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Written Submission - PIP Tribunal

bravo1
bravo1 Community member Posts: 3 Listener
Hi hoping for a bit of advice.
The lady that I care for is waiting for a PIP appeal date.  I am at present trying to write a written submission for the tribunal and its a bit of struggle.   Bit of background info:-   She had previously been on Incapacity Benefit from 2001. Then in 2014 DLA at the higher rate on both Mobility & Care Components with an indefinite award.  From 2014 also in receipt of ESA [Support Group] and [Severe Disability Premium].   She had a Home Assessment at which I was present and to be honest it was a total farce.  She then received her award letter from the DWP Decision Maker which awarded her 8 points Standard Rate for Daily Living & 10 Points Standard Rate for Mobility.    The award letter did not make sense and was full of errors and inconsistencies:  things were stated that were not said, things that were said have been completely ignored and not mentioned.  The icing on the cake was that it said that the Physical Examination showed ********.  There was no Physical Examination, she had asked the HP if he wanted to do a physical examination it would be fine and each time the HP refused.   He stated that he would not be doing a Physical Examination as he was running late and had another appointment and to trust him to fill that bit in later!!!   I wrote on her behalf to request a Mandatory Reconsideration explaining the errors and inconsistencies and the points and descriptors that she believed matched her needs and the reasons.  I also mentioned that I was retired from the NHS and had I carried out a patient assessment in the same manner as their assessor did, I would have been sacked.    The Mandatory Reconsideration letter confirmed the award letter from the DWP Decision Maker which awarded her 8 points Standard Rate for Daily Living & 10 Points Standard Rate for Mobility the letter was pretty much the same as the award letter except that also had different inconsistencies. So I am now at that stage of the Written Submission.    She has received the DWP Bundle with the HP Report and it should receive the Booker Prize for fiction. The part that the DWP are giving their reasons for dismissing the appeal, they say is  because they that the award is correct and they believe the HP.   I have already the given the reasons why she thinks the points awarded were incorrect in the Request for Mandatory Reconsideration and in the basis for the Appeal. So my question is do I need to mention all that again in a Written Submission or just list all the mistakes, errors, inconsistencies and hope for the best.   I am sorry for the long post but I would feel so awful,  if because of something I missed out etc, was to go against the lady I care for.    

Many Thanks

Bravo1

Comments

  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Community member Posts: 53,359 Disability Gamechanger
    Hi,

    The only advice i have for you is that the Tribunal will not be interested at all in any lies or inconsistencies in the report and they won't appreciate you mentioning any of those.

    All they will be interested in is where the claimant thinks they should have scored those points and the reasons why.
    Adding 2-3 real life examples of what happened the last time they attempted that activity for each descriptor that applies will also help. Good luck.
    I would appreciate it if members wouldn't tag me please. I have all notifcations turned off and wouldn't want a member thinking i'm being rude by not replying.
    If i see a question that i know the answer to i will try my best to help.
  • justg72
    justg72 Community member Posts: 173 Pioneering
    Hi Bravo1

    Sounds very similar to my experience when I had my F2F assessment. When me and my friend who came to the F2F read the report we thought that they had been a mix up and the report was another persons. I had questions answered what were not even asked the physical examination not completed however in my report it stated it had. Also so many errors from start to finish.

     My advice would be to complain to the assessment services in writing and they have 20 days to respond to the this. You can get the contact details from D.W.P.  If you receive an outcome which you do not agree with or unhappy about you can  once again put a second complaint in. If you receive a response you do not agree with again, you can then escalate it further to this time the Independent, Case, Examiner (I.C.E.) for short. You can only get I.C.E. to investigate after you have followed all the correct complaint procedures. I.C.E. then will look at your case and see if there's evidence for them to investigate your clients case.  

    When writing a submission for the tribunal you need to look at the descriptors and state why your client should score points there because of their condition which prevents them from carrying out the tasks in a safe, reliable, repeatable manner etc.
    Then put examples of what happened when they last tried to do this.
    I have uncontrolled temporal lobe epilepsy and have daily seizures. I have had a near drowning situation in the bath because of a seizure, I used this as an example on the bathing question. However my nurse evidenced this in a letter and the HP scored me 0 points for bathing, which I found unbelievable! 

    I also got my local M.P. involved with mine and he wrote many letters on my behalf. D.W.P. even wrote to him stating that they had changed my award after the M.R. appeal I put in and stated that they had changed my award and I am now in receipt of daily care at an enhanced rate which is untrue. The errors in mine are unbelievable and like you said above you would have been sacked. I had a professional job before my diagnosis and if I had made all these errors I would have lost my job as well. 

    There is a website called: www.pipinfo.net there is really good information on this site it also covers tribunals and the case laws regarding P.I.P.

    I have my tribunal this month and I have had to wait more than a year for it to come, so I understand what stress it causes and it can also impact on your health making it far worse.

    Good Luck with the tribunal.



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