After appeal being adjourned my wife doesnt want to go to next appeal due to anxiety and stress .

Lynn101

I am pasting the first post below for anyone who cares to read it but here is the short and tall of it  . After waiting 13 months for our appeal due to the dwp not providing evidence the judge very apologetically adjourned the case so he has time to read the case notes . My wife was quite distraught and crying at the first hearing and says she cant face going back again . Does she have a choice and will this go against her if she doesnt turn up . All the best .

( original post ) 

 ( I am  typing on my wifes behalf ) . At her last assessment the assessor removed all of her "Planning and following A journey" points and some others . This in turn meant we lost the motability vehicle which i  relied on .

I will try to keep this as short and sweet as possible . She has multiple health conditions which affect her greatly in various areas of life  , Osteo arthritis of Spine , Neck , Knees ( these are just the confirmed areas there are probably more )  , AC-1 ( Arnold Charis malformation ) , Fibromyalgia , Asthma , Irritable bladder , ectopic heartbeats , Andshe cannot take much strong pain medication for fear of blood in urine or beta blockers for ectopic heartbeats due to her asthma I also suffer anxiety and forgetfulness due to the Fibro . 

The original assessor turned up at our home without any of her case study notes and the whole thing was a farce from the beginning , She then proceeded to outright lie about many of the things my husband said to her and so we ended up in this predicament. Yesterday ( our court date ) we got a call from the court 2 hours before the trial asking if we could go early so they could study the evidence from our notes as the DWP hadnt provided evidence even after a court order - we have been waiting 13 months for a court date , so the dwp hadnt mamaged to provide their argument in 13 months which is ridiculous .

We have a well typed report and all the medical evidence in our favour however the judge adjourned the trial because he didnt realize there was so much to read through ( 135 page report ) . As it happened a representative from the DWP turned up to the and he didnt even have any paperwork with him . The judge gave him a stern telling off and told him that after 13 months it was less than acceptable to have not sent the documents to the court and especially to have turned up unprepared. we did all sit and present certain aspects of our case - although all the dwp representative tried to bring to the table was a point from a 2017 award when we were discussing our 2018 award he literally had nothing to offer concerning the claim we were discussing .  

the judge has actually stated on the adjournment paper it is due to dwp not submitting any evidence . He was very understanding and apologized to us repeatedly stating he didnt think he could do our case justice but we should be aware it could take another 4 weeks to 4 months for the next date to be set .     My question is , does this seem usual or have we been taken for fools by the DWP , could they still offer a settlement or are we past that now , sorry for the questions its our first time in this predicament and my wife is very stressed by it all. All the best 
 

atlas46

Hi @Lynn101

It was good that you where both provided with an apology by the chair of the Tribunal and the DWP was found to be wanting.

Your wife should not be concerned with these events, as is often found when cases are set for hearing by a Tribunal, the DWP bulks at it’s responsibly.

Importantly, over 74% of appeals to the Tribunal, are found in favour of the claimant.

There has reported evidence on this forum, of offers made by the DWP, to awards being made to avoid hearings, at a Tribunal.

If such an offer is made, then I strongly suggest that you seek welfare rights advice, on a face to face basis, by say, your local CAB.

Keep us informed.

Lynn101

@atlas46 thank you for the up building words i will pass them on to my wife .