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PIP Appeal
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[Deleted User]
Posts: 33 Courageous
had my pip tribunal today. Worst day of my life yet again worse than the face to face assessment. I was absolutly grilled by the judge not a very nice person at all , no sense of humanity what so ever. Instead of listening to me she was more interesdted in trying to make out i was lying about something and kept cutting me off ! The doctor was nice, so was the disability lady to a point. All they focused on was the face to face assemtment I had 18 months ago and the fact I used to work part time !! Which most of the report was a lie but they kept challenging me on it regardless.
All i can say is prepare for battle if u have a PIP tribunal its not as laid back as some people make out. They did not even ask about my mobility??!!
Told i will get my decision in post. Awful experience did not get to say what I wanted at all, thought that was the point of the whole thing ??
All i can say is prepare for battle if u have a PIP tribunal its not as laid back as some people make out. They did not even ask about my mobility??!!
Told i will get my decision in post. Awful experience did not get to say what I wanted at all, thought that was the point of the whole thing ??
Replies
It is persecution of the Disabled
Discrimination of the disabled, they make their own rules up and don’t want to help.
You mentioned work - I put on my claim form that I do volunteer work as a Town Councillor which helps with meeting people and distracts me away from my own problems. It too was used against me by both the assessor and the DWP as if I could do that then there can be nothing wrong with me. I quoted Tanni Grey Thompson who not only does so much for the disabled, is a Paralympian, TV presenter and who now sits in the House of Lords AND was transferred from DLA to PIP with no issues whatsoever.
That fell on deaf ears!!
Hopeless
The same would be said for those PIP claimants that claim carers allowance for their spouse/partner. It is seen that if you can manage to care for someone else, why can't you care for yourself.
If I don’t get the result I need then my only option is the higher tribunal which I’m totally terrified of after what I’ve been through in this tribunal. ( not sure if I could put myself through it again)
I feel annoyed with the system.
The system is an absolute sham and someone needs to get a grip of it and stop making us feel worse and making us suffer any more than we already are.
In the past five years and after 3 face to face PIP assessments Motability have taken back 3 cars from me.
I'm 70 but still put in a full working week (entirely voluntary as a Town Councillor) and I need to get about the town. Having no car I have to put on friends and neighbours to get me around to see the residents. Very difficult at times.
I would fight the latest decision - Enhanced Care & Mobility to 0 points, if only I could find someone knowledgeable locally to take it on for me.
Its upsetting to see how she tries to cope and yet feels like shes having to beg for help !!!
Maybe someone has passed info about you to the fraud hotline?
Keep fighting!
I am very fortunate that my doctor is more clued up on fibro and is such a big help. He has written me a really good letter of support but wether they take it into acccount is another issue.
So going back to someone reporting u just makes me so angry really does.. how do they know what u are going through or what u are suffering from. NOT ALL DISABILITIES ARE VISIBLE.
I’m in shock!
I don’t understand how they came to this decision .. I use many aids, I can’t work . Can’t cook can’t walk far can’t go out much, can’t shower without help can’t dress without help the list goes on. And I have a strong letter of support from my doctor. I really don’t know where I go from here
Sorry to hear your bad news. You can appeal to an upper tribunal if there has been an error of law. You need to ask judge for a statement of reasons and then show this to CAB, local authority welfare rights or a solicitor to id an error of law if there was one. Or you can make a new PIP claim right away. remember, PIP is awarded for how your conditions affect your daily living and mobility. Try to get f2f advice from CAB or similar, or welfare rights.
I honestly cannot put in a fresh claim this whole process has been so awful it has destroyed me ... trying to get hold of CAB proving impossible
You are not on your own either - been there too at a Tribunal ( I was described as a drug dealer and non credible witness at an appeal for my wife's Attendance Allowance claim).
After 3 PIP face to face assessments in the past 5 years I knew that I too could not go on any longer having to fight every decision that the DWP came up with.
I just gave up the whole thing earlier this year as at 70 the system was making me ill.
As for the CAB, I went there looking for help in 2013 and was told to go home and they would get back in touch with me to come back in - never heard a thing from them in the past 5 years!! I was probably deemed a waste of space.
You need to chase tribunal clerk, not PIP, for statement of reasons.
@Mickey1
If CAB are of no help, try local authority welfare rights.
thank you.
To everyone
we are all in a similar situation and it’s just so wrong. I know for certain I cannot put myself through any this any longer then have broke me down.
You may be lucky as some area in the UK do seem to be hanging onto them against the odds.
Those councils must have more money stashed away than they are letting on.
A tribunal has 20 to 40 minutes ordinarily. They’ll usually have previewed the papers in advance too. That’s an incredibly short time to hear verbal evidence obtained by concise answers to specific questions; weigh ALL the evidence; make findings of fact and apply the law to those facts. They do that 6 to 8 times a day and the amount of writing involved for a judge is the equivalent of doing 2 3 hour exams. A tribunal is inquisitorial not adversarial but it’s also not about them listening to you exclusively. A judge will not generally cut someone off because they’re rude but because they need specific answers to specific questions in a short time. If you don’t answer the question; can’t give a quick concise answer or see the end of each question as the opportunity to say what you want to get off your chest then yes they will interrupt you to get the thing back on track. If you’re the claimant in the waiting room due to go in at 11;20am abc the clerk is having to calm you down as the 10:40 has over-run and is still nowhere near finished then a tribunal judge has to weigh that too.
Everybody would agree it’s nice to have your day in court and if there’s time to spare then sure they’ll let you say whatever extra you feel the need to but a tribunal is absolutely not there to just let you say what you want. You’ve had a claim pack; an assessment; an MR; an appeal letter and hopefully a written submission to do that. Their job is to weigh all the evidence; find facts and then apply the law to the facts found.
They do indeed focus on your date of claim as that is a legal requirement. They can look at evidence which post dates the date of claim but only if it says something about the date of claim. It has been said many times before on here, not least by me, that it’s easy enough to rubbish a HCP report and with most tribunals you’re kicking at an open door in that respect but the mistake is to think that rubbishing a HCP wins your case. It only gives the HCP report less weight and whether you win or not depends very much on the weight of your own evidence. I have also recently asserted on a different thread that people tend to get the tribunal they prepare for. Set yourself up for battle and that’s what you get. Prepare your case; get face to face advice and representation if you can; understand the basics and most times the experience will be straightforward even if you disagree with the outcome.
I’d be interested to know if the OP requested a statement of reasons or record of proceedings. If not then the only way of knowing what influenced the outcome was if there was an invitation back in to collect the summary decision which was accompanied by a few words of explanation. Without either of those it’s pure guess work as to whether part-time work; driving etc. played any part in the decision. The fact that questions were asked can’t be taken to infer anything. I note that all the evidence you talk of (and I appreciate your posts won’t be the full picture) is all medical based rather than anecdotal. PIP isn’t about your conditions; treatment or meds. It’s about the specific consequences of your conditions and linking those to points scoring activities by giving examples of how you can’t do those things reliably.
The invite back in doesn’t come if the tribunal were running late or felt you would be aggressive if asked to return for a negative decision.
Once you have the SOR/ROP you can get someone to look at it from your local CA; independent advice centre; unemployed workers centre; law centre or local authority welfare rights service.
A small number have posted on the forum saying they had a bad experience. There is another thread on here currently live where a number of people say the exact opposite. The experience IS variable but claimants contribute to that as much as tribunals.
But I answered it saying that I was also prescribed the same medication (Oramorph) and by greater volume so I would give her some of mine until her pain subsided.
That's when all hell broke loose and I was told to leave the room. Being invited back in 5mins later the doctor accused me of being a drug dealer. I countered that I would never given the circumstances he had outlined leave my wife in pain so presumed that he would..
A few minutes later a few more comments/answers from me I was told to leave permanently.