ESA Tribunal soon-desperately need help please!

Hi guys,

This is the second time typing this, so fingers cross it posts this time.

I desperately need advice and help please. I am also sorry in advance for the long post, I just need to get this all out.. My mum's tribunal is 2nd July 2015.

My mum applied for ESA in June2014. Due to a backlog her WCA wasn’t until Feb 2015. The result of which she scored 0 points.

When applying for ESA initially we mainly filled on the form about her right hand pain and depression. But by the time her WCA came, her condition had deteriorated to pain in both hands, her back and left leg. Which has greatly affected her daily function. She has been having chest pains since xmas time. There is a history of hypertension and insomnia too.

This has caused problems because she hasn’t had consistent care at the GP and often ends up seeing locums, who have now left. It can also be very difficult to get an appointment with her regular doctor. Due to all this it took 8 months to get to a point where one of the GP’s referred her to a specialist. So even though she is under a specialist (tests are being done) we still don’t have a diagnosis of what is actually the cause of her ill health.

We put in a mandatory reconsideration to appeal the decision as the ESA85 was full of lies by the doctor. My sister went with my mum to her WCA and helped explain what she could and couldn’t do, and where my sister said my mum needed help, the report said she had no problems with those areas For example, the WCA doctor accounted his findings to the wrong hand!

Also, during the mandatory reconsideration someone from the DWP phoned the house to see where we were at getting the medical evidence. They also hadn’t received our MR in writing, following requesting it by phone. We did send the MR by next day delivery. So the lady said she would ring back in a week to see where we were in getting the evidence and to allow the MR time to filter down to them. A week later we received a letter to say the MR had gone ahead and the decision hadn’t changed. When we called to say why did no one call us back as agreed, at first they couldn’t find evidence anyone had rang us and when they did, they said the person who was due to ring us back had been sick all week.

So we have appealed mainly by saying on the SSCS1 that the MR went ahead without waiting for the medical evidence.

We do have a representative to help with the appeal.

But we are struggling to get medical evidence. We asked my mum’s regular GP to provide a supporting letter at the MR stage and he said he won’t provide anything for the courts. If we ask for sick note he will do them for sick months at a time. But he says to say my mum can't work should be done by someone specialised in occupational health.

My mum is under an occupational hand specialist and he said he will only write to the GP when my mum is due for discharge and I can see him working with her for a few months to come. I did call him again this week to ask, but he said the protocol is to give his name and contact details, so he can say what treatment has been done, but he can not provide a supporting letter.

The Rheumatologist sent my mum for an MRI. However, she couldn't complete it because she was in too much pain. The GP rang to say he would like mum to come in to discuss it but wouldn't do so over the phone. He did allow us to collect a print out which suggests some occlusion at the cervical region of her spine. But couldn't comment of the clinical meaning. So maybe the GP will ask her to repeat the test.

Mum had an angiogram this week, which ruled out angina as the source of her chest pain. But said he would refer back to the GP to investigate further if it is muscular, reflux related etc

Since going through the MR process we realised that my mum shows signs of a learning disability/difficulty. We have sought advice, and been told to have her GP refer her to the learning disability team for a full assessment. They wrote to us to say that she needs her cognitive ability tested but that they couldn't do it. So either go private (which we can't afford) or contact adult social services (whom won't provide an LD assessment anyway). I asked how bad would things have to get in order to get some support, with it being suggested for me and my sister to leave my mum because they will say we are here to help her.

As you can see every direction we turn we are hitting our heads against a brick wall. It feels like we are not getting much help and its proving difficult to obtain supporting evidence. I am not well myself, so i’m struggling to keep mine and my mum’s head above water. In fact I'm struggling to cope.

Do you think we should pull out of the appeal? because I fear our case is weak with the limited evidence we do have. I don't want to put my mum through that unnecessarily because she can't handle much more and neither can i. It’s important to mention that she struggles to understand what people ask of her and i don’t want her to miss important information on the day, because we can’t speak for her. Though the representative said she can prompt.

The DWP did not contact my mum's GP as part of her assessment for ESA, we feel if that had been done it would have been easier to get the supporting evidence. Even her GP says they should have contacted him and that is the protocol he follows.

Also, we just found out our representative is changing due to changes in the learning disability organisation she belongs to, with less than 3 weeks till our tribunal.

Any help is so appreciated. We’re desperate and scared.

Thank you in advance.

Thank you very much for your response.

Do you think the tribunal will listen to us fairly?

Even though we have a representative I really don't feel reassured about anything. It's made worse because of the change so soon to our tribunal date, because this new person won't really know us. So it's hard to believe they will fight my mum's case.

Where else could I turn for supporting evidence? because I'm at my wits end. We have a patient summary of the last year of my mums medical records. I have taken some photos of any adaptations in the house. I also photocopied her appointment letters, but that's all we've got.

Thank you. The GP surgery did give us a copy of my mums notes from the last year. We did find some GP's were more thorough in what they documented than others, which is a bit frustrating. But something is better than nothing at the moment.

Have any of the members had experience of obtaining a learning disability/difficulty for an adult please? Where to turn if your local LD team won't do the assessment?

Sorry to keep bombarding you all with questions.