LS -v- Department for Social Development (IS) ((Not Applicable))

This is an application for leave to appeal from the decision of an appeal tribunal sitting at Belfast.

I grant leave to appeal. �For the reasons I give below, I allow the appeal under Article 15(8)(a) of the Social Security (NI) Order 1998 and make the decision the tribunal should have made without making fresh findings of fact. �I find that the applicant possessed capital of �74,541.31 and should be treated as possessing notional capital of �12,000 on 8 August 2008.

The appellant provided further evidence by way of a letter from her community psychiatric nurse and a receipt for expenditure. �A revised decision was issued on 5 June 2009 to the effect that she was not entitled to IS. �This was because the Department decided that she possessed �79,541.31 actual capital and notional capital of �14,640 from 7 August 2008, and actual capital of �77,778.23 and notional capital of �14,640 from 26 January 2009.� She appealed.

(a) finding that the applicant continued to possess actual capital at the relevant date on the basis of the evidence before it;

(b) including an element of notional capital in the amount of actual capital assessed by it.