Caselaw summaries

Personal independence payment (PIP) – activity 9 (engaging with other people face-to-face) – an inability to engage with adults, irrespective of an ability to engage with children and young people, is sufficient to score points

Universal credit (UC) – child element – responsibility for a child and ‘normally living with’ test – not merely a test of whom child spends most time with

Pension credit (PC) – amount for severe disability where claimant entered care home but payment of attendance allowance (AA) incorrectly continued for several months – entitlement based on ‘receipt’ of AA, not by reference to date of admission to care home

Child benefit (CB) – national insurance number (NINO) requirement – child benefit

Jobseeker's allowance (JSA) – backdating for incorrect information by an ‘officer of the DWP’ – employee of A4e exercising delegated functions as a work programme provider not an ‘officer of the DWP’

Employment and support allowance (ESA) – tribunals – if a claimant requests an oral hearing but does not turn up, ‘it is not enough simply to check the tribunal records to see that they were properly notified of their hearing. It is also important to double-check whether any communications have been received from the claimant’

Employment and support allowance (ESA) - mobilising – wheelchair use – need to show reasonableness and make findings of fact about ability

Employment and support allowance (ESA) housing costs – supersession to award housing costs is always effective from the end of the qualifying period for such costs

Personal independence payment (PIP) – tribunals – should not assume that a claimant who has said that s/he is unable to attend a hearing that has been listed for hearing a considerable distance from her/his home would not want to attend a rescheduled hearing that was closer

Capital – legal ownership and beneficial ownership