Tribunal refusals

ScottM · November 2019

I have just had 2 tribunals for UC work capability & Pip. I had been awarded PIP for 4 years previously & these results have really affected my mental health. I was a witness to a fatal car crash back in 2012 when two people from my home village were racing each other after one bought a new car. He hit a man in a white Citroen Berlingo and although he was still alive as i got to him sadly by the time we got him out the back of the van he had no pulse. The boy pled not guilty at court and i had to give evidence on his trial. He got 4 years in prison and was out just after 2 1/2 years. This ended up with me suffering from PTSD & i was given counselling & anti depressants for 6 months. I was diagnosed with an underdeveloped 5th vertibrae & scoliosis in my early 20's after trying to get into the army & it wasnt until i was 27 that after an MRI scan that the doctors diagnosed me with spina bifida! This was really tough to get my head round it but made sense with the chronic back pain i was suffering. Im on 31 tablets a day a mixture of painkillers nerve blockers & anti depressants & anxiety tablets. I really struggle bringing up all my problems at the tribunals. I feel its shocking how they ask you about all your problems & spit you back out of the medicals & tribunals without a thought of how these things being brought up can affect you. Im now appealing both the PIP & work capability for Universal Credit after my first tier tribunals were both refused despite all my health disabilities. Im thinking of seeking legal advice for the way ive been treated and the affect its had on me recently bringing up thoughts of suicide after being refused for PIP & Universal Credit. Both the tribunals were quite close to each other date wise. The pip one i had on the Thursday then Universal Credit was the following Tuesday. The council information & advice hub done all my paperwork for me but dont attend the Tribunals so i had to go myself to both & being quite shy i feel they seen me as an easy target. Does anyone think seeking legal advice about these tribunals making me feel so depressed & angry especially when your asked to list all your problems on a piece of paper which brought back all the problems I had with PTSD & then as if that wasn't bad enough they refused both Tribunals. This has ground me down so much that i thought theres no point in living a life where your left on £60 a week to run a house on your own & declared fit for work when ive struggled to keep a job since my early 20's being off so much ends up causing so much hassle with jobs and again this would play severely on my mental health trying to be normal but putting so much strain on my back trying to be "normal"

If anyone can advise me whats best to do in my case & if lawyers would be a good idea or not.

Thank you for taking the time to read this through.

Scott M

poppy123456 · November 2019

HI and welcome,

I'm sorry to you all of that!

For both of the Tribunal decisions you won't be able to appeal either of those decisions without finding an error in law. To do this you have 1 month from the date of the decisions to request the statement of reasons and record of proceedings, which you can do by emailing HMCTS for each Tribunal hearing.

Once you receive those you need to find someone to take a look to see if they can find that error in law. If no error in law is found them i'm afraid you won't be able to take it any further.

There's no timescales how long it will take to receive those but once you do i'd advise you to speak to the advice centre that helped you with both claims.

For the PIP, you can of course start a new claim but doing this using the same evidence you previously used will very likely see another refusal.

Hope this helps.

poppy123456 · November 2019

To add to my above advice, for any benefit claim whether it's PIP or the work capability assessment, it really does help to have some knowledge. Applying for a benefit without some knowledge isn't going to help.

Both of these benefits aren't awarded based on a diagnosis, for PIP it's how those conditions affect your ability to carry out daily activity based on the PIP descriptors.

For the work capability assessment it's how those conditions affect your ability to do any type of job. It's not about the work you can't do, it's the work you can do and this is what they assess you on.

This link gives some very good information about PIP and the criteria for daily living and mobility. It's long but well worth having a read. Sadly but true, you can have a disability but if you don't fit those descriptors you won't score the points for an award.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/personal-independence-payment-assessment-guide-for-assessment-providers/pip-assessment-guide-part-2-the-assessment-criteria

Joanne_Alumni · November 2019

Hi @ScottM,

It might be worth looking to see if there is a Law Centre in your area. They can often provide free legal support to people in your situation.

If you do decide to take the claims further, to the Upper Tribunal, then you will probably need some help.

Tribunal refusals

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