I have my WCA Tribunal in 2 weeks

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wizboque

I have a tribunal for LCWRA in 2 weeks, I was awarded LCW due to autism but I cannot afford to live and the process was disgustingly overdrawn for me, I want to challenge their decision so I want to know what to expect.

I was unable to take the call for my initial assessment so they said they’d call me
another time.

They did not ring back until a year later, after I’d called multiple times to chase it up. It took 15 months to get a callback date. Every time I’d call I’d get told I was still in the booking stage and they’d get back to me.

They finally sent me a letter saying that my appointment would be between 2-6pm on X date (It was a long while ago now I do not remember exactly which date).

On the date of the assessment, they called me at 10AM to ask if I’d be available to take the assessment between 2-6PM. I found it strange. I said yes and the phone call ended. They then rang me back 5 minutes later to do the assessment.

I was completely thrown off because I mentally prepared myself for 2-6PM and was a nervous wreck in the assessment. The lady said I definitely wasn’t in a place to be working.

They awarded me with LCW but nothing changed. The payments were the same, they were still booking appointments for me to meet them face to face despite fit notes for social anxiety and autism.

I also have hyperinflated lungs and a whole bunch of discomforts since January 2022. I’m under the long covid clinic but my appointment with them was recently rescheduled to January 2023. So I’ve not seen them yet.

I have the local community advice and law centre as an advocate but I’ve only actually spoken to the lady maybe 3 times and now I have a date I have no idea what to expect.

I just know there’s 3 people there, but is my advocate going to be there? Does she speak for me? Do I speak? What gets said?

Can someone please explain?

calcotti

If you have an advocate then your arrangement with them is between you and them. The tribunal will expect to speak to you not your advocate but your advocate may be able to make comments. The tribunal will have read the paper tribunal and will want to speak to you about the difficulties you experience in respect of the PIP advocates. They will want to ask you about matters which are unclear from the paperwork. 

They are not interested in the process of your claim. They simply want to get sufficient understanding of your difficulties to be able to reach a decision about an appropriate level of PIP award..