Decision Summary Information

Back to Results | Search Again | Most Recent Decisions

Neutral Citation Number:
Reported Number:	R(IB)1/03
File Number:	CSIB 877 2001
Appellant:
Respondent:
Judge/Commissioner:	Judge D. J. May Q.C.
Date Of Decision:	02/04/2002
Date Added:	20/06/2002
Main Category:	Incapacity benefits
Main Subcategory:	incapable of work
Secondary Category:
Secondary Subcategory:
Notes:	Treating as capable - whether provision of meals and linen to paying guests "domestic tasks carried out in his own home." The claimant had been in receipt of incapacity benefit. Following disclosure by her that she provided board and lodging, comprising bed, breakfast and evening meals and changing bed linen, for foreign students during the summer months, her award was reviewed on the basis of a change of circumstances. In particular, the decision maker decided that, in respect of certain dates, the claimant was to be treated as capable of work because she had worked and did not fall into an exempt category for the purposes of regulations 16 and 17 of the Social Security (Incapacity for Work) (General) Regulations 1995 (the "regulations"). As a result an overpayment of benefit had been made which was recoverable from the claimant. The claimant's appeal to an appeal tribunal was upheld. The tribunal considered that the services provided by the claimant to the foreign students was not work but came within the scope of domestic tasks carried out by the claimant in her own home. The Secretary of State appealed to the Commissioner. Held, allowing the appeal, that: 1. the provision of meals and the changing of sheets in the context of the provision of accommodation for money could not be considered to be domestic tasks as to do so would be to stretch the meaning of the phrase "domestic tasks" into tasks which were intrinsically commercial (CIB/14656/96 disapproved); 2. the legislation did not seek to quantify the amount of work which was provided. It was the nature, context and purpose of the work which was material; 3. the references to "care" and to "domestic tasks" in regulation 16 of the regulations were distinct from each other and should be construed separately.
Decision(s) to Download:	R(IB) 1-03 final amended.doc