Appealing to upper tribunal

Mixedupscot · 23 March 2015 at 7:21PM

Hi Everyone

Any help would be appreciated but I have the feeling I'm at the end of the road:( I will also try to keep this as brief as possible!!

1. Been on IB for 17yrs. 19.9.13, refused ESA.
2. Appealed and had my hearing on 5.2.14 but was put in WRG. This was never mentioned and I had no idea of the difference.
3. March/April 2014 attended Job Centre and was told by my personal adviser that I only had to phoned to have myself changed group as she could not find employment for me due to mobility and depression.
4. On phoning JC I was told I had to reapply, then told to write to them. then told to write to tribunal.
5. Contacted 1st tier tribunal and was refused 19.1.15 as I had not asked for a statement of reason (although they lost all my letters from Oct 14 and asked for copies).
6. Appealed to upper tier and explained delay and quoted errors in law re my decision. Refused again as I had no statement of reason (received 3.3.15).

I now feel after 18yrs of no employment I am now left with no ESA and no support to find employment. I had one further phone call from the Job Centre telling me they wouldn't want to see me again as they couldn't help me. Where on earth do I turn now???
The system is SERIOUSLY flawed...is there any point in my approaching my Welfare Rights Officer.

Thanks.

rogerblack · 23 March 2015 at 9:31PM

Mixedupscot wrote: »

Hi Everyone

Any help would be appreciated but I have the feeling I'm at the end of the road:( I will also try to keep this as brief as possible!!

1. Been on IB for 17yrs. 19.9.13, refused ESA.
2. Appealed and had my hearing on 5.2.14 but was put in WRG. This was never mentioned and I had no idea of the difference.
3. March/April 2014 attended Job Centre and was told by my personal adviser that I only had to phoned to have myself changed group as she could not find employment for me due to mobility and depression.
4. On phoning JC I was told I had to reapply, then told to write to them. then told to write to tribunal.
5. Contacted 1st tier tribunal and was refused 19.1.15 as I had not asked for a statement of reason (although they lost all my letters from Oct 14 and asked for copies).
6. Appealed to upper tier and explained delay and quoted errors in law re my decision. Refused again as I had no statement of reason (received 3.3.15).

I now feel after 18yrs of no employment I am now left with no ESA and no support to find employment. I had one further phone call from the Job Centre telling me they wouldn't want to see me again as they couldn't help me. Where on earth do I turn now???
The system is SERIOUSLY flawed...is there any point in my approaching my Welfare Rights Officer.

Thanks.

You have to do the things in the right order.
It seems you were getting misadvised.
Firstly - there is absolutely no way you can just phone up and get yourself changed from the work-related to the support group - you absolutely need to submit a change of circumstances.

I'm assuming that on 5/2/14 you had a decision from the lower tribunal that you were entitled to the work-related group.
You had a month to apply for a statement of reasons - and will have had a letter explaining the appeal process along with your decision notice.

If you did not apply for the statement of reasons by around 5/3/14, you can not further appeal this process at all.
Appealing to the first tier, or upper tier tribunal at this point is completely out of time and hopeless.

You absolutely cannot appeal the decision of 5/2/14 - you're well out of time.
You can in principle apply again, on the basis that your circumstances have changed, and this may be backdatable in some cases by up to three months.

If you feel you have been misadvised and told the appeal process was different from it was, in principle you can apply for compensation - but this is completely different and seperate from appealing the previous decision.

Mixedupscot · 23 March 2015 at 10:33PM

Thank you for the clarification. I feel I was constantly given the wrong advice through the whole process, but hey ho...onward and upward. I will just have to re-apply.

Thanks again.

Anchoress · 24 March 2015 at 12:38AM

I have a quick question for rogerblack or anyone else who can advise me.

My tribunal hearing was in June 2013 when I was put in the support group from the wrag group.

Would I be able to get a statement of reasons from the tribunal at this very late stage? I'm just thinking ahead that it might be useful for when I'm reassessed.

Thanks.

Mixedupscot · 24 March 2015 at 3:31PM

I'm getting more confused as this goes on!!

My ESA ran from 15.10.13 to 15.10.14 (35 days/contribution based). My appeal was heard on 5.2.14 when i won the appeal but was put in WRG and so money was back dated to 15.10.13.

As per my previous post my appeal was too late to change groups.

Today I phoned Job Centre to ask for a new claim pack but was told I can't get one as I won't be reassessed until 5.2.16!! My claim is still 'live' and so the only way I can be reassessed before this date is if I go to my GP and get a report that shows my condition has considerably deteriorated.

Is this right?

Thanks.