Tribunal overturned DWP decision but still waiting - help?!

Nicky69

Hi, was wondering if anyone could help. I appealed my PIP as they gave me lower rate mobility. However, I have numerous disabilities after a road traffic accident 27 years ago. I am under a number of consultants pending further operations.

I went to a tribunal last month, and they overturned the DWP's decision. As I have not heard from the DWP, I phoned the helpline.  They have told me they have not received the statement from the judge as to why they overturned the dwp's decision. The lady then told me that, they are awaiting paperwork from the court for a caseworker to look at it. Who could decide to appeal against the tribunal judge's decision. 

I am beside myself, I have fought so hard with loads of evidence I have gathered to support my case. Now I fear, I have anot her long battle in front of me.

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hello. This is tricky, as usually you are not paid the revised level of benefit until the DWP has decided whether or not to appeal against the tribunal's decision. If the DWP does decide to appeal, you are not normally paid the revised amount until the Upper Tribunal decides the case. However, in some situations you can ask to be paid if you are left in financial hardship. The DWP is always supposed to act in a timely manner in these situations, so it may be worth writing in  again to ask for a speedy decision on whether or not the DWP intends to appeal, arguing that the stress of the proceedings is having a negative effect on your health. After all, the tribunal must have considered you have a good case if it increased your standard rate mobility to enhanced rate mobility (I'm assuming from your post that this is what happened). Take encouragement from the fact that you won your tribunal, and that you have accumulated a lot of helpful evidence. If you have not had any help so far from a specialist adviser, then the Scope helpline may be able to put you in touch with someone locally. Members of the website called Benefits and Work (www.benefitsandwork.co.uk) may also be able to offer support while you are going through this tricky period. The important thing is not to give up, and to give the DWP a written prod to hurry them along. 
Good luck,

Jayne

Nicky69

Thank you so much. My support worker is going to chase it up for me, as ringing dwp leaves me so distressed 

BenefitsTrainingCo

Nicky69,

Sorry to hear this. Just to let you know there are time limits for the DWP to appeal. Once they get the statement of reasons from the judge (this is probably the paperwork they are waiting for), they have one month to put in their further appeal. The tribunal can extend this time limit but it's quite unlikely. So to put in another way, if the DWP haven't appealed in about a month from now, it will be too late. 

I know this doesn't help a lot, but it does mean that you should find out soon whether or not the DWP plan to appeal, and then you can take it from there. As Jayne says, help from a specialist adviser would be highly recommended if the DWP are appealing. A local Citizens Advice or Law Centre may be able to help you.

Will

ClydeBuilt

You would think that when theyr 'dealing' with cases and decide to stop paying you whatever your claiming, you would be entitled to a basic amount while the decision is argued over?
Perhaps something above basic ESA?

BenefitsTrainingCo

ClydeBuilt yes I often think that would be helpful - but no, it doesn't work like that at all in PIP. It's completely suspension/non payment.

Will

wildlife

@Nicky69 Let me say what others have not mentioned, that the DWP can only appeal a Tribunal decision on a point of law. They cannot appeal the decision itself just because they don't agree with it. The chances of them finding anything to appeal are very slim as not only do they have to find something but they then have to prove that the decision was not made according to the law governing how the PIP system works. As judges know the law then this is very unlikely to happen. In my humble opinion these letters that DWP send out should be scrapped and claimants only notified if there is a problem. DWP are using this as yet another way to drag claimants down and to delay payment over and above a reasonable timescale. To say it's at a time when claimants have just won their Appeal makes it all the more unacceptable. Many others have posted about this with the same fear as you have experienced. Statistics for the likelihood of this happening should be given to people instead of making it sound like it could well happen.

CockneyRebel

It has not been said yet but there is no time constaint on the judge to provide a statement of reason. It sounds as though this is the hold up, you need to ring the tribunal for an update

CR