I need a JR any ideas

[LAWFUL 0990]

Hi I need to JR the DWP .Has anyone got any ideas on how to obtain this without going through legal aid ?

[Amethyst]

Re: I need a JR any ideas

https://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads...ial-review.pdf


On what points of law ? ( or what is the case about and is a judicial review the right way to go ?)

[Openlaw15]

Re: I need a JR any ideas

Hi I need to JR the DWP .Has anyone got any ideas on how to obtain this without going through legal aid ?

Parliament Ombudsman is the better avenue can challenge DWP decisions, you'll need to go through your MP though, a cover letter is enough who'll then forward it to the Parl. Ombudsman. Judicial review is expensive and does not mean the judge will go against DWP decision-maker. It is only available in certain circumstances. too.

[LAWFUL 0990]

Re: I need a JR any ideas

Hi potentially
Breach of article 1 protocol 1 , article 14 , fair trial , failure to follow welfare reform act 2012 , failure to follow s.71(5A) of the Social SecurityAdministration Act 1992, plus negligence .EqA 2010
very Unusual case .
Consider when a overpayment is not an overpayment , Overpayment means an amount of relevant benefit paid” 71ZB(1) of the Act. If no overpayment has been made , what would a reasonable DWP do?

[Openlaw15]

Re: I need a JR any ideas

Hi potentially
Breach of article 1 protocol 1 , article 14 , fair trial , failure to follow welfare reform act 2012 , failure to follow s.71(5A) of the Social SecurityAdministration Act 1992, plus negligence .EqA 2010
very Unusual case .
Consider when a overpayment is not an overpayment , Overpayment means an amount of relevant benefit paid” 71ZB(1) of the Act. If no overpayment has been made , what would a reasonable DWP do?

Can you concisely put the facts or outline the main parts, thank you.

[LAWFUL 0990]

Re: I need a JR any ideas

Hi I will use this as an example , benefit cheque lost in the post.

An “Overpaymentmeans an amount of relevant benefit paid”71ZB(1) of the Act. The meaning of ‘paid’ (i) toGive (someone) money that is due forwork done, goods received, or a debt incurred (Oxford Dictionary).(ii) Handover or transfer the amount due of (a debt, wages, etc.) to someone: (OxfordDictionary) The Overpayment RecoveryGuide (ORG)

“Theterm ‘overpayment’ refers to any incorrectly made Social Security (SS) payment”
However where no transfer of funds has taken place, ie lost in the post , the DWP still maintain it is an overpayment. There is no transferred benefit from lost post , so how can this be?

[Openlaw15]

Re: I need a JR any ideas

Hi I will use this as an example , benefit cheque lost in the post.

An “Overpaymentmeans an amount of relevant benefit paid”71ZB(1) of the Act. The meaning of ‘paid’ (i) toGive (someone) money that is due forwork done, goods received, or a debt incurred (Oxford Dictionary).(ii) Handover or transfer the amount due of (a debt, wages, etc.) to someone: (OxfordDictionary) The Overpayment RecoveryGuide (ORG)

“Theterm ‘overpayment’ refers to any incorrectly made Social Security (SS) payment”
However where no transfer of funds has taken place, ie lost in the post , the DWP still maintain it is an overpayment. There is no transferred benefit from lost post , so how can this be?

How much was the cheque for and when was is supposedly sent. When were you aware that DWP had sent you a cheque whether it not or was received, to amount to an overpayment to you? What are the details of the overpayment? It sounds potentially something the Parliament Ombudsman would investigate. Parl Ombudmans covers civil service, ie DWP, Inland Revenue.

[LAWFUL 0990]

Re: I need a JR any ideas

Hi TheDWP Missing Payments Guide records
I. The burden of proof is on the DWP to prove that the customer has cashedtheir IOP(Instrument of Payment)or received payment into the customer’s nominated account;
II. The Secretary ofState’s duty is discharged only on encashmentof the Instrument of Payment (IOP) orwhen payment is received into the account nominated by the customer, not when it is posted or handed to thecustomer; and
III. Thecustomer does not have to prove that they did not cash the IOP; (Instrument ofPayment ) the DWP has to show that they did. This does not mean thatIOPs have to be replaced without thorough enquiry, searching and questioning incases of doubt. It does mean that immediate replacement is necessary if the customer states non receipt/encashment and there is no evidence ofpayment. Direct payment cannot go missing if the customer has providedcorrect account details and these have been recorded accurately on the relevantsystem. LO staff need to fully investigate this.

The F7 Register – Record of Girocheques reported as not received, lost,stolen or destroyed – retention 3yrs.
I have clarified because of other details , it is a JR.

[Openlaw15]

Re: I need a JR any ideas

Hi TheDWP Missing Payments Guide records
I. The burden of proof is on the DWP to prove that the customer has cashedtheir IOP(Instrument of Payment)or received payment into the customer’s nominated account;
II. The Secretary ofState’s duty is discharged only on encashmentof the Instrument of Payment (IOP) orwhen payment is received into the account nominated by the customer, not when it is posted or handed to thecustomer; and
III. Thecustomer does not have to prove that they did not cash the IOP; (Instrument ofPayment ) the DWP has to show that they did. This does not mean thatIOPs have to be replaced without thorough enquiry, searching and questioning incases of doubt. It does mean that immediate replacement is necessary if the customer states non receipt/encashment and there is no evidence ofpayment. Direct payment cannot go missing if the customer has providedcorrect account details and these have been recorded accurately on the relevantsystem. LO staff need to fully investigate this.

The F7 Register – Record of Girocheques reported as not received, lost,stolen or destroyed – retention 3yrs.
I have clarified because of other details , it is a JR.

Is OIP defined as a cheque though, as it was cheque that was lost, right? If you do not quote the respondent (ie self, whomever), I/ we have no way of knowing you are directing my/ our specific attention, which could mean we do not answer as soon as we could otherwise have done.

[Amethyst]

Re: I need a JR any ideas

Was it a cheque or a giro ?

[LAWFUL 0990]

Re: I need a JR any ideas

A giro which has a cheque number .It can only be cashed at the post office , however when the BoP is reversed the DWP have to check the Audit trail, they did not do that either.

In CDLA/2696/2014 Jude Perez said @ 61 and 62 “ whetherthe Secretary of State is clearly the person in control of evidence aboutreporting procedures and other information-sharing procedures. If the Secretary of State does not providethe evidence he is directed to provide (whether as to visits or as toinformation-sharing), and especially if that evidence still exists, thetribunal will need to consider whether he has failed to discharge his burdenregarding causation for any of the period of the overpayment. The burden ofdisproving the allegation often the burden of disproving the allegation oftenlies upon the opponent (R v Edwards[1975] QB 27, [1974] 2 All ER 1085, CA). This was applied in a different context in Wood and another v Inspectorof Taxes [2006] EWCA Civ 26. Thequestion of drawing presumptions in relation to evidence

[Openlaw15]

Re: I need a JR any ideas

A giro which has a cheque number .It can only be cashed at the post office , however when the BoP is reversed the DWP have to check the Audit trail, they did not do that either.

In CDLA/2696/2014 Jude Perez said @ 61 and 62 “ whetherthe Secretary of State is clearly the person in control of evidence aboutreporting procedures and other information-sharing procedures. If the Secretary of State does not providethe evidence he is directed to provide (whether as to visits or as toinformation-sharing), and especially if that evidence still exists, thetribunal will need to consider whether he has failed to discharge his burdenregarding causation for any of the period of the overpayment. The burden ofdisproving the allegation often the burden of disproving the allegation oftenlies upon the opponent (R v Edwards[1975] QB 27, [1974] 2 All ER 1085, CA). This was applied in a different context in Wood and another v Inspectorof Taxes [2006] EWCA Civ 26. Thequestion of drawing presumptions in relation to evidence

When you're citing cases the neutral citation is enough, ie "[2006] EWA Civ 26." The relevant person can find the case easily by the neutral one. My advice would be to contact your MP and refer the matter to the Parliament Ombudsman, rather than an un-necessary judicial review. What do you want, is it the decision changed and the overpayment (i suppose they have garnered through your social security benefits) returned or the overpayments stopped, whichever remedy applies to you. Well the Parl Ombudsman can do that and give you compensation to for the inconvenience, ie maladministration. So, my question is why you think you need a judicial review? Alternatively, you could ask to speak to the regional supervisor for decision-making. Alternatively, you could appeal to a social security tribunal depending on the dates of overpayment, ie within month or 3 months of the problem?

[Kati]

Re: I need a JR any ideas

Just out of curiosity [MENTION=80250]LAWFUL 0990[/MENTION] ... have you gone through the DWP's own complaints procedure? I don't think you can go to the Parliamentary Ombudsman until you've done that (and gone through ICE (Independent Complaints Examiner) first - https://www.gov.uk/government/organi...ints-procedure

How to complain

If you think we’ve got something wrong, let the office you have been dealing with know as soon as possible. We’ll do our best to put things right.

You can contact us by phone, in person or in writing. When you contact us, please tell us:
your National Insurance number – unless you are an employer
your full name, address and contact numbers
what happened, when it happened and how it affected you
what you want to happen to put things right

You can also make an online complaint about Jobseeker’s Allowance and Universal Credit


Who to contact

Use the contact details at the top of any letters we’ve sent you or use the Who to contact details below.

What happens next

If we’ve made a mistake, we’ll put it right as soon as possible and apologise immediately. If you’ve experienced unfair treatment or suffered financially, we may consider making a special payment to you.

If you’re not satisfied with our initial response, or we need to investigate further, you can ask for your complaint to go to a Complaint Resolution Manager.

They will contact you, usually by phone, to talk about your complaint and agree how to investigate it. They will contact you again within 15 working days to tell you the outcome or when you can expect a response, if it will take longer.
If the Complaint Resolution Manager doesn’t resolve your complaint

If the Complaint Resolution Manager doesn’t resolve your complaint, we’ll ask you if you want your complaint to go to a senior manager. If you agree, the senior manager will ask for an independent internal review of your complaint. They will contact you within 15 working days to tell you the outcome or when you can expect a response, if it will take longer.
If you’re not satisfied

If you’ve been through all our complaints stages, received our final response and still aren’t satisfied, you can ask the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) to look at your complaint. You must contact them within 6 months of getting our final response and send them a copy of it.

The Independent Case Examiner can’t look at matters of law or government policy. They won’t look at benefit or maintenance decisions, for example, because you can appeal against these.

If they accept your complaint, they will look at what happened and what we did about it. If they think we should have done more, they will ask us to put matters right. They will act as an impartial referee and you will not be charged for their service.

If you don’t agree with the response from the Independent Case Examiner, you can ask your MP (or any other MP) to send your complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman .

https://www.gov.uk/government/collec...k-and-pensions

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) encourages staff to respond to feedback they receive about the services we provide. This helps us identify and resolve most issues quickly, at the first point of contact. If it isn’t possible to do so, the department has a well-developed complaints procedure.

If a complainant is unhappy with the final response from the Department for Work and Pensions, they can ask the Independent Case Examiner (ICE), to investigate their complaint. You can read the annual ICE reports about these investigations.

If a complainant doesn’t agree with the response from ICE, they can ask their MP (or any other MP) to send their complain to the Parliamentary Ombudsman .

[Openlaw15]

Re: I need a JR any ideas

Just out of curiosity @LAWFUL 0990 ... have you gone through the DWP's own complaints procedure? I don't think you can go to the Parliamentary Ombudsman until you've done that (and gone through ICE (Independent Complaints Examiner) first - https://www.gov.uk/government/organi...ints-procedure

https://www.gov.uk/government/collec...k-and-pensions

DWP first investigate it.. I assume this has taken place hence Op's interest in judicial review. ICE seemingly is a good alternative to the Parl Ombudsman, JR view, in any event. Thanks Kati.

[charitynjw]

Re: I need a JR any ideas

https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/pd_pre-action_conduct#6.1

PRACTICE DIRECTION – PRE-ACTION CONDUCT AND PROTOCOLS

Introduction

1. Pre-action protocols explain the conduct and set out the steps the court would normally expect parties to take before commencing proceedings for particular types of civil claims. They are approved by the Master of the Rolls and are annexed to the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR). (The current pre-action protocols are listed in paragraph 18.)
2. This Practice Direction applies to disputes where no pre-action protocol approved by the Master of the Rolls applies.
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Objectives of pre-action conduct and protocols

3. Before commencing proceedings, the court will expect the parties to have exchanged sufficient information to—

(a) understand each other’s position;
(b) make decisions about how to proceed;
(c) try to settle the issues without proceedings;
(d) consider a form of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to assist with settlement;
(e) support the efficient management of those proceedings; and
(f) reduce the costs of resolving the dispute.


Imho this would include participating in any complaints/grievance procedures as applicable before going to court.