Appeals additional evidence

HelenaC wrote: Hi, I appealed my tribunal decision that I was not entitled to ESA. I won my appeal,
the original decision was set aside, I now have to go to a new tribunal. I am allowed to submit further evidence. I have information about my medical conditions taken from charities that support and research my illness. The information I have collected backs up my arguments. Is it appropriate to send this information as additional evidence? I don’t want to annoy the tribunal doctor but until I get there, I have no idea what his speciality is. A couple of friends who help me are going to write letters of support for me. Any tips regarding these letters would be very useful. Thanks.

There is no reason why you should not provide this information as evidence, the Judge will almost certainly only have a limited knowledge of medical matters and if your condition is rare or easily confused with another then it will still be of value to the medical member of the panel as well.

That said you should ensure that you do not overload the panel with information, whilst they have a responsibility to look at all evidence that does not mean that they will absorb if it is verbose. I would suggest one good reference document and links to others that they can pursue if they require more information.

Also you should remember that an ESA Decision is based on you meeting the Descriptors and not a specific condition, so you want the evidence to explain why this is the case rather than it covering generalised problems that you might have.

Gordon