Decision Summary Information

Back to Results | Search Again | Most Recent Decisions

Neutral Citation Number:
Reported Number:	R(IB)2/03
File Number:	CIB 1664 2002
Appellant:
Respondent:
Judge/Commissioner:	Judge E. Jacobs
Date Of Decision:	05/07/2002
Date Added:	19/07/2002
Main Category:	Incapacity benefits
Main Subcategory:	activity 5: rising
Secondary Category:
Secondary Subcategory:
Notes:	Personal capability assessment - whether claimant who presses on seat of chair in order to get up rises " ... from sitting to standing without holding on to something." The claimant was in receipt of incapacity benefit. On 11 July 2001 his award of benefit was superseded on the grounds that he did not score sufficient points on the personal capability assessment. The claimant appealed to a tribunal. The tribunal made no award for the activity of rising from sitting, in respect of which the claimant had indicated on his self-assessment questionnaire that he sometimes could not rise from sitting without holding onto something (3 points). It found that the claimant's evidence that he had to push on the seat of the chair in order to rise was irrelevant to the activity of rising from sitting. The tribunal awarded a total of 13 points on the PCA and thus dismissed the claimant's appeal. The claimant appealed to the Commissioner. Held, allowing the appeal, that: a claimant who has to rely on some part of the chair other than the arms (i.e. the seat or the back) in order to deliver the force necessary to rise or to provide stability while rising is "holding on to something" within the terms of paragraph 5 of the Schedule to the Social Security (Incapacity for Work)(General) Regulations 1995 and thus scores points, providing both that he "cannot" rise from sitting without using his arms to provide power or stability and that the disability arises from a specific bodily disease or disablement under regulation 25(3)(a) of the regulations. The Commissioner set aside the tribunal's decision and remitted the case to a differently constituted tribunal for rehearing.
Decision(s) to Download:	R(IB) 2-03 finalv2.doc