Lapsed cases – what are they?

Lapsed cases were introduced a few years’ ago to try to help get some cases resolved quicker.

After an Appeal has been lodged with His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals (HMCTS), so you have completed a SSCS1 form and sent it to HMCTS, then your case will be sent to the DWP. They will look again at your case and at this stage may decide to look at it as a lapsed case.

This means that your case will be sent to a Decision Maker (DC) to be looked at again. If the DC decides in your favour, then you will be contacted and informed that your Appeal will not go ahead as the decision regarding your case has changed to a more favourable one.

If the DC does not decide in your favour, then your case is put back in the queue for a Tribunal and no-one is informed that it has been looked at again, so you are not penalised.

The reason your case may be looked at as a lapsed case is because you have sent in more evidence or the DWP think a mistake has been made in the decision.

Another time that your case can be looked at as a lapsed case is when you send in your submissions. Again, you may have sent some further supporting evidence and all of this will be taken in to consideration. This time your case may be given to either a DC or a Tribunal. 

It is always a lovely surprise to have a case decided in favour of the applicant that I did not know was being heard, the first I, or my client knows about it is when the letter arrives from HMCTS informing us that the decision has been changed.

There is no way of asking for a case to be looked at as a lapsed case.

One Stop Advocacy