# The Child Benefit and Guardian’s Allowance (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations 2003, Regulation 30: Interests of justice


(1) For the purposes of paragraph (5)(b) of regulation 29, it is not in the interests of justice to grant an application under that regulation unless the panel member is satisfied, or the Board are satisfied, that—
(a) the special circumstances specified in paragraph (2) are relevant to the application; or
(b) some other special circumstances exist which are wholly exceptional and relevant to the application,
and, as a result of those special circumstances, it was not practicable for the appeal to be brought within the time limit specified in regulation 28.
(2) The special circumstances specified in this paragraph are that—
(a) the applicant or a partner or dependant of the applicant has died or suffered serious illness;
(b) the applicant is not resident in the United Kingdom; or
(c) normal postal services were disrupted.
(3) “Partner” means—
(a) where a person is a member of a married couple or an unmarried couple, the other member of that couple; or
(b) where a person is polygamously married to two or more members of his household, any such member.
(4) In determining whether it is in the interests of justice to grant an application under regulation 29, the panel member or the Board must have regard to the principle that the greater the amount of time that has elapsed between the expiration of the time within which the appeal is to be brought under regulation 28 and the making of the application, the more compelling the special circumstances mentioned in paragraph (1) should be.
(5) In determining whether it is in the interests of justice to grant an application under regulation 29, the panel member or the Board must take no account of the following—
(a) that the applicant or any person acting for him was unaware of or misunderstood the law applicable to his case (including ignorance or misunderstanding of the time limits imposed by these Regulations); or
(b) that a Commissioner or a court has taken a different view of the law from that previously understood and applied.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2003/0110451058/regulation/30 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/draft-child-benefit-and-guardians-allowance-decisions-and-appeals-regulations-2003/regulation-30
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.