Tribunal Question?

rockingbilly

MoneyAdvice wrote: »

I have my hearing at the end of April. I too completed the original PIP form incorrectly and I will probably get slated about it, too. My support worker will hopefully be able to explain that I don't always understand these forms properly and that I completed it without his involvement (I didn't have a support worker at that time).

I'm hoping that when my diagnoses of autism comes through, it will be enough evidence as it'll show the difficulties I have.

Good luck with your appeal.

As a side note let me repeat what my GP put on the factual report that the DWP asked for.

"Pain always severe but worse at time. Severe on average 4 days a week when bed bound and morphine insufficient to stop pain
.......Self Care, When pain is severe needs total care approx. 4 days a week.
.......Getting around, as above, walking extremely difficult limited by pain"

That was for my original DLA claim a few years back. The assessor dismissed the report in favour of his own which said that I had no care or mobility issues.

Given what happened I did not see any good reason to submit it in respect of the recent PIP claim.

Assuming that a GP report will help win a claim is in my opinion quite flawed.

JadeLyndsey

How did the appeal go Money advice? Hope you got some positive news; I only made an account to be able to comment on your thread!

My mam is going through this at the moment. She had enhanced both elements of PIP, and prior to PIP received full rate DLA due to her level of disability which is both long term and progressive but a PIP assessor in November awarded 0 points for care and 4 for mobility meaning she fell short and was awarded nothing. It's been a horrific ride.

We sent a mandatory reconsideration immediately with bundles of historic and recent letters from GP, specialists involved in her care and a supporting letter from welfare rights. The DWP sent us the MR notice recently that they were not changing their decision, the reasons for this were either A) lies by the assessor (I I was there for the full assessment and the assessors "evidence" did not happen nor were they stated, and her clinical reasoning is highly flawed - i.e. there is "I decided" throughout the text such as I decided you can walk more than 50 metres when it was a home assessment and my mam at no point walked during the assessment) or left out humongous bits of evidence that I know I clearly put forward at the time of the assessment (I am an occupational therapist, a profession the DWP employ on mass to carry out these assessments, so I think I have sufficient knowledge on which to base my objective opinions and to evidence exactly what my mam can and can't do).

We are requesting a tribunal; welfare rights are seeing us on the 28th December to do this. My mam has lost all hope now, she's had to be seen by the crisis team since her decision letter and is a complete shell of her former self and I think because her award went from full to nothing, she feels she won't get anything by arguing at tribunal (although I have reassured her it's an independent board and quite frankly they'd have to lack a lot of common sense to not arrive at the decision that she should qualify for full rate!!) But it would be great if I had some success stories to share with her. I hope your PIP tribunal was a success and all has worked in your favour. If you can't tell already I am absolutely disgusted with the DWP and their unfair and clearly problematic assessment processes and I hope there is a time in the not so distant future where a fairer assessment process is provided!!

poppy12345

JadeLyndsey wrote: »

How did the appeal go Money advice? Hope you got some positive news; I only made an account to be able to comment on your thread!

My mam is going through this at the moment. She had enhanced both elements of PIP, and prior to PIP received full rate DLA due to her level of disability which is both long term and progressive but a PIP assessor in November awarded 0 points for care and 4 for mobility meaning she fell short and was awarded nothing. It's been a horrific ride.

We sent a mandatory reconsideration immediately with bundles of historic and recent letters from GP, specialists involved in her care and a supporting letter from welfare rights. The DWP sent us the MR notice recently that they were not changing their decision, the reasons for this were either A) lies by the assessor (I I was there for the full assessment and the assessors "evidence" did not happen nor were they stated, and her clinical reasoning is highly flawed - i.e. there is "I decided" throughout the text such as I decided you can walk more than 50 metres when it was a home assessment and my mam at no point walked during the assessment) or left out humongous bits of evidence that I know I clearly put forward at the time of the assessment (I am an occupational therapist, a profession the DWP employ on mass to carry out these assessments, so I think I have sufficient knowledge on which to base my objective opinions and to evidence exactly what my mam can and can't do).

We are requesting a tribunal; welfare rights are seeing us on the 28th December to do this. My mam has lost all hope now, she's had to be seen by the crisis team since her decision letter and is a complete shell of her former self and I think because her award went from full to nothing, she feels she won't get anything by arguing at tribunal (although I have reassured her it's an independent board and quite frankly they'd have to lack a lot of common sense to not arrive at the decision that she should qualify for full rate!!) But it would be great if I had some success stories to share with her. I hope your PIP tribunal was a success and all has worked in your favour. If you can't tell already I am absolutely disgusted with the DWP and their unfair and clearly problematic assessment processes and I hope there is a time in the not so distant future where a fairer assessment process is provided!!

See as thhis persoon hasn't posted since this tread it's highly unlikey they will return to answer you.

The only advice i can give you is for your mother to make sure she appears in person at her Tribunal, rather than ask for a paper based decision. Those thatt appear in person have a far greater chance of a decison in theiir favour than those who choose not to appear. 65% are successful for those who appear. Tribunal waiting times can be quite long, depending on the backlog in your area. Good luck.

Alice_Holt

JadeLyndsey

There are lots of success stories.

As poppy says 65% of appeals succeed at tribunal.

With the help of welfare rights and the attendance of your mum at the tribunal - the change of success is even greater.

At our CAB we get over 85% success in appeals involving caseworkers. With over £600,000 gained annually for our clients from a job-shared post equivalent to 0.8 of a Full Time Equivalent
The appeals which don't succeed are those which we and the client recognise as borderline; or the client contradicts at the hearing, information they gave to us when we wrote their submission for them. Certainly not where the client was previously in receipt of a high / enhanced award.
In fact, we regularly get clients from 0 points to an award. And with ESA it's not uncommon to get from 0 points into the Support Group at tribunal. Such is the poor standard of some DWP assessments:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/emilydugan/most-dwp-benefits-cases-which-reach-court-are-based-on-bad?utm_term=.lod7DzAro#.owlvzJqe7

This is a very useful guide:
http://www.advicenow.org.uk/guides/how-win-pip-appeal

Also:
https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/personal-independence-payment-pip/pip-appeals
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/pip/appeals/your-hearing/

Come back and tell us how what award your mum got.

Alice_Holt

BTW JadeLyndsey - the welfare rights organisation wouldn't have taken on the case if they thought it wouldn't succeed.

The demand for help with appeals is so great, that no caseworker would squander time and resources om a case that didn't have merit