Finding the Law

This factsheet tells you where to find relevant law to support your claim or appeal. It deals primarily with disability benefits such as disability living allowance, attendance allowance and incapacity benefit, though some of the information may apply to other benefits.

Finding the right act, regulation or case law

Unless you are already familiar with the law, the usual starting point when searching for law references are Disability Alliance's "Disability Rights Handbook" or Child Poverty Action Group's "Welfare Benefits and Tax Credits Handbook". Both of these contain legal references and are published each year.

You can also find out about new legislation or case law in magazine publications such as Child Poverty Action Group’s “Welfare Rights Bulletin”, “Legal Action”, published by Legal Action Group or Citizen Advice’s “Adviser”.

Getting hold of acts and regulations

Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO)

This is useful when an act or regulation is new. It is an online resource only. HMSO is now part of the Office of Public Sector Information.

The Stationery Office Ltd (TSO)

This is where you can buy a printed version of any item of legislation or any other official publication previously published by HMSO. Legislation made prior to 1987 is not available on the HMSO web site but can be purchased from TSO.

You can contact the Stationary Office at:

TSO Orders/Post Cash Dept
PO Box 29
Norwich
NR3 1GN

Tel: 0870 600 5522
Fax: 0870 600 5533
e-mail: customer.services@tso.co.uk

Public Libraries

You may also be able to find earlier law in major public libraries but remember that benefits law often has amendments made to it which could make these versions incorrect.

The Law Relating to Social Security (Blue Volumes)

This has all social security law with amendments incorporated. It is available either on the internet or else as a multi-volume printed version (which needs constant amending) from Corporate Document Services (see Where to get hold of commissioner’s decisions and case law below).

Law with commentary

The chief source for this is “Social Security Legislation” – Four volumes published by Sweet and Maxwell. They are:

• Volume I – non means tested benefits
• Volume II – income support, jobseeker’s allowance, state pension credit and the social fund
• Volume III – administration, adjudication and the european dimension
• Volume IV – tax credits and employer paid social security benefits

These volumes gather together amended and updated acts and regulations on their relevant subject areas. Each also provides useful commentaries, including discussions of relevant and supporting case law. They are updated and published annually.

Where to get hold of commissioner’s decisions and case law

Many, but not all commissioner’s decisions are available online. You can access reported commissioners dating back to 1991 from the Department for Work and Pensions website. You can also access starred and selected decisions going back to 1990 from the commissioner’s website. Reports of court decisions are available on the internet, including the Disability Alliance web site. Full copies of court decisions are available through Casetrack. You need to subscribe to this service.

Paper copies of Commissioner’s decisions can be ordered from the following:

For reported decisions:
Corporate Document Services,
7 Eastgate,
Leeds,
LS2 7LY
telephone 0113 399 4040.
fax 0113 399 4205
email orderline@cds.co.uk

For English and Welsh unreported decisions:
Office of the Social Security Commissioners,
3rd Floor, Procession House,
55 Ludgate Hill,
London,
EC4A 7JW
telephone: 020 7029 9850
minicom: 020 7029 9820
fax 020 7029 9819
email: osscsc@tribunals.gsi.gov.uk

For Scottish unreported decisions:
The Commissioners' Office in Scotland,
George House
126 George Street,
Edinburgh,
EH2 4HH
telephone: 0131 271 4310
fax: 0131 271 4398
ossc@ossc-scotland.org.uk

For Northern Ireland unreported decisions:
Office of the Social Security Commissioners,
Headline Building,
10-14 Victoria Street,
Belfast,
BT1 3GG
telephone: 028 9033 2344
fax: 028 9031 3510
email: socialsecuritycommissioners@courtsni.gov.uk

Using the internet

You can download summaries of commissioner’s decisions at www.disabilityalliance.org/digest.htm. Summaries of individual court cases are also available at www.disabilityalliance.org/caselaw.htm.

www.rightsnet.org.uk/ also provides summaries of commissioner's decisions in their briefcase section, though this is a subscription only service. It also has an archive of older commissioner decisions dating back as far as the 1940's, which is available to view and download without subscribing to Rightsnet.

A good starting point when looking for law on the internet is our legal links page at www.disabilityalliance.org/links5.htm. From this link you can access all the online resources mentioned above and much more.

To save time trawling through the various websites you can try searching for commissioner’s decisions and case law using www.google.com. You just need to type in the name of the case or decision you need and it will search most of the sites mentioned above. The only thing you need to bear in mind is that decisions may be written slightly differently on different sites. For example CDLA/5250/02 may also be written as CDLA 5250 2002 or CDLA/5250/2002. Try all of these combinations. You can also search for all case law summaries on our site.

WHERE CAN I GET HELP?

You should seek further advice if you want to challenge a decision about your benefit. You can get help with your appeal at a local advice centre, such as a citizen's advice bureau. You can get more information about this from our factsheet F16, Finding a local advice centre, which is available at www.cara-online.org

Central Africa’s Rights & AIDS (CARA) Society has also published Benefit appeals - A guide to benefit appeals for advisers and disabled people. This guide helps you prepare for an appeal tribunal and will increase your chances of success at the hearing. It takes you through all the stages of the benefit decision-making process from the moment you receive an unsatisfactory decision through to the tribunal hearing.

It is available to have a look at it on our website at www.cara-online.org or by contacting Central Africa’s Rights & AIDS (CARA) Society on Tel: +44(0)20 7254 6415(voice and minicom) - Mob.:+44(0)7956 95 26 45 - Fax: +44(0)872 115 8436 - Email: caraas@hotmail.com

Updated July 2009