Northern Ireland - Social Security and Child Support Commissioners' Decisions

[1995] NISSCSC A33/95(DLA) (3 January 1996)

 


Application No: A33/95(DLA)

SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION (NORTHERN IRELAND) ACT 1992

SOCIAL SECURITY CONTRIBUTIONS AND BENEFITS

(NORTHERN IRELAND) ACT 1992

SOCIAL SECURITY (CONSEQUENTIAL PROVISIONS)

(NORTHERN IRELAND) ACT 1992

DISABILITY LIVING ALLOWANCE

Application by the above-named claimant for

leave to appeal to the Social Security Commissioner

on a question of law from the decision of the

Belfast Disability Living Allowance

dated 28 February 1994

DETERMINATION OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY COMMISSIONER

1. This is an application by the claimant against the decision of an Adjudication Officer on review which withdrew from her disability living allowance (DLA) which had been previously granted.
2. The circumstances are such that the Adjudication Officer made a decision on 17 November 1992 awarding her the higher rate of the mobility component of DLA from 10 September 1992 to 9 September 1993. Claimant then wrote a letter requesting an extension of the current award in order that she might get an invalid car. That letter was accepted as a request for a review and as a result a different Adjudication Officer reviewed the decision of 17 November 1992 awarding her DLA and revised it so as to disallow the benefit from and including 10 September 1992.
3. Claimant appealed against that decision and the Tribunal upheld the decision of the Adjudication Officer's review. It would appear that claimant's condition has deteriorated since the review because she has been awarded higher rate mobility and the middle rate care allowance from January 1995.
4. Claimant now seeks leave to appeal to the Commissioner against the decision of a Disability Appeal Tribunal. The only grounds upon which she sought leave was that a letter from a Social Worker in the Antrim new hospital which was submitted to the Tribunal was not referred to by the Tribunal nor in her opinion was it read by the Tribunal.
5. I arranged an oral hearing but no further information was available. The Adjudication Officer at the hearing was represented by Mr Shaw who argued that claimant's application had not raised any point of law in which the Tribunal had erred.
6. I have considered the decision of the Tribunal and the evidence upon which it based its decision and while a different Tribunal may well have come to a different decision, nevertheless the Tribunal is entitled to come to the decision to which it came on the evidence before it. I am satisfied therefore that no error of law occurred in the proceedings.
7. The application is therefore dismissed.

(Signed):C.C.G. McNally

COMMISSIONER

3 January 1996