Albert Smith v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

Facts

Mr Albert Smith claimed universal credit and sought to have his claim backdated. The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions had, in October 2023, brought his previous award of universal credit to an end, and Mr Smith later made a fresh claim which he asked to be treated as made earlier. The question for the First-tier Tribunal (Social Entitlement Chamber) was whether the time for claiming could be extended under regulation 26(2) and (3) of the Universal Credit etc (Claims and Payments) Regulations 2013. Sitting at Manchester, Judge P Johnson held on 2 April 2025 that none of the specified circumstances applied: the delay was not attributable to the expiry of entitlement to jobseeker's allowance or employment and support allowance, nor to the absence of a notification of expiry of an existing benefit, nor to the official computer system being inoperative, and it was not the appellant's disability or illness that prevented him from claiming earlier but his mistaken belief, based on advice he had received, that he should claim contribution-based employment and support allowance. The tribunal considered the regulations gave it no residual discretion. Mr Smith was given permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal on three grounds, and the appeal was decided on the papers.