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PIP Tribunal - DWP did not respond or provide evidence

Commanded2bwell

Hello. I lost my PIP award in January, then failed MR, then lodged an appeal in May via Citizens Advice. I did not submit additional evidence along with the appeal as the Tribunal Service's website advises you to wait until you see the evidence the DWP will provide in their response to my appeal.

The deadline for the DWP to respond was 9th July and, suffice to say, the DWP did not respond! I emailed the Tribunal Service to ask about what would happen, now, and was told that it was currently taking the service 14 days to review an appeal once the response deadline had passed. So, I submitted my evidence so that they would have something to review! (It was 13 days after the deadline, at this point.)

The Tribunal service also told me that if the DWP had still not responded by the time my appeal had been reviewed, it would be referred to a legal officer for a decision on how to proceed.

Has anyone encountered this kind of situation, before, and what happened?

I'm wondering what the legal officer might decide. Do they have the power to rule on the appeal?

Is it very common for the DWP to miss their response deadline?

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Comments

chiarieds

Hi @Commanded2bwell - I have always read on here that it's quite common for the DWP to not respond by their deadline, & that HMCTS will then usually give them another month, & sometimes another extension. If they don't eventually respond, then your tribunal would just go ahead without the DWP's input.

Can I just check that you've received the 'bundle' for your tribunal, i.e. everything you've sent in from your PIP claim to MR, & the DWP's responses to both of these?

onebigvoice

This happens to me all the time, yet when you think what you have to go through just to get a hearing date, and then allow a judge to increase the deadline date for the DWP who have had ample time to send in what every they wanted as support for them. Why extend any further? I had two extentions to the DWP time limit for the case to be heard in their absence. Yet they, on final appearance did not supply any of the document requests I made going back to 2020. (remembering the lines: (I am so sorry it has taken so long to reply…… and, we havea current backlog of over 10 weeks for information to be processed…… Where in the judicial system does it say that? Dates are there for a reason: To mitigate liability on either side so that if there is a genuine Claw back that an amicable arrangement can be made.

If you think that, then I am afraid you need to think again…. (MY OPINION)

When in a Tribunal, no documents were produced by the DWP in Support.

An appology letter was sent to me 11 months before admitting there serioujs typos and grammatical errors.

No amendment number, signature from both, or date was ever sent as to what they altered on the original PDF Documnt.

Yet I was not allowed to question the Secretary of State, or ask why they were in a tribunal, since the case was thrown out as no reasonable prospect of success?

How could you do that when a previous (2) hearings supported my claim for compensation, and I had a CD made of the proceedings stating that was not what they were there to decide.

Now I am old english, and deal with Old English, so, when they start talking about what we are there to decide, and I am not the part of "WE" only the judge and the Secretary of State you begin to wonder, what went on before the tribunal where I was made to wait 1/2 hour after the slot time and the Secretary of State was already in there as I was outside the room before being called in?

They stick to strict time scales in your direction but not when it comes to resolving minor issues, that over time result in a major up set.

Mijuka

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/137091/pip-tribunal-dwp-did-not-respond-or-provide-evidence

My appeal re PIp is with Tribunal… did it electronically, the systems said that DWP must respond by 19 August 2025. of course DWP did not, I complained to Tribunal….September 2 i got reply from Tribunal that legal officer reminded DWP that DWP had not reponded. interesting fact is that 9 September in the electronic system DWP pressed the button - responded.. However, I did not get their responce yet.. althouth royal post dated 11 from Leicester already arrived from the bank on 12 September. However legal officer's from Tribunal reply was vague : smth like if DWP does not respond Tribunal may start without it… when nobody can tell

Mijuka

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/137091/pip-tribunal-dwp-did-not-respond-or-provide-evidence

about DWP missing the date.,. it just happened to me.. they did not respond at all… after reading your story i started to worry… as i wan to submit some more evidence but i am just still waiting for DWP response.. sorry can not advise you on anything.. myself very green, doing it first time

Albus_Alumni

Hey @Mijuka this discussion is from July, so again, you may not receive a response. You can see the date of when people have posted their comments just under their names. Hopefully that helps. 😊

Mijuka

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1052937#Comment_1052937

that is true about sticking to time frame for us but not for themselves

onebigvoice

As a further 'opinion' if you have managed to get a Tribunal hearing, and a date, then technically you win, because all the discussions about the need for claw backs would have already been had. Second, it is in your interests to go to the hearing, because if you believe you are right the tribunal is there to give a 'level playing field' and to assist both side should there be a need to have a claw back of benefits, since the payment plan of repayment would be set up to allow no further stress on the claimant or cause there quality of life to be compounded by paying excessive amounts out of you money you receive, at the cost of heating, eating, or paying other bills from the council like Council Tax and Housing rent.
I know some times I can be 'abrasive' in my comments but in order to get heard some times you have to bang the drum louder. BUT, I am not in it to fug the system, but to get claimants who have been treated unfairly there just rewards, and the benefits they are entitled to under the Laws and Charters that govern us all.

If you want to change the system or you want to have something looked at in your community then contact you local MP. Ask them what is happening.

Some can't be bothered, and that's O K, but you are already in a Community. SCOPE is our community where answers will be given, not only by me, even as an OPINION, or by Admin, who work tirelessly behind the scenes keeping up with the ever changing legislations and laws that affect us all.

As you can see the changes to UC and how it affect you posts.

ALL, continue to post since we can all go forward as a TEAM and a Community that can ask the questions others don't want to ask and get legislations changed to suit the here and now, that is why the Social Security Act was changed recently. (ish.)