pip tribunal 20 August 2018 at 9:37PM in Disability money matters 4 replies 1.4K views

susie21

my son was receiving DLA but when applied for PIP was awarded 0 points. he has applied to tribunal in Dec 2017 but still not got a Tribunal date. he is hoping to go to uni in Oct 18 but this delay affects his ability to access support and funding. he has been awarded Disabled students allowance but his finance award is less than he requires as he is not currently receiving PIP.
he will be moving away for uni but wants me to attend a Tribunal with him, he has autism amongst other things, but his tribunal has been lodged near his home address not near the uni. Uni will not work for him unless he can get some extra support including with transport issues, but he cannot access this without the PIP.
any ideas welcome!

poppy12345

Has he or you rang the Tribunal to see how much longer the wait is? You will need his reference number to do this but they'll certainly tell you the waiting times. A lot of areas have backlogs for Tribunals of several months to 1 year for a hearing date. Hopefully it won't be much longer. Good luck.

cantcope

I'd give them a call. My tribunal date took almost a year to come through

Alice_Holt

Let the TS know the circumstances, and ask for a hearing at short notice (if this is practical for you).

Has he / you submitted a statement outlining why he should qualify for PIP?
Have you supplied relevant medical / other evidence?

Google the Advice Now guide on How to win a PIP appeal.

[Deleted User]

I have two children with ASD and anxiety (they get DLA) and this week had a PIP tribunal myself (I have it too).

Use this time to get any additional evidence together.., letters from SENCO, teachers, GP, support staff, the report from his DSA assessment and consultants to demonstrate your son's need for additional support. However you do need to concentrate on the activities asked about on the PIP form. Does he need reminding to eat, follow a restricted diet (because of his ASD) that affects his nutritional status, does he need help with cooking because of limited co-ordination, does he have problems staying on task which introduces risk of fire etc.

Two days before the tribunal I had a hospital appt for arthritis, which was a very important piece of evidence of my problems. The hospital were very kind and did a letter summarising my needs overnight and I took it with me to the tribunal. In spite of it being submitted too late, they did accept it and referred to it.,., so you can do this if you have time to get another specialist involved.

When I filled in the PIP form I wasn't able to mention that travelling is very difficult because of stress (overwhelming anxiety). In the tribunal, because of a change in the law, I was. So add this to your evidence with statements from support staff. I also was able to talk about my difficulties in planning journeys, that dealing with so many different signs, any changes I have to make is very overwhelming. I told them how even on known journeys I panic, have times of 'absence' and go past my stop. I explained how difficult it is to plan journeys because, for example, you want a stop but train signs list only the end point of the journey which is difficult to find when you are trying to deal with so much stuff (find train times/platforms/easiest journey, how to get from one station to another - the same applies to buses etc).

I don't have a tribunal decision yet, but they did ask about these issues so I think they are accepted now rather than ignored. It doesn't mean I am guaranteed success at tribunal, of course, but it all helps.

Please PM me if you need further information.

But as already suggested, phone the tribunal service and ask what the waiting times are. I filled in my PIP form on 10th November 2017, but only had to wait 3 months for a tribunal date, but this will vary depending on the area.

One thing I will say, is I actually was fine for the first 40 mins, but the last 20 mins plus I couldn't think straight and gave very confused/confusing answers. If I hadn't been so 'muzzy' I would have recognised I needed a break and asked for it. Keep an eye out for this because it may have put me at a disadvantage. You can ask for a break.