Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v PL

A claimant who is barred by the SDP Gateway from claiming Universal Credit cannot obtain a retrospective award of a legacy benefit merely because the Department for Work and Pensions should have applied the Gateway. A Universal Credit claim cannot be transformed into a claim for income-related employment and support allowance where no statutory interchange mechanism applies. A legal error in deciding a Universal Credit claim does not automatically make the resulting decision void ab initio. The appropriate remedy may instead involve revision for official error, subject to the applicable statutory machinery. Tribunals have no jurisdiction to award compensation for maladministration. Where no further material facts require determination, the Upper Tribunal may set aside the First-tier Tribunal’s decision and re-make it rather than remit the case.

The claimant had previously received income-related employment and support allowance and housing benefit, both including the Severe Disability Premium. After release from custody, he claimed Universal Credit on 10 December 2019. The Secretary of State made a Universal Credit award, but the First-tier Tribunal found that the claimant was barred from claiming Universal Credit under the SDP Gateway. It nevertheless directed the Secretary of State to treat the Universal Credit claim as a claim for income-related employment and support allowance.

The Secretary of State appealed to the Upper Tribunal, arguing that no statutory provision permitted that conversion. The central issues were whether the claimant was barred from claiming Universal Credit and whether the First-tier Tribunal had lawful power to direct a retrospective legacy-benefit claim.

1. The appeal was allowed. The First-tier Tribunal’s decision involved an error of law. It was set aside under section 12(2)(a) of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, and the decision was re-made under section 12(2)(b)(ii).
2. Under regulation 4A(1) of the Universal Credit (Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2014, a claimant could not claim Universal Credit where, within the relevant period, the claimant was entitled to an existing benefit including the Severe Disability Premium and continued to satisfy the relevant eligibility conditions. Housing benefit was an existing benefit for this purpose. The First-tier Tribunal was entitled to find that the claimant remained entitled to housing benefit including the Severe Disability Premium when he claimed Universal Credit.
3. The First-tier Tribunal nevertheless erred by directing that the Universal Credit application be treated as a claim for income-related employment and support allowance. Entitlement to benefit is ordinarily conditional upon a claim, as provided by section 1 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992. The claimant had made no fresh claim for income-related employment and support allowance.
4. There was no statutory basis for converting a Universal Credit claim into a claim for income-related employment and support allowance. Regulation 9 and Schedule 1 to the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1987 provide for interchange only in respect of specified benefits, and Universal Credit is not included. The relevant Universal Credit decision-making regulations contain no equivalent mechanism.
5. The processing of a Universal Credit claim contrary to the SDP Gateway did not make the resulting decision void ab initio. At most, the decision was open to revision for official error, although no such revision had occurred. Any possible financial loss caused by maladministration could not be addressed by the tribunal.
6. As no further material facts required determination, remittal was unnecessary. The only lawful decision available on the facts was to dismiss the claimant’s appeal against the Secretary of State’s decision of 10 May 2020.

• Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber): allowed the Secretary of State’s appeal, set aside the First-tier Tribunal’s decision under section 12(2)(a) of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, and re-made the decision under section 12(2)(b)(ii).
• First-tier Tribunal (Social Entitlement Chamber): on 24 March 2022 allowed the claimant’s appeal against the Universal Credit decision and directed that the claim be treated as a claim for income-related employment and support allowance.