UC LCWRA appeal

tifo

I'm told that the DWP rarely attend an appeal, is this correct?

poppy12345

tifo said:

I'm told that the DWP rarely attend an appeal, is this correct?

Indeed it is.

tifo

DWP attended. The guy said i'm making it all up, the medical reports never lie and definitely not 2, they took everything in the PIP report into consideration too so I had to argue for both the WCA and PIP reports, I thought this was a bit unfair, I mentioned that the PIP assessment has different criteria but they said "but the PIP report said you can do this and do that", I replied "some of it I didn't say, they seemed surprised, are you sure" they asked, i replied "yes of course". I said there is 3 years evidence from my GP and hospital and lots of images showing my conditions.

They didn't look at my bundle even though I mentioned it several times, they said "we've got it here on the computer", they only referred to the DWPs even though mine was 127 additional pages (lot of my bundle referred to the DWP evidence as I didn't replicate documents). But they didn't discuss my PIP form answers and statement for MR which was not in the DWP bundle, just the PIP medical report and decline decision.

Will find out next week. The Dr was understanding of my conditions, the judge didn't talk much but made lots of notes.

They only focussed how I was on the day of the assessment, with my variable conditions I have better and worse days, that day was a better day. I kept mentioning this, there was plenty of evidence for this. I thought even for WCA they had to look at before and after for variable conditions? In PIP it is easier because it's 3 months before 9 months after.

I felt like I did 2 appeals for WCA and PIP in 1 hearing.

tifo

If I need to apply to the upper tribunal (of course after I receive the first tribunal decision and if needed) then it seems from cases that the upper tribunal always refer it back to the first tier tribunal to be heard by a different panel?

So this doesn't get me a different decision, it just takes me back to where I was when I asked for the appeal. Am I right in this understanding?

nannytone_2

You need to wait for the decision.
You can't take it to the upper tribunal just because you disagree with a decision on the tribunal.
There would have to be an error in law

calcotti

tifo said:

If I need to apply to the upper tribunal (of course after I receive the first tribunal decision and if needed) then it seems from cases that the upper tribunal always refer it back to the first tier tribunal to be heard by a different panel?

The role of an upper tribunal is not to assess your claim, it is to establish whether the first tier tribunal has made a legal error. Usually therefore the upper tribunal will refer back, sometimes the upper tribunal will make a decision. 

tifo

nannytone_2 said:

You need to wait for the decision.
You can't take it to the upper tribunal just because you disagree with a decision on the tribunal.
There would have to be an error in law

Yes, I said I'll wait for the tribunal decision. I don't know before then.

tifo

I got an email yesterday that the decision has been made and I'll receive it in the post.

Also yesterday I was asked to accept claimant commitments with no work search or work preparation requirements. But these are no different to what was already there because of earnings above the AET (unchanged for nearly a year) so there was no need for this as they're no different.

It's obviously happened because of the tribunal decision and new commitments are usually triggered by a change of circumstances. Am I too forward in thinking this could be because I've been awarded lcwra and now have no work or prepare for work requirements whereas before the same was because of employed income?

calcotti

tifo said:Am I too forward in thinking this could be because I've been awarded lcwra and now have no work or prepare for work requirements whereas before the same was because of employed income?

That's certainly possible.

tifo

calcotti said:

tifo said:Am I too forward in thinking this could be because I've been awarded lcwra and now have no work or prepare for work requirements whereas before the same was because of employed income?

That's certainly possible.

Or it could be that they've declined the appeal and it's triggered the commitments to reset to what they were at before, because something happened on the account 

This didn't happen when I got the initial WCA decision in October then the MR decision in December.

I'm hoping it's the latter as it happened just after they emailed saying a decision has been made.

It's just waiting for the letter .....