Child Disability Payment decision making guide

Accepting or rejecting one source of supporting information as 'fact'

In some cases, it may be reasonable for you to accept the facts in one piece of supporting information over another.

You can accept the facts of one piece of supporting information over another regardless of the source of the information.

This can be accepting the facts in one piece of supporting information from a professional over another piece of supporting information from a professional. It can also be accepting the facts in a piece of supporting information from the client’s wider support network over supporting information from a professional.

This could be because:

  • one piece of supporting information directly supports the account of the individual’s disability given in the application or review form
  • the other piece of supporting information is inconsistent with the diagnosis and/or details supplied in the form
  • the information in one piece of supporting information is more up to date than another

You must provide clear and logical reasoning for accepting or rejecting as ‘fact’ one source of supporting information over another.

This applies to information from:

  • the individual
  • a professional
  • from the individual’s wider support network

Counterfeit or forged documents

You may suspect that supporting information has been forged, counterfeited, or someone you’ve spoken to is impersonating another person. In this event, you should speak to your line manager.

Read the guidance on how to identify counterfeit and forged documents.

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