Asking Tribunal to extend award?

milan1995

Hi there new to the site so please bare with me. 
I recently had an appeal for PIP and was successful in being awarded the high rate in both components.

When I received my decision notice there was a typo mistake on the length of my award, cut a long story short I had to write back to the tribunal and wait 3 weeks for the Judge to confirm the correction would be allowed. 

Due to this I could not apply for a mobility car which I needed. When I received the correction, I went to go. ahead and apply and was told because I was 20 days out of the 12 month deadline I was not successful in my application and I would need DWP or the Tribunal to grant me an extension on my award. 

Has as anyone had this or similar happen to them and had a good outcome, very worried I’m could possibly suffer because of a mistake I didn’t make.

poppy123456

Hi,

It seems like the Tribunal awarded you a short length of award even though there was a mistake. When you have a Tribunal win you need to wait for DWP to accept the award and for payment to be in place before ordering your car, you can't order a car until this happens. This is because DWP have the same chance we do to appeal the decision and they have 1 month from the date of the decision to request the statement of reasons and record of proceedings. Once this is received they have to find an error in law before they can appeal.  All this can take between 5-8 weeks, sometimes longer. By the time that is done then your award will be even less, even if there wasn't a mistake on the decision letter from the Tribunal.

The only way you can challenge a decision from a Tribunal is to request the statement of reasons and record of proceedings within 1 month of the date of the decision. Once you receive this you need to find an error in law, if this is found you can take it further.

The only way DWP will change the award length is put in a change of circumstances. Doing this you'll be re-assessed which is very risky because you could lose everything you already have.

BenefitsTrainingCo

milan1995,

If I've understood what happened correctly, there was a typo in the tribunal decision. If it had been correct all along, your award would have been long enough to get a car and you've had applied in time. But because of the mistake, you didn't manage to apply in time and even though your award has now been confirmed as longer, it doesn't meet the criteria (ie, at the time you applied to Motability, your award had less than 12 months to run).

As Poppy points out, one route to sorting this would be to get your award extended by disputing the tribunal's decision (ie this time, not saying it was a typo but that they made an error of law). Not only would that be difficult, but I assume the tribunal decision was now quite a while ago, so you might be beyond the time limits.

Or you could say to DWP that you think your prognosis for mobility problems is now longer, but that's very likely, as Poppy says, to result in reassessment (although of course, that could happen sooner or later anyway, assuming you want to continue to receive the mobility component, as you are either going to get a review form or you're going to have to make a renewal claim within 6 months of the end of your current award). 

As far as not having a car goes, the mistake is down to the HMCTS (her majesty's courts and tribunal service). They have a complaints system, which you could use. Complaining isn't going to affect your current PIP award at all. You should point out any additional expenses you've add due to not having a car, although bear in mind that instead, you've kept your mobility component (so this may offset some, but not all of the expenses), plus you've had had to pay for some of the things that come with having a car such as fuel etc. It may be difficult to put a financial value on some of the problems not having a car has caused you, but you could explain these in the complaint.

Details of the complaints procedure are here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-courts-and-tribunals-service/about/complaints-procedure

Will