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Full-Text Articles in Law
Benefit Overpayments, The Common Law And Human Rights, Mel Cousins
Benefit Overpayments, The Common Law And Human Rights, Mel Cousins
Mel Cousins
This article examines the issue of benefits overpayments in UK social security law. Current estimates put the level of overpayments due to error (as opposed to fraud) at about £2 billion per annum. Concern about his issue has led to the publication of a DWP statement of strategy and an attempt by DWP to use the common law to recover overpaid benefits. The article looks at a number of recent court decisions which have important implications for UK practice.
Secretary Of State For Work And Pensions V. Sister Is, Mel Cousins
Secretary Of State For Work And Pensions V. Sister Is, Mel Cousins
Mel Cousins
This case before the Upper Tribunal concerned the rules of the state pension credit (SPC) which, in effect, provide that ‘members of religious orders’ who are ‘fully maintained by their order’ have no entitlement to a state pension credit. As the Three-Judge Panel pointed out this is the rule ‘regardless of the actual amount of their income or their other circumstances’. The case concerned both the interpretation of these two phrases and – assuming the Panel found that they applied to the claimants – the compatibility of such an approach with the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention issue).
Human Rights, Anti-Discrimination And Social Security Benefits: Recent Uk Case Law, Mel Cousins
Human Rights, Anti-Discrimination And Social Security Benefits: Recent Uk Case Law, Mel Cousins
Mel Cousins
Since the adoption of the Human Rights Act 1998, challenges to UK social security law on the basis of the European Convention on Human Rights have become common - especially under the anti-discrimination provisions of Article 14. However, few of these challenges have been successful and, in general, the English courts have shown a poor understanding of the principles of human rights law. The recent decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in Stec (2005) 41 EHRR SE 295 and the House of Lords in RJM (2008) UKHL 63 have clarified important issues including the material scope of the …