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Neutral Citation Number:
Reported Number: R(IB)2/02
File Number: CIB 228 1999
Appellant: Purdy v. Social Security Commissioner
Respondent:
Judge/Commissioner: Judge A. Lloyd-Davies
Date Of Decision: 06/10/2000
Date Added: 19/08/2002
Main Category: Incapacity benefits
Main Subcategory: activity 6: bending or kneeling
Secondary Category:
Secondary Subcategory:
Notes: Incapacity for work – all work test – whether squatting is bending or kneeling The claimant was refused incapacity benefit by an adjudication officer in 1995 on the ground that he had not satisfied the all work test, because he only achieved 3 points in respect of the “bending and kneeling” activity. A tribunal ultimately allowed the claimant’s appeal for part of the period in question, but decided, by a majority, that during the remainder of the period the claimant only scored 6 points, being 3 in respect of “rising from sitting” and 3 because he “sometimes cannot bend or kneel as if to pick up a piece of paper from the floor”. The view of the dissenting minority was that the claimant could only pick up a piece of paper from the floor by squatting, so he satisfied the descriptor “cannot bend or kneel as if to pick up a piece of paper from the floor” and should accordingly be awarded 15 points. The claimant had submitted that squatting was neither bending, that is bending at the waist, nor kneeling, that is placing one or both knees to the floor. All members of the tribunal agreed that the claimant could only achieve that task by squatting. The claimant appealed to the Commissioner. Held, dismissing the appeal, that: 1. in the context of the descriptors for the activity of “bending and kneeling”, the words “as if to pick up a piece of paper from the floor” colour the words “bend or kneel”; 2. people would normally pick up a piece of paper from the floor by a combination of bending at the waist and bending at the knee; 3. the descriptors therefore encompass bending at the knee, so that a person who only bends at the knee, or squats, does not satisfy the two descriptors concerned. The claimant applied for permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal. Held, refusing permission to appeal, that: 1. the descriptor “cannot bend or kneel as if to pick up a piece of paper from the floor” is concerned with the disability of a person who is unable to get down to the floor and pick up a piece of paper without assistance; 2. the claimant’s only limitation is that he does not, or cannot, bend his back; 3. the Commissioner’s construction is correct.
Decision(s) to Download: R(IB) 2-02 ws.doc R(IB) 2-02 ws.doc