Appealing against Incapacity Benefit ceasing

healy

Obe1 wrote: »

Happy your Happy and your welcome.

Nice to have a happy forum.

Obe1

healy wrote: »

Nice to have a happy forum.

Yes indeed it is.

healy

Obe1 wrote: »

Yes indeed it is.

Glad you agree.

Obe1

healy wrote: »

Glad you agree.

I do, Nice one!!

Obe1

healy wrote: »

Glad you agree.

Healy, I’d really love to stay and chat with you, as (will all sincerity) you seem to be a person with grace, beauty and great wit. It’s been so amazing talking with you; and your friends, you’re so lovely, nice and amazing. Unfortunately I have to go; I hope I can chat again real soon with this group.

Thank you again and happy Moneysaving.

healy

Obe1 wrote: »

I do, Nice one!!

So we can stop now.

healy

Obe1 wrote: »

Healy, I’d really love to stay and chat with you, as (will all sincerity) you seem to be a person with grace, beauty and great wit. It’s been so amazing talking with you; and your friends, you’re so lovely, nice and amazing. Unfortunately I have to go; I hope I can chat again real soon with this group.

Thank you again and happy Moneysaving.

Good, I fully understand but cannot say the same and prefer not to deal in childish long winded sarcasm. By way you do not need to reply to the same post twice.

Obe1

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=365935

There, obe, straight from the horse's mouth.

This is what is meant when people say this is not the place for discussion.

I'm sure if you post your comments in Discussion Time, you will have many answers.

Thanks again seven-day-week but I think I previously read it from the horses mouth.

Obe1

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Obe I don't know stazi's status, but DWP professionals who have posted here in the past have been stopped from doing so by, presumably, the DWP.

That’s it seven-day-weekend, why should the tax payer pay for highly educated professionals to come and post on this forum and render their services.

Obe1

Strike_Team wrote: »

I successfully appealed against my Incapacity Benefit being stopped without any outside help. I though it might help others having problems with benefits to describe how I did it.

My incapacity medical examination was carried out by a foreign doctor who spoke poor English. His manner was cold and unpleasant, instead of the usual pleasantries that I've had from every other doctor I've seen, he simply ordered me to sit down, then began reading questions from his computer. He was impatient, didn't give me a chance to answer questions properly and became irritable when I asked him to repeat himself as I didn't understand what he was saying. Fortunately I had my Dad with me as a witness.

My IB got cut off, and when I got a copy of his report from the DWP, it was wildly wrong. He alleged that I had said a whole series of things that I didn't say, misrepresented some of what I had said, and completely failed to record a lot of the important things that I had said. Some of the statements in the report were grossly contradictory, for instance he (correctly) said I lived alone, and then later on said I had children! Some of the statements in the report were completely incomprehensible.

I found 2 particularly helpful resources for preparing my appeal - the Benefits and Work forum, and the DWP Incapacity Benefit Handbook.

I read through how the examination is supposed to be done in the Incapacity Benefit Handbook, then I went through the doctor's report and made a detailed list of all the things he's done wrong, and all the contradictions. I also wrote out a description of my health problems and how they affect me in everyday life. I used these, along with a description of what went on in the examination to put together a detailed appeal. It came to about 5 pages in all. I also got a good letter from my consultant describing my health problems, and a more detailed letter from my GP. (My GP's original letter to the DWP had been half a sentence, which I'm sure didn't help my case.) My Mum put together a single page stating the points I should have got for each of the categories such as walking, sitting, standing, using stairs, etc.

I also looked up the DWP doctor on the General Medical Council website, which showed that he was trained in Italy where training and examination standards are much lower. It also showed that he had little experience of working in medicine in the UK.

I also made a detailed complaint to Atos Origin, the private contractor that carties out IB medicals. Although they basically rebuffed my complaint, some of the statements from the DWP doctor in the reply to my complaint were along the lines of "I meant to say this but I actually said that". It also admitted that he had very little experience of doing DWP medicals. I used these statements in my appeal to help demonstrate that the doctor had little idea what he was doing, and appeared to not understand the English phrases and sentences he was using. Their rather inept attempt to fob me off actually gave me some useful ammo to use against them .

Overall, I adopted the mindset of a lawyer, tracking down all the appropriated documents and then looking for any information in the documents that could be used to build a case, as well as looking for every single inconsistency and contradiction, and every breach of correct procedure by the DWP doctor.

The appeal date was 5 months from my benefit being cut off (the system is very slow). I took my Mum with me as representative, and my Dad as witness to what happened at the examination. The appeal was held at the Appeals service in Glasgow city centre. It's not easy to get parked nearby, so my Dad dropped me off at the door. I wore a suit and tie. My parents were dressed smartly too. There's a large central waiting room (which happily has comfy chairs), with the rooms where the appeals are held leading off from it. The tribunal clerk explained how the process worked and sorted out travel expenses beforehand. While waiting for the appeal I overheard a woman talking to her representative, she said that the same doctor had written nonsense about her, not listened to her, and that she had had trouble understanding him. Her rep said that some of the stuff he'd written about her was "bizarre". After a nervous wait we were asked in. The room had a large conference-type table with chairs. I and my parents sat on one side, the panel, a doctor and a lawyer, sat on the other. The clerk sat at her PC at one end of the room, typing a record of what was said. The doctor and chairman (lawyer) introduced themselves, then the doctor disqualified herself as she knew my Mum, so the hearing was adjourned. This was very annoying.

After numerous phone calls to the Appeals Service, they were able to find a doctor who didn't know my Mum or dad, who both have medical connections.

As I arrived at the front desk for my rescheduled appeal, the security man asked who I was representing. Obviously not many people appealing benefit decisions turn up in a suit and tie. After some nervous waiting, my time came, and I was called in by the same helpful clerk. The panel consisted of a different lawyer and doctor this time. I walked in slowly, and had to carefully negotiate the chairs and table due to my poor balance which causes me problems in confined spaces. The chairman and doctor were both very polite, and patiently repeated themselves when I had trouble understanding them due to fogginess. The chairman explained at the start that the panel could choose to believe either the DWP doctor’s report, or the report from my GP and consultant. They asked my Dad to leave temporarily, as they said they may call him later to ask him about what went on in the DWP doctor's examination. They then asked me about the physical aspects of my health and how it affects me. The doctor and chairman asked me various questions about activities such as walking, sitting, etc.

They were quite detailed in their questioning, they were obviously looking for consistency in my answers. For instance the doctor asked me how I managed to get out of a chair with no arms, and how I got off my seat stick from sitting on it. I gave a detailed answer to each question, giving as much relevant detail as possible. When asked about stairs, for example, I mentioned that if I want to put something upstairs, I don't take it upstairs immediately, but I leave it at the bottom of the stairs and it goes up with me next time I go upstairs, so that i can keep stair use to a minimum.

I fully explained all my symptoms and problems, and explained how I need to carefully pace and ration my energy, and plan ahead days in advance. I also made clear the fact that I can handle one significant activity per day, pointing out that attending the appeal was that day's major activity, and that the previous day's activity had been a trip to Tesco using the scooter, while the day before that I'd done some hoovering . They also asked about variability, and how my condition and variability had changed between the original examination and the appeal 6 months later. My Mum also added some useful information, pointing out that my house has disability modifications and that she and my Dad do some of my shopping and help with repairs, gardening, etc.

At that point they said that they'd like to consider whether the physical grounds alone would give me enough points to win my appeal. This made me feel quite hopeful. My Mum and I went slowly back to the waiting room while they discussed this. About 10 minutes later they called my Mum only back in, to save me another walk, and she came back with a big smile on her face. They gave me 17 points for physical grounds. They said I'd qualify for over 20 points if they'd considered all the criteria, but once they'd exceeded 15 points they stopped so as to make efficient use of time.

The interesting thing is that they didn't have to get as far as considering mental/daily living points, nor did they call my Dad as a witness, as they found my GP and consultant's letters, and what I said to them, to be sufficient to discredit the DWP doctor's report.

I'm glad you managed to come through it ok. Its a real shame that there are people out their who have a real need for IB, and yet, for reasons beyond the scope of this board, some people cannot comprehend that fact, which leads to the evident bias which is written on every line of their face and is in every nuance of their voice and which is loaded in every question that they ask and which is read in every sentence that they write.