HYM v The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

Facts

HYM, born in 1949, received Disability Living Allowance for life from 1993, including the higher rate mobility component, following a permanent spinal injury. Having reached pensionable age, he was transferred to personal independence payment (PIP) in 2016 through regulation 27 of the Personal Independence Payment (Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2013, and was awarded both components at the enhanced rate. On 14 October 2020 the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) superseded that award, removing the mobility component because HYM had moved abroad, but kept the daily living component. HYM returned to the UK in early 2022 and asked for the mobility component to be restored. DWP's decision of 16 June 2022, revised on 4 November 2022, refused it. The First-tier Tribunal dismissed HYM's appeal on 19 March 2024, holding that he was over pension age and had no route to regain the component. It did not consider regulation 27A of the Personal Independence Payment (Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2013. Upper Tribunal Judge Butler gave permission to appeal and treated the case as raising an issue of wider legal significance. The Secretary of State opposed the appeal, and HYM was represented by his husband, YJO.