MR NIGHTMARE!

scape1960

Well, the title should be changed as I completed my MR! Received a phone call about two weeks ago from DM who said she was looking at my MR and did I have the extra evidence to send in as I only had a few days left to the cut-off date. She was very nice and alluded to a positive outcome by saying ‘don’t worry we’ll get this sorted out’ (although I did take that with a ‘pinch of salt’!

I rang up today to check that they had received everything on time, I was passed to two people and the information I was given was confusing and the conversation just seemed to be vague and going around in circles. I eventually came to the conclusion that nothing had changed and I would get a letter explaining why. He then also said that, although they don’t normally do it, he would ask the decision maker to have another look at it. After that he the started talking about when I would get letter. I was having difficulty getting to the point of what he was saying so I asked ‘was he getting someone to do the MR again', to which replied, no, you’ll have to go to tribunal. I ended the conversation feeling very upset that:

1)I didn’t feel I’d got any clear information and
2) was just astounded that I hadn’t even got a restoration of one of my awards, especially given the fact that my original assessment review information was very poor due to significant illness.

Also, his time, I had followed all advice on this forum making sure everything was in extreme detail of how illness impacted on daily living, added all missing info from original review, gave real life examples for several activities and backed up all of this with clear evidence in PIP Assessment Guide Part 2.

I was extremely upset, and after a couple of hours I decided to ring back to see if I could shed any more light on the matter. This time I was told that the decision had been made the day before they received my extra/new evidence, so the Decision Manager had been asked to look at it again. Has anyone ever heard of anything like this happening, and if so what the outcome was. I really have come to the end of my physical an mental resources now, and am at the point where if nothing changes I'm thinking of giving up. If I do decide to go to Tribunal, how long does this process take? thanks for listening to me 'wittering' on and all advice that has been given so far!

poppy123456

It's not unusual for the decision not to change at MR stage because only about 23% of them do, in the claimants favour. 

Once you request the MR a decision can be made any anytime and they do not have to wait for any extra evidence to be sent to them. It happens a lot when people send extra and a decision is made before they receive it. This is one reason why I always advise not to ring to request it and to make sure you send anything extra with the letter of request. 

I don't know why you've been told that they've asked a decision maker to take another look because you only have 1 chance at MR stage. This only delays requesting the Tribunal. 

There's more chance of success at Tribunal stage providing you either appear in person or request a telephone/video hearing and then there's about 68% success rate. Paper based hearings are much lower at around 5-8%. 

The only downside is the waiting times for hearings can be extremely long and you could be waiting up to about 10 months. 

Once you've requested the Tribunal DWP will eventually respond to that. Before responding they will review your claim and sometimes, though rare, they can make an offer at this stage. However, please don't expect it to happen because it's rare but it can happen. 

scape1960

He did say that they don’t normally do this said but explained that they had put a request in to ask the Decision Manager to look at it again, because she had looked at it the day before all of the new evidence had been uploaded. Therefore, I’m not surprised that the decision had not been changed at all. Whilst I realise they still might not change it, If it doesn’t get looked at again I think I will put in for a Tribunal because, hopefully they will see all the new evidence and I would hope that they would have the common sense to realise that they would not look good if they sent a case to Tribunal that had not been considered correctly.

scape1960

Sorry, I forgot to ask, but particularly because a Tribunal could take up to ten months, would you still get that back paid? TIA!

Albus_Scope

I'm glad to hear you'll put in for a tribunal hearing @scape1960 they really are worlds apart from the assessments.  As Poppy has said, tribunals have a very good success rate, often without even needing any additional evidence.

poppy123456

scape1960 said:

Sorry, I forgot to ask, but particularly because a Tribunal could take up to ten months, would you still get that back paid? TIA!

Yes, you will receive everything that's owed to you, if a decision is in your favour.