FT Appeal - PIP and Isle of Man

Morning folks

I have had a novel (at least from my experience) case dropped on our service with a very short turnaround time. I suspect that I already know the answer to my query, but would value a second outlook.

I have a client who had moved to her home county (in the UK) in 2019 following an 8-year residence in the Isle of Man. Upon arriving home, the client claimed PIP. They were refused based on not meeting the points threshold for either components, and they then took this to Tribunal.

My understanding is that the client was successful, but they claim that the DWP had “backtracked”. Instead of awarding my client from 2019, they were instead awarded from 2021 (presumably under the past presence rule). Without sight of the judgment, I cannot determine if there was more to the appeal than simply not meeting the points threshold.

I would really value clarification on s.16 of the Regs. 16(a) and (b) explicitly states GB, but (c) makes a distinction of UK and crucially the Isle of Man. Could my client have failed the past presence test in this scenario?

It sounds very much like a PPT failure.

The Past Presence Test from reg 16(b) requires you to have been present in Great Britain for 2 of the past 3 years.

The Isle of Man is not part of Great Britain, so your client failed that test until 2021 and that would have been the earliest a PIP entitlement could arise.

Confusingly the separate requirement from reg 16(c) requires that you are habitually resident in the UK, ROI, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands - sometimes this is called the “Common Travel Area”. Your client would have passed that test, as on any view she was habitually resident in the Common Travel Area. But as she failed the PPT, it didn’t count for anything.

Elliot Kent - 07 September 2021 12:01 PM

It sounds very much like a PPT failure.

The Past Presence Test from reg 16(b) requires you to have been present in Great Britain for 2 of the past 3 years.

The Isle of Man is not part of Great Britain, so your client failed that test until 2021 and that would have been the earliest a PIP entitlement could arise.

Confusingly the separate requirement from reg 16(c) requires that you are habitually resident in the UK, ROI, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands - sometimes this is called the “Common Travel Area”. Your client would have passed that test, as on any view she was habitually resident in the Common Travel Area. But as she failed the PPT, it didn’t count for anything.

Surely though the DWP can’t simply identify another separate ground to disallow the claim after the FtT has made a judgment of entitlement - at the very least, they need to challenge that decision through the UT?

And if they didn’t have a problem with past presence before, why is is suddenly a live issue now?

I dunno. I really don’t think there is enough clarity to comment on the procedural side and I was just sticking to the law of it.

Yes in theory if there is a decision notice which says he is entitled to it then he should be paid it, but it really shouldn’t be too difficult for the DWP to get the decision notice corrected.

There’s a reciprocal arrangement between the IoM and Britain that means presence in one territory counts as presence in the other for the purposes of AA, DLA and CA, I think.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1977/2150/schedule/1

Less clear whether it also applies to PIP.

Thanks for the responses, I appreciate it.

James Craig - 07 September 2021 03:53 PM

There’s a reciprocal arrangement between the IoM and Britain that means presence in one territory counts as presence in the other for the purposes of AA, DLA and CA, I think.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1977/2150/schedule/1

Less clear whether it also applies to PIP.

This is a nice find. Though this is certainly not consistent with the PIP (or AA) regs. Interestingly, the residence/presence test for DLA in the Isle of Man is as follows;

You must:

be ordinarily resident and present in the Island at the time you make your claim
have been present in the Island or in the United Kingdom for at least 104 weeks within the 156 weeks immediately before you make your claim

Unless there is a statutory definition of Great Britain that somehow includes the Isle of Man, I concur with the observations above.