' following a request to re-verify their ID, please get in touch at [email protected]

Requesting mandatory reconsideration

A mandatory reconsideration request should also be made as 'closing' a claim or award is an appealable decision. (See PP v SSWP (UC) [2020] UKUT 0109 (AAC) for confirmation. In this case, the Secretary of State had further not advised of appeal rights, and mandatory reconsideration was not required to exercise the claimant's right of appeal.)

Your client can also re-claim UC, but before they do so, they should download any documents relevant to their mandatory reconsideration request / appeal and take screen shots of their UC journal, as they are likely to lose access to their original journal as soon as a new claim is made.