DANSP29300 | Notices of decision: general principles when wording decisions

DANSP29200 explains the legal requirements about the wording of decisions included in a notice of decision. As well as those requirements, apply these general principles when constructing a decision:

• be brief and to the point

• only use ‘you’ where the notice of decision is being issued to one person and no-one else is named in the decision and the DAA1(E) (copy for agent) is not being issued

• where a person is an individual use their full names, include their forenames and last name, do not include their title

• where the person is a registered company use the company’s registered name, (see DANSP28400 for information about checking a company’s registered name)

• where an employee is named to avoid confusion, it may be necessary to include their National Insurance number or some other reference used by the employer, for example, the employee’s works number

• if decisions are needed for more than one employee, issue a separate decision for each employee, do not name more than one employee in each decision

• do not make decisions which specify future dates because you cannot be sure what will happen in the future. However, there is one exception to this general principle – in some Employment Allowance decisions it may be appropriate to issue an open-ended decision. The IPD Technical Team will provide advice as to whether it is appropriate to do so (see DANSP07550)