Home > Publications > Selected cases — Parliamentary > Selected Cases and Summaries of Completed Investigations - May - September 1998 > C.791/95
First Report Session 1998-99
Volume 3 - 1st Report - Session 1998-99
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SECURITY
Refusal to backdate payments of war disablement pension
Matter considered:
Mr K complained that the War Pensions Agency (WPA) refused to backdate payments of his war disablement pension (WDP) to the date when he first made a claim.
Summary of case
By his account Mr K suffered a temporary loss of hearing due to gunblast while serving on board a Royal Navy vessel in 1950. In October 1953 the WPA's medical advisers considered that Mr K had disabilities which were neither attributable to nor aggravated by service in the Royal Navy. Mr K appealed against that decision, and evidence was provided that threw some doubt on the diagnosis. His appeal was partly upheld in October 1954 by a Pensions Appeal Tribunal (PAT) who concluded that his hearing disability had been aggravated by service, and he was awarded a one-off lump sum WDP. He appealed against the low level of that assessment, arguing that he should be entitled to a weekly pension, but in May 1955 another PAT upheld the original award. Mr K received treatment for his loss of hearing in the 1950s and 1960s. In April 1985 he sought to re-open his claim for a weekly pension. WPA told Mr K that the findings of the PAT in 1955 were final and legally binding, and said that in view of the medical evidence it was not possible to authorise a further award. In December 1992 a specialist consultant examined Mr K and concluded that the original diagnosis had been incorrect. In January 1993 Mr K made a fresh claim for a WDP on the strength of the consultant's report. In view of the new evidence the 1954 PAT decision was set aside, and WPA awarded Mr K a weekly pension backdated to January 1987.
Findings
I found no fault with the way in which Mr K's claim was handled between 1953 and 1955, but concluded that it had been inadequately reviewed in 1985. In the circumstances I invited WPA to consider backdating Mr K's weekly WDP further than they had.
Remedy
WPA agreed to backdate Mr K's WDP award to April 1985 (when the then Member had raised the case with WPA on Mr K's behalf) and paid him arrears totalling £3,904.57 plus an ex gratia payment of £762.20 to compensate him for the loss of use of those arrears.
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