Ms A Eke v London Borough of Tower Hamlets — 2022

This was a reserved judgment on reconsideration of an earlier decision refusing, on the papers, the claimant's application to amend her claim. The claimant sought to add complaints of victimisation arising from the respondent's alleged failure to conduct a statutory review of the tier of her ill-health retirement pension and alleged failure to consider her appeal against the tier awarded.

The tribunal revoked the earlier judgment. It found that the proposed complaint about the review was within time because the claimant had been told in her dismissal letter that she would be contacted about the review in 2021, and the review had still not occurred by the hearing. The tribunal considered that issues about detriment, causation, and the respondent's role in the pension process were matters for the final hearing.

For the appeal, the tribunal found that the claimant had a reasonable expectation until February 2021 that the appeal would be dealt with, and that the application to amend was not out of time. In the alternative, if it was out of time, the tribunal found it just and equitable to extend time, taking into account the claimant's mental health, her status as a litigant in person for much of the litigation, the difficulty of identifying time limits for omissions, her prompt action after January and February 2021 correspondence, and the balance of hardship.