Tribunal & Legal Challenges - Flawed PIP Assessment

Hi MDBond

You only argue the points that you disagree with. In your written submission, the Tribunal won't expect you to argue something that's not in dispute. If the panel wants to query any other part of the award, they will do so, but I can't tell you whether they will. Every case is different.

Tribunals are generally more sympathetic. At the current time, approximately 68% of appeals are successful.

BIS

Hi MDBond,
In addition to the very good advice from BIS, here's some more information.
Yes, a tribunal will do a fresh hearing. However the rules are clear that a tribunal need not consider matters not raised within the appeal. This could be taken to include points already awarded. If you are sending in further arguments, you can make it clear that DWP points eg Descriptor 1b - 2 pts is correct because you need X aid due to Y health problem. ( Briefly explaining the aid and disability.)

At the hearing if the Judge doesn't say anything about this, you can ask if the tribunal are mindful to agree the points awarded by DWP - bear in mind that if these are all correct, but you are arguing further points on totally different descriptors this may not be a big problem. However if you arguing eg 4 points when DWP only gave 2, then by the very nature of the arguments the tribunal will have to look at the whole of the Descriptor afresh. The tribunal may not wish to restrict itself to only a few descriptors.
This is important because the tribunal can not remove points or reduce an award unless it clearly announces that this is a possibility. It is an error of law to reduce an award without a warning. If a tribunal is minded to reduce the current award, it should give a warning, and adjourn the hearing to allow you to speak with your representative if you have one, or adjourn until a different day to allow you to seek proper advice. A warning doesn't necessarily means an award will get reduced, but just that it might be.
Whilst it's appropriate for advisors to make claimants aware of the risk of a reduced award, it is definitely not a big risk, just simply something that you need to be aware of, so that you can weigh up the possibility of losing what you have, as opposed to what you stand to gain if you get an increased rate of PIP at appeal.
(All legal action bears a degree of risk in some way.)

You have explained that the assessment is inaccurate. The letter you received accepts that the assessment was poor. It is unlikely that the tribunal will 'disallow' the report, but you can argue that due to the poor manner if the assessment the information within in is unreliable.
I'll try and explain further...
Disallowed evidence is realistically only likely to be information revealed via an illegal process. The obvious example would be evidence found via an unlawful police search - but that is not going to be relevant to a PIP appeal.
Unreliable evidence is evidence obtained legally, but of very poor quality. If evidence is unreliable, it will be of little use, and unlikely to help prove the case. This will mean that the tribunal will 'give little or no weight' to the evidence, or in layman's words, basically disregard it.

It is totally appropriate for you to stress that DWP who don't know you, seek to rely on a report that is misleading, and accepted as being below standard, whereas, you can produce X number of medical reports all confirming your relevant disabilities or illness.

As BIS has suggested - briefly deal with the problems with the report. A sentence or two will suffice and make it clear that you complained and this was upheld. Go through each descriptor as required and explain what what points should have been awarded and why. You can at this stage explain inaccuracies in the report on order to explain why extra points should have been awarded. Give examples of what goes wrong/ why you need help etc.

Re-post when you have a tribunal date, and either myself or another Mod will be able to give you some practical tips of what to do at the actual hearing.

I hope this helps.
Good luck.

Ll26

M

There are several issues raised by your just submitting the audio recording and/or transcript.

First and perhaps most importantly, the panel are not going to listen to the whole of your assessment, they probably won't have the time during the hearing so you need to direct them to specific parts that you think are relevant to your appeal. This is what the Tribunal is asking for in their letter.

Do this using the transcript, the recording is simply there to confirm that it is an accurate record of what happened on the day.

Secondly and more specifically in regard to your post, you appear to be showing deficiencies in the assessor's report, whilst this is good practice, remember the panel will primarily be interested in hearing why you meet the criteria for an award, showing the report is inaccurate does not do this.

Consider the issue that the assessor has raised, is it possible that you have not explained your problems well? Have you not addressed the relevant Descriptors for those activities that you expected to score for?

You refer to Regulations 4 and 7, have you shown that you meet these criteria either in your original form and evidence or anything that you have subsequently been able to source?

You still have time to provide more testimony for your appeal.

Gordon