Social Welfare, requirement for a witness to sign form

Fred Swanson

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Peregrinus

AFAIK, you won't find a specific statutory provision saying that a form of this kind needs a particular qualified witness.

But, then, you won't find a specific statutory provision saying that a passport application needs a particular qualified witness either.

The Dept of Social Protection has a statutory duty to pay certain benefits when certain facts exists. That requires them, obviously, to make investigations of fact. You could in theory spend billions of public money establishing every fact in every case to the standard of proof required in a criminal case, but of course that would be madness. It's a pragmatic decision for the Department to decide how far to carry its various investigations, what standards of proof to require, etc, and the Act allows them the latitude to do this, simply not specifying investigative procedures, burdens of proof, etc.

Rightly or wrongly, the Dept has decided that looking for a qualified witness to the form is going to have the effect that the information in the form is reliable enough that they can normally accept it without further investigation. Hence, they look for a qualified witness. That's also what goes on with the demand for qualified witnesses for passport applications, etc.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.