Yitty Friedman v The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions & Anor

Facts

The claimant, Yitty Friedman, and her husband, Moshe Friedman, were joint claimants of universal credit. On 3 September 2024 the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions decided that they were not entitled to universal credit because the claimant had failed to accept her claimant commitments; that decision was reconsidered but not revised on 27 November 2024. The couple appealed to the First-tier Tribunal (Social Entitlement Chamber), explaining that they had been on holiday with intermittent internet access and that, unlike on previous occasions, they had received no text or email prompt alerting them to the computer-generated commitment placed in their journal on 26 August 2024. The Tribunal, sitting at Sutton on 25 March 2025 before Judge Grewal, proceeded in the absence of the couple and of any presenting officer, and refused the appeal, finding that no exceptional circumstance excused the failure and that once the deadline for acceptance passed the claim fell to be closed. District Tribunal Judge Harrington granted permission to appeal on 21 July 2025, considering it arguable that the Tribunal had erred as to what amounts to the "most up-to-date" version of a claimant commitment where the latest commitment merely repeats an earlier, accepted one. On 27 May 2026 the Upper Tribunal substituted Yitty Friedman as appellant and added Moshe Friedman as second respondent. The Secretary of State supported the appeal.