Welfare Benefits

Welfare benefits law, quite literally, affects millions of people. It is an area which should be clear and accessible. In reality, the system is enormously complex. Our team is dedicated to demystifying welfare benefits law. Garden Court Chambers has a strong commitment to providing advice on social welfare issues across the areas of law covered by the Housing, Immigration, Family and Criminal law teams.

Under the public funding scheme currently in place under the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, members of the Welfare Benefits Team can provide the following legal services:

• written advice on applications for permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber) against a decision of a First-tier Tribunal
• representation at oral hearings before the Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber) (where exceptional funding is available)
• representation in the Court of Appeal in appeals against the Upper Tribunal
• representation in proceedings for judicial review

Welfare benefits decisions which are potentially amenable to judicial review include:

• the exercise of a statutory discretion (e.g. decisions to make interim payments while a claim is being processed)
• interlocutory decisions of a First-tier Tribunal (e.g. refusing to extend the time limit for a late appeal)
• decisions by the Upper Tribunal refusing permission to appeal

Members of the Welfare Benefits Team draft defences in possession proceedings where housing benefit issues are still outstanding. The Team also has expertise in advising on questions of eligibility to social assistance having regard to the individual's immigration status (including migrant workers and their families under EU law). This can include preparing legal opinions in care proceedings in the family courts where one of the parties is an EEA national or subject to immigration control.

Members of the Team are contributors to the social welfare section in Macdonald's Immigration Law and Practice and the Housing Benefit Update in Legal Action (the Legal Action Group's magazine), and regularly provide training to a range of organisations including Housing Law Practitioners Association, Immigration Practitioners Association and the Public Law Project.

Notable Cases

Court of Justice of the European Union

Dias (European citizenship) [2011] EUECJ C-325/09 (21 July 2011)
Free movement of persons - Directive 2004/38/EC - Article 16 - Right of permanent residence - Periods completed before the date of transposition of that directive - Legal residence - Residence based solely on a residence permit issued pursuant to Directive 68/360/EEC, without the conditions governing eligibility for any right of residence having been satisfied

Teixeira (European citizenship) [2010] EUECJ C-480/08 (23 February 2010)
Whether an EEA national who is both a former worker and the primary carer of her children who are in education, is eligible for homelessness assistance.

The Higher Courts

Burnip v Birmingham City Council & Anor [2012] EWCA Civ 629 (15 May 2012)
Test case on whether a failure of the housing benefit rules to differentiate between the disabled and able-bodied amounted to a breach of article 14 of the ECHR under the Thlimmenos principle.

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v Payne and Anor [2011] UKSC 60 (14 December 2011) - Test case in which the Supreme Court held that the Secretary of State has no power to recoup such social security debts both when a Debt Relief Order had been made and on the making of a bankruptcy order; R v Secretary of State for Social Security, Ex p Taylor and Chapman [1997] BPIR 505 (HC) overruled.

Scott v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2011] EWCA Civ 103, [2011] AACR 23 (21 January 2011) - State pension credit - minimum guarantee - meaning of "members of a religious order fully maintained by their order".

Sandhu v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2010] EWCA Civ 962 (10 June 2010) - Disability Living Allowance - Higher rate of the mobility component for a claimant who could only walk with the aid of crutches - Court's power to re-make a decision.

Novitskaya v London Borough of Brent and another [2009] EWCA Civ 1260 [2010] AACR 6 (1 December 2009)
Whether a request for benefits in general terms can constitute claim for housing benefit.

Barry v London Borough of Southwark [2008] EWCA Civ 1440 (19 December 2008)
Whether an EEA national was eligible for homelessness assistance as a worker where he had worked for two weeks at a tennis championship and sought to retain worker status.

Gargett, R (on the application of) v London Borough of Lambeth [2008] EWCA Civ 1450 (18 December 2008)
Whether a claimant can be entitled to a discretionary housing payment if they are in receipt of maximum housing benefit and council tax benefit.

The Upper Tribunal

AD v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2011] UKUT 307 (AAC) (29 July 2011) -- Whether alcohol and drug dependency constitute 'mental condition'.

DK v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2011] UKUT 230 (AAC) (26 May 2011) -- Tribunal's decision to go ahead with hearing in claimant's absence / whether overpayment decision properly made.

CP v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2011] UKUT 157 (AAC) (7 April 2011) -- Whether compensation to disabled claimant for death of mother when she was a child should be ignored as capital / whether failure to make special provision breached human rights.

RM v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (SF) [2010] UKUT 220 (AAC), [2011] AACR 8 (1 July 2010) - Human rights - funeral payment - whether statutory scheme discriminatory contrary to Article 14 of the Convention in case of Jewish funeral.

Civil Clerks

If you would like more information about our Welfare Benefits team email the clerks civilclerks@gclaw.co.uk
or call us on 020 7993 7600.

The team

Members of the Welfare Benefits team are listed below - click on their names to go to their profiles.

Barrister Year of Call Email Address James Bowen 1979 Send Email Jan Luba QC 1980 Send Email Stephen Cottle 1984 Send Email Bethan Harris 1990 Send Email Stephen Knafler QC 1993 Send Email Duran Seddon 1994 Send Email Adrian Berry 1998 Send Email Marina Sergides 2000 Send Email Tim Baldwin 2001 Send Email Desmond Rutledge 2001 Send Email Stephen Marsh 2005 Send Email Alex Grigg 2007 Send Email