ESA appeal result opposed by DWP??!!

I have just gone through the awful ordeal of an appeal hearing a week ago today, which I was sure I wasn't going to win for my mental health disorder as they were giving me such a hard time, when amazingly they found in my favour on exceptional circumstances ruling as they thought couldnt award me enough points on the usual scale requirements but that they agreed my working would significantly worsen my health.

Now a week later I have been chasing DWP to see if they have received the notification of the result from the court desperate to be taken off assessment rate, when I get informed today that DWP are requesting further information from the Judge as to how he came to his decision? Apparently this is not provided as standard. This in itself takes around 6 weeks to provide, and the DWP can oppose my result in the following month after the court date if they don't agree with the judge...what happens if they do I don't know. All i know is the result has been delayed an additional 6 weeks, and THEN the DWP will take another 8 weeks they say to resolve any arrears owed for my time spent on assessment rate for the past 7 months, but more importantly I will stay on assessment rate until all of this is resolved!! So I'm looking at another 14 potential weeks delay!!

The appeal advised I go in the work related activity group and that I use this to try part time hours in different work environments to test them out against my health, as I am allowed to do this on ESA for up to 16 hours and it not affect my benefit...and to be fair I am in desperate need of extra income, so with this saftey net it would be ideal for my situation. I wanted to try this back in Feb 13 but when I lost my ATOS medical obviously couldnt go ahead while opposing the decision which has taken until now. So my recovery and back to work plan has been delayed all this time when I could of been taking positive action towards getting work fit, and now they are saying I cannot do this either until the whole appeal paperwork is resolved so another 3 month delay as of today!! I am desperate to start changes now as they have said my time to do this is limited.

Has anyone else won their appeal and then had DWP ask for further clarification and worse still oppose it?? To me this just sounds like DWP stalling for time to pay up.

Not happy.

Thought my fight was over but apparently far from it after all the calls I made this morning regarding this.

Hi ljc,

Both DWP and the claimant have one month to request a 'statement of reasons' from the Tribunal Service but can only take things further if they can show that an 'Error of Law' has been made, not just because they do not like the decision.

Tribunals – Requesting a Statement of Reasons

What is an Error of Law?

If an Error in Law is found and the DWP given permission to take this further, the most likely outcome would be that the current tribunal decision would be overturned and your case would have to be heard again.

I think, at this stage, you should get specialist advice yourself. The following FAQ has some suggestions of where you can find such help, or you could try putting 'benefits appeals' and your town into a search engine

Where to get advice?

Hi Ijc

Sorry to hear of your setback after winning your appeal.

When the DWP receive a copy of the statement of reasons (you will be sent a copy as well), I should point out that there is no certainty that they will appeal the first-tier tribunal decision.

If they do, they will have one month to apply for permission to appeal. If granted permission and it reaches the Upper Tribunal, the UT may not necessarily agree with the DWP; they could find in your favour.

It can be a long drawn-out process but I hope it doesn't get that far. The DWP may not choose to apply for permission.

Best of luck

Derek