[2024] UKUT 223 (AAC)

I understand that SRU’s mother is frustrated and aggrieved that SRU is found no longer to have the needs that she had under the previous award. But the First-tier Tribunal found that, as SRU has got older, those needs have become less. The First-tier Tribunal summarised this at paragraph 44(l)—

“We accepted that when SRU was younger she may have had more need for help from her parents as some of the daily care activities she would need to do may have been tasks she would have needed assistance with. That may well explain why the DWP had made the award it did previously. However, at the time of the decision under appeal, SRU was older and more capable of undertaking most of the tasks by herself. Where she would take longer or may have been reluctant resulting in some assistance being provided, we did not consider this to be in excess of what another child of the same age would require.”.

Those findings were open to the First-tier Tribunal. The First-tier Tribunal gave an adequate explanation for them in that paragraph 44(l) taken with the rest of the statement of reasons.