KT and SH v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (PIP): [2020] UKUT 252 (AAC)
Upper Tribunal Administrative Appeals Chamber decision of Judge Perez on 21 August 2020.
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Judicial Summary
The claimants each need to remove their hearing aids to take a shower and to take a bath. Each cannot without the aids hear a typical fire alarm or smoke alarm while taking a bath or shower with the door closed. It was common ground that having to leave the door open would not be washing and bathing “to an acceptable standard”, as required by regulation 4(2A)(b) of the Social Security (Personal Independence Payment) Regulations 2013. Held: (1) In light of the decision of a three-judge panel in RJ, CMcL and CS [2017] UKUT 0105 (AAC), the First-tier Tribunal in each case erred in law in its consideration of whether the claimant can wash and bathe “safely”, as required by regulation 4(2A)(a) and as defined by regulation 4(4)(a). (2) There should not be room for different First-tier Tribunal panels to make different decisions as to whether there is a risk that cannot reasonably or sensibly be ignored, where the differences between the panels’ decisions arise not from differences in claimants’ needs but from different assessments of the same objective evidence of risk.