Tribunal - PIP AWARDED

Redrobin I had the same experience in regards to the assessors report. I knew she didn't listen to me. My solicitor who will go with me to the PIP tribunal asked for a copy of the report. Every paragraph multiple errors. Took me 2 days to go through it with a fine tooth comb and marked each error and sent a long email correcting the errors. Only page with out a mistake was the last page where she signed it and put how long it took her to write 38 mins . The phone assessment took hour and 46 mins.

The Brain Charity are funding the solicitor as I couldn't afford it. Next month it will be 35 years seen my health got worse.

I signed the petition to get the government to reassess how benefits where award . Had their reply in my email box. They have decided the present system doesn't need changing and they will not rely on medical evidence alone but will still use phone assessment to give a better picture of a person's needs.

I first applied for DLA in 1988 my GP told us to as with my medical history and how much worse I had gotten and in his opinion I would only get worse . Took months to get the forms in the end we had to go too a tribunal. Turned down. So didn't apply again for years.

Next time we applied was when my husband's cancer was terminal as the hospital told us to apply for DLA and careers allowance for him. This was 2003. My husband phoned up to query a question and the person who answered him asked how long he had been given 4 months to 2 years. She said don't bother applying as you have been given 2 years. Our McMillan nurse went mad and filled in the forms we got DLA and careers allowance my husband died just under the 4 months.

I had my mom live with me the last 18 months of her life. I applied for carers allowance. But was only allowed to have it for 6 months as they said she would get better. My mom had breast cancer grade 3 and dementia. There was no getting better. The last 4 months my mom became violent. But I couldn't put her into a home she was my mom . I was her sole carer . She was 90 when she died in 2017.

Over the years since my husband died my health has gotten worse but until mom died I had both my parents and mother in law to look after. I was very ill at times but they needed me so did what I had to too help them .

Every time I got turned down for any benefit since my husband died I was told no diagnosis no benefit.

I finally had my diagnosis in April last year . At the age of 64 found out I have a rare hereditary neurological condition. Two years before found out I was born with a hole in my heart. Since my PIP and MRN decisions where rejected that's when I got in touch with the Brain Charity. I didn't know about them when I first had the PIP forms so my daughter filled them out. As CAB said they couldn't help as they where swamped. Because of the time limit to fill and get the form back with all the evidence that's why my daughter did them. I had 45 pages of GP, neurologist and cardiologist letters. I sent.

The PIP decision was a joke. Said because I can get into a car I can get into a bath. Last time I had a bath I was 14 my arms collapsed and my mom had to get me out. After that my parents altered the bathroom this was in the 70's low fibreglass bath had come out . They got one with handles attached and had a shower fitted over it . The sort where you turned on the taps and pulled a knob to make the shower work.

My solicitor was told in September there where no tribunals before Christmas. Since August all the pain flares have taken its toll on my mobility. And I can no longer do tasks I could do in my own way. My daughter has been doing more for me. And I hate having to rely on her . She works and has to young sons. I can't get into a car unless someone lifts my legs in and out and can't always do up the seat belt. I use taxis but the drivers are lovely and help me.

Sorry this is a ramble but I am so fed up having to fight for something I should have had years ago. And people with lesser things wrong because they know how to work the system can get everything going. If I lived in a council I have been told I would have had benefits years ago. Because I owned our own house with my late husband and because of my health live in a bungalow I must be rich. People at end of a phone have told me this. I never get insulting or lose my temper but explain what it took to be able to buy our own home hard work and going without holidays expensive cars etc. I am of the generation when the mortgage rate went up to 15%. All the adaptions to my bungalow I have had to pay for out of my quicky depleting savings. I got the VAT back on my toilet,shower and handbasin . As I knew about it as we had to have our bathroom altered for me when my husband was alive.

There are a lot of people like me battling the system . Until disabled people write the disability benefits forms and disabled people assess them no one with either a physical or mental health or both will get treated fairly.

A close friend was a senior judge with the Appeals Tribunal. She said that most of the doctors employed by the relevant government minstry to do the assessments were doctors that couldn't get jobs doing anything else. Now of course they only use nurses. They are under consistent pressure to keep the proportion of people they approve for disability benefits as low as possible.

My experience of these tribunals is almost exclusively to do with Attendance Allowance. I always accompanied my clients to Appeals and only once had an appeal turned down and that was a complicated case involving an Industrial Injury claim.

But of course the entire system is flawed. If my OH qualified, which they decided he did, then there will be millions of others who also qualify but who either did not know the funding exists or were put off by the sort of unpleasant and dogmatic assessments that I endured. I happened to know the system as I had been a social worker in medical settings and was able to make a case.

There are solicitors' firms making a mint out of these hearings.

What needs to happen is that the whole issue of paying for care needs to be reformed - as too do quality standards. The reason I finished up having to pay £1400 a week for my OH was because the homes that the LA were willing to fund were beyond unsatisfactory - a visit to one had me in tears in the car park - just thinking about the idea that someone would think it was fine to deposit my OH in such a dump.

The money that is wasted on all this would pay for the care of so many people.

I appealed the health authority's refusal to fund my OH's care in spite of the fact that he clearly qualified for the continuing care funding. Two assessments were made during which the assessors were quite unpleasant. All this happening while my OH was desperately ill, paranoid and going down hill.

The appeal was not heard until after his death as covid intervened, and it was heard via zoom. The health authority allocated someone to go through my claim, which I had meticulously prepared, and she found other factors which enhance my case. The appeal hearing panel consisted of independent people from other areas. They were respectful and helpful - sensitive to the fact that it was painful for me to over all that had happened - gave me opportunities to stop - made it clear that they had properly read my claim and gently questioned my on my reasoning.

A few hours later someone rang to tell me my appeal had been successful.

When you consider the cost of a Tribunal, the system is ridiculous. Whilst PIP is based on how your health conditions affect you, not on a diagnosis, I fail to see why so little notice is taken of reports from medical specialists, preferring a snapshot by an assessor whose qualifications are probably limited and who has not met the claimant. The right decision in the first place would save a lot of time, money, and anxiety..

That is still no excuse for misusing them.

From our experience it was exactly as you report. Unfortunately, we had to wait for a year before having a date for tribunal about my husbands ESA decision. The assessors report was so opposite to what we were saying and she had got nearly everything wrong including the medication my husband was on even thiugh she had been handed the repeat prescription form. She was a nurse and the dosage for one drug she out down would have killed him ! They asked for permission to access all his medical records and unfortunately we had to wait another year for the next tribunal. They changed his points from zero to 18, we had an apology from the judge to say we should have been given it straight away and they would be writing a stringky worded letter to the DWP and request the assessor was retrained. I was impressed.

M0nica the problem is the Organ grinders use the Monkeys as a shield.

I have posted this information on GN threads many times, but people take no notice until it affects them directly or through someone they know.

The Appeal service is entirely separate from the DSS and the majority of appeals are granted.

I am sorry Deedaa but I think what you did to that unfortunate clerk was unfair and unjust. He has been employed to do a job and if he had not been properly trained then that is not his fault. You should never punish the monkey for the organ grinder's decisions.

Going back to the days before PIP was introduced DH had to go for an assessment for either ESA or DLA (can't remember which because he had been getting both) He had recently had a stem cell transplant and was still quite ill and very shaky. It was an ordeal just getting to the assessment. He was seen by a Romanian doctor who was almost in tears herself because she could see how ill he was. She did warn us that the final decision was out of her hands and she could only give her opinion but it was still a bit of a shock when he was turned down. I rang the DWP and spoke to an unfortunate young man who had to listen to what I thought of the DWP and their pen pushers who were making decisions with no medical training at all and against the advice of the actual doctors who were seeing the applicants. He asked if I would mind holding on while he spoke to a superior. Eventually he returned and said DH's application had now been approved and he wanted to apologise for the trouble! We never had any problems after that.

Cabbie thank you. Don't know if you remember all the advice you gave me. The Brain Charity are helping me after my PIP and MRN decisions where turned down. The charity got me a solicitor they use and she is brilliant. PIP claim sent in April. After MRN decision my solicitor got going on the tribunal work but was told in September no dates available before Christmas. Still waiting for a date. She got me to get a copy of the assessors report. It was 23 pages long the only page without mistakes was the last one where she signed and put how long it took to write. 38 minutes. The phone assessment took hour and 46 minutes. I knew she hadn't listened to me. Every paragraph there was multiple errors.

Thanks to the Brain Charity and the solicitor I will keep on fighting as I have been fighting for disability benefits for 34 years. Hopefully will get a date for the tribunal early next year .

My brother was talking to someone who used to sit on the PIP tribunal and told him as people near retirement age they drag their feet giving out dates. I am 64.

Thank you Cabbie for putting my mind at rest about your experience witnessing a tribunal. I went to one pre 2000 it was awful 6 people judging me . Thank you for saying how kind they are now. A load off my shoulders.

Good to hear but the DWP should have awarded it in the first place without hassle of having to go through a tribunal.

That is very good to hear , thankyou for sharing that . Is it possible to tell us what disability the young man had . I often think many people simply don't claim in the first instance because they don't think their disability is bad enough 🤔