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What now? Advice please.

April

I've just received the bundle from the DWP about my daughter's appeal (she has a chromosomal abnormality/learning difficulty). I am so exhausted by this. I had sent in extra evidence from her speech therapist, tutor, LSA, friends and family. It took me ages to gather together evidence, and write my letter for the appeal. Nevertheless, they seem to veto everything in favour of their own Assessment. The Assessor met her for about 50 minutes though! I am so shocked and angry that I have to fight so hard for a young girl with a learning difficulty! I will definitely take this all the way to the Tribunal, but what I want to know now is...what do I do in the meantime? Do I have to respond to the Bundle? Or do I just wait for a court date? Thanks for any advice

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April

Peasmold_01

If this is the definitive bundle, prior to the appeal, from the DWP you don't have to respond.to the DWP. However, study the contents of the bundle and present any counter arguments as a detailed list (1) (2) etc with ay **** section of each paragraph noted as a.b. etc. You do not have to send that to the DWP, but to HMCTS, they will then distribute to the various parties involved. Unfortunately, without more professionally supported evidence I think you may struggle to win. Statements by friends and family do not carry the same wight as professional evidence. If you can get your GP and or hospital consultant to write a report on your daughters condition, with how it impacts on daily living, not only for her but your family as well, that would carry more weight with the members of the Tribunal. If you can get that information, and present it at the same time as you send in your counter arguments against the DWP's bundle, all the better.

April

Thank you for your reply. I did think about getting a letter from my daughter's GP, but she doesn't really know how my daughter's learning difficulty affects her life. The speech therapist, her tutor, and LSA know how she copes from day to day. I thought their evidence would carry more weight than an Assessor who met her for such a short time. I did provide a consultant's diagnosis from when we adopted her (aged 2), but this seems to have disappeared because it wasn't in the bundle.

Chloe_Alumni

Hi @April, please find information about the appeal process here. I wish you the very best of luck with your claim and I hope you manage to get things sorted!

Yadnad

April said:

Thank you for your reply. I did think about getting a letter from my daughter's GP, but she doesn't really know how my daughter's learning difficulty affects her life. The speech therapist, her tutor, and LSA know how she copes from day to day. I thought their evidence would carry more weight than an Assessor who met her for such a short time. I did provide a consultant's diagnosis from when we adopted her (aged 2), but this seems to have disappeared because it wasn't in the bundle.

It has recently been proven that the DWP are accepting the assessors' reports as the be all and end all of professional advice. Vey little is done by the DWP to challenge these reports even when other evidence throws a different light on them. Unfortunately the DWP don't have the time or inclination to look properly at each claim weighing up all of the relevant evidence.
The DWP have targets to reach for the number of decisions made in a week.
Presumably they just leave it to the claimant who if they think the decision is wrong then let the Tribunal sort the mess out. Hence why so many awards are made by the Tribunals.

April

Interesting. Thank you for that information. I will definitely take it to Tribunal. I won't give up.

jane1973

@April no dont give up ive just got my bundle from the dwp and just waiting for a date for tribunal i sent extra info with my mandatory consideration and that wasnt looked at and the asessors report was the only thing the dwp has made the decision on yet i wasnt asked to do some of the exercises she said i did and i do 100metre walks around a park which i really dont know where that came from and i answered some of my questions with humour but as anyone knows when you have a face2 face it is anything but fun, but hey il take it to tribunal and if its only to get my voice heard then its all worth it xx

Dee1961

The DWP has twice taken assessors guidance and refused my husband any PIP for his disabilities. Both times we went to tribunal in presence of a doctor, someone from Disability Scotland, and a judge. On second occasion there was a DWP representative present who questioned why our children had bought their dad a wheelchair and a dispensing box for his meds. To be honest, the judge tore him to shreds stating did he actually think we would go to expense of wheelchair to defraud the DWP of benefits.
Earlier this year my husband had a liver transplant due to diabetes complications. It has also affected his walking and further heart problems meant he was reassessed due to changes. We had a nurse out to house to assess him and even she said was farcical. Still awaiting outcome and that was on 9th May....just a change of circumstance.
Ask for an assessment of yoyr daughterto be done in her home environment next time so they can see how it affects her in her normal situations

jane1973

@Dee1961 have u had asessors that dont tell the truth on thier reports?

April

Thanks for your replies, everyone. Good luck with your appeals. I've just realised that my bundle's covering letter from the DWP contradicts their Mandatory Consideration letter. The bundle letter says that my daughter was awarded 0 points for cooking a meal, but the MR letter awarded her 2 points!

Topkitten

I would always say never provide too much information or it won't get read. A little accurate and conclusive information is much more likely to have an impact. In today's world no one has time to do anything properly so try to think about how you would view it if you looked at what you provide and have 10 minutes to deal with it knowing nothing in advance.

TK

Dee1961

Jane I have. Many over the years x

jane1973

@Dee1961 ive only had two asesents the first one was a paramedic and after i recieved the report it was spot on and exactly as i said it, second was in april this year i gad a murse and most of it was rubbish and she put in the report things that werent true and said i completed exercises that she never asked me to do and said i walked 5 metres and it was just 3 steps and dwp stopped my pip on her report and im so sad as how can anyone live with themselves knowing what they put in someones report is not the truth? Did u appeal ypurs?

jane1973

Just looked at my spelling omg ? horrendous sorry

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