PIP Offer prior to tribunal

Rubyroobs

Please does anyone have experience of tribunals and can explain how a tribunal may view the appellant turning down a revised offer. Person scored zero points for PIP . I'm not sure what they scored after MR. Tribunal is next week and DWP have rung offering enhanced daily living, they would not budge on offering mobility. The person thinks they should also get mobility even going as far as thinking they may get enhanced.  
What is the likelihood of the tribunal decision being better than the DWP ? I understand client is at risk of not being awarded anything at tribunal but how likely is this ? Should they accept the offer and do tribunals look unfavorably on people turning down a revised offer. I would appreciate any experience. It makes it so hard for people to know what their options are. CAB helped with the MR then seem to have abandoned the person with no guidance on what they should do. I should also add there is very little medical evidence to support a mobility award.

poppy12345

With an offer of Enhanced daily living from DWP i think it's unlikely the Tribunal would not award anything at all. If they decline the offer they should let the Tribunal know that they were offered this award.

They can accept the offer from DWP but if they do their current appeal will lapse. Once the award is in payment they can request another Tribunal but the waiting time will start from the beginning.

Medical evidence isn't needed for a successful PIP award.

Rubyroobs

poppy12345 said:

With an offer of Enhanced daily living from DWP i think it's unlikely the Tribunal would not award anything at all. If they decline the offer they should let the Tribunal know that they were offered this award.

They can accept the offer from DWP but if they do their current appeal will lapse. Once the award is in payment they can request another Tribunal but the waiting time will start from the beginning.

Medical evidence isn't needed for a successful PIP award.

Thanks Poppy. Sorry I meant to put standard daily living. In your experience do tribunals look unfavourably on people turning down the DWP offer? 

poppy12345

Rubyroobs said:

poppy12345 said:

With an offer of Enhanced daily living from DWP i think it's unlikely the Tribunal would not award anything at all. If they decline the offer they should let the Tribunal know that they were offered this award.

They can accept the offer from DWP but if they do their current appeal will lapse. Once the award is in payment they can request another Tribunal but the waiting time will start from the beginning.

Medical evidence isn't needed for a successful PIP award.

  In your experience do tribunals look unfavourably on people turning down the DWP offer? 

I've never heard of that happening. More than 70% of Tribunals award in their favour.

HillStreetBlues

If anything I would have thought it's more in a person's favour.
The DWP acknowledges there should be an award, but the person thinks it should be higher.

Muttleythefrog

Agree with above.... tribunal panel finding out the DWP now disagree with the decision you're also disagreeing with should favour you if anything. I would take the above points all into consideration and take an honest view as to what they should get awarded given the activities and points they should score in each and therefore whether the offer runs at sufficient divergence to go to tribunal.

Alice_Holt

CPAG have some good articles on this  (Martin Williams).
https://askcpag.org.uk/content/207372/latest-offers-pip-appeals

"Advisers assisting with cases where offers of partial revisions are made will wish to consider the following.

•The claimant can accept the offer and, once the appeal lapses, file a new appeal against the decision as revised.  •Having the decision lapse and then needing to file a new appeal might add some time to how long it takes to finally resolve the issue.  •However, if that option is taken, the claimant will at least be paid the amount given in the revision while s/he awaits the outcome of her/his new appeal.  •It remains the case that the First-tier Tribunal has the power, properly exercised, to make a worse decision than that made in the revised decision.  •However, if that were to happen, the resultant overpaid amount would almost certainly not be recoverable (unless the benefit at issue was one in respect of which all overpayments are recoverable).  

Given all of the above, in many cases the choice well-advised claimants may want to make is to say they will accept the offer and then file a further appeal (which thanks to the K case, the DWP now accepts is something they can do)."

In general, the tribunal should take the revised offer as the base line, and then explore if a higher award can be awarded. 
If it has a mind to award less than this "offer", then it should adjourn and warn the appellant first (to give them the opportunity to withdraw).

https://cpag.org.uk/welfare-rights/resources/test-case/dwp-offers-and-how-tribunals-should-deal-them


IMO a DWP offer of 8 (or more) points from 0 points might indicate to a tribunal that the assessment (and initial DWP decision) was badly flawed. I would imagine that if the claimant:
i)  had a consistent PIP form / MR / Appeal submission, and / or,
ii)  good supporting evidence for a higher award,
iii)  felt able to give consistent and compelling verbal evidence to the panel,

- then there would be a very good chance of being in the 70% cohort of successful appellants.