Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)

The complainant has requested information about certification of change of circumstances decisions in benefit claims. DWP provided some information and confirmed the remainder of the information was not held. It later amended its position to refuse to comply with the request on the basis of section 14(1), vexatious requests. The Commissioner’s decision is that DWP’s entitled to rely on section 14(1) to refuse to comply with the request. The Commissioner does, however, find that DWP breached section 17(5) as it did not provide its section 14(1) refusal notice within the statutory timeframe. The Commissioner does not require DWP to take any steps.