PIP Appeals 2020?

greenman · September 2020

Hello dear Community.

Can any say how long PIP Tribunal hearings are taking following an Mandatory Reconsideration at the moment and if they are doing face2face hearings yet?

Thanks

poppy123456 · September 2020

HI,

The average wait is about 32 weeks but of course it will depend on the backlog in your area. There are starting to do some face to face hearings but only for those decisions that can't be made with either a telephone hearing or paper based. Whether there will be any changes by the time your hearing date arrives, i have no idea. You'll just need to wait to see what happens.

greenman · September 2020

I thought it might be a long wait, this is what I was told.
Hopefully normal hearings resume by then.

janer1967 · September 2020

Hi and welcome glad you have joined us

Good luck for your appeal and that you are not waiting too long

mikehughescq · September 2020

Average delay is reducing daily as there is literally no backlog at present. There are face to face hearings but only in exceptional circumstances. I’ve not come across any as yet and nor have colleagues.

Chloe_Scope · September 2020

Hi @greenman, I hope you don't have to wait long, please do let us know how you get on.

greenman · September 2020

I hope it's not too long and that Ill get a face2face hearing. I don't think I'll be coping well with a telephone hearing. I can just live in hope as do many others I expect.

mikehughescq · September 2020

You haven’t yet posted anything to suggest you would have exceptional circumstances and there will be no routine face to face hearings until at least March 2021. If you were to lodge an appeal today the delay is no more than 8 weeks after the bundle has been received.

Tasha88 · September 2020

I appealed to tribunal in January 2020 - finally had my hearing last week! It was a long wait. The hearing was over the phone with a judge, doctor and disability specialist on the call with me. It lasted about an hour with the doctor asking questions about mobility and the disability specialist asking questions about daily living. I was then given the chance to ask questions or elaborate on anything I wanted to. My appeal was successful, so although a long wait, worth it in the long run!

greenman · September 2020

I'm worried I won't cope with the telephone hearing well. I would say I'm an exception that would benefit from a face2face but I can imagine there will be others with more difficulty than myself and if it is that no one has had one due to exception circumstance I doubt I would.
Tasha I'm glad your hearing went well.

mikehughescq · September 2020

Not coping well with a telephone hearing isn’t going to fall into the exceptions. Some people find face to face stressful. Some people find phone hearings stressful. However, the view is generally taken that this is momentary stress rather than a permanent thing i.e. any hearing is going to be a little stressful but that’s only natural and once it’s over your stress level will drop. Generally speaking tribunals are intelligent enough to understand when people are struggling and factor that in. It is unlikely to go against you. It’s more likely to work in your favour if they can hear your issues first hand. If you struggle to articulate stuff or get upset that obviously isn’t nice but your case won’t suffer for it.

In order to be classified as an exception you would need to show something like you had no money at all or were at immediate threat of homelessness or had sever health issues which could be made worse by a call (also the criteria for an expedited hearing) and that there was no means by which a telephone hearing could happen e.g. you don’t have a phone; don’t have access to a phone; have a phobia of phones; can’t use one because you can’t speak clearly following a stroke and so on.

PIP Appeals 2020?

Replies