Waiting for an appeal

laurapeach

Hi everyone, hope you're all doing well

I submitted my appeal a few weeks ago (I know it'll be a while) so still haven't heard about the DWP's decision.

I recently had a neurology appointment which has confirmed some of the symptoms I have been having and other tests that are going to be done; is it worth sending this off as extra evidence? It's about the symptoms I've been having since I applied back in January, mainly weakness in my right arm and hand which makes some of the activities harder without assistance. I also have my GP notes from the last two years now. Would I send this to the Tribunal Service or to DWP themselves?

chiarieds

Hi @laurapeach - any medical info which helps illustrate the functional problems you have performing activities of daily living &/mobilitity should now be sent to HMCTS. Your medical notes from your neurology appointment showing that you have right-sided weakness may corroborate your evidence, but please check through your GP's notes to see if they also do.....if they don't, then it's unlikely they would help.

janer1967

Hi @laurapeach

Hope you are well and that the advice given answers your query 

Good luck with your appeal let us know how it goes 

mikehughescq

You send it into HMCTS but it can sometimes be useful to send to DWP also if it might reshape their decision. 

In reality your evidence really says no more than “I have these symptoms I already told you about”. Given that the burden of proof in social security is not “beyond reasonable doubt” but is “on the balance of probabilities” there is arguably not much to be gained from this evidence. Unless DWP hold evidence saying you have no such symptoms then on balance you do and evidence confirming that is nice but non-essential.

It also only confirms “some” of your symptoms and mentions further tests. In reality that’s not going to change the DWP decision beyond suggesting they should make a short award as the result of any outstanding tests. Unfortunately you have a duty to do-operate with a tribunal so you can’t withhold this evidence. It has to go on and would very much go even more against you were it to only come to light later. 

The more important element here, indeed the only important element, is which specific  points scoring activities do your symptoms prevent you from performing reliably and have you given a couple of detailed practical examples per activity of real world attempts to perform those activities?