Teacher waited 17 years for injuries benefit

What happened

Mr A first applied for the benefit in 1993. Jobcentre Plus decided not to award it to him. He appealed to a tribunal the following year but it too dismissed his claim. From 2004 (when Mr A's father read about a legal case that meant that his son should have received the benefit), Mr A tried again to claim the benefit. However, Jobcentre Plus and the tribunals refused several times. They said the decision could not be changed because a tribunal decision had been made in 1994. Jobcentre Plus had incorrectly destroyed Mr A's papers so neither it nor a tribunal could say whether that original decision was right.

In 2010 Mr A's father found copies of some of the missing papers and appealed to the upper tribunal. The tribunal reversed the decision of the 1994 tribunal and so Jobcentre Plus finally paid Mr A his money 17 years after his original claim. However, it did not pay him interest on his benefit payment. Mr A's father complained to Jobcentre Plus and then the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) but both refused to award him interest. Mr A's father then complained to us.

What we found

Jobcentre Plus's original decision in 1993 on Mr A's claim was wrong because it was not in line with the relevant case law. And because Jobcentre Plus did not tell the tribunal about the case law, the tribunal did not have all the information it needed to make an informed decision.

Jobcentre Plus then missed several opportunities to correct its mistake and when it finally paid Mr A his benefit in 2010, it did not pay him interest on it.

ICE failed to consider all the circumstances of Mr A's case and to put right Jobcentre Plus's mistakes. It missed the exception in Jobcentre Plus's policy that said that interest could still be awarded if the original decision was wholly unreasonable or clearly incorrect, as it was in this case.

Putting it right

Jobcentre Plus and ICE apologised to Mr A. Jobcentre Plus paid him interest on the money that he missed out on from 1993 to 2010, along with interest from late 2010 to the present on the interest payment he should have received in 2010.

Jobcentre Plus and ICE each paid Mr A £500 for the significant frustration, distress and inconvenience this caused.