Petrified about further humiliation by a tribunal

Porridge

I'm not aware of any recent statistics that distinguish between Paper and Oral hearings, all I can say is that historically the success rate for Paper hearings is a lot lower than that for Oral ones.

However, statistics can be misleading; a claimant without a proper understanding of the criteria they are being assessed against will typically have a lower rate than someone who does, up to date evidence versus old evidence, advice or no advice, these can all significantly influence the likely outcome.

Don't be too swayed too much by those that have not been successful reporting back to the forum, at the very least they are upset by the result that they have had, that said you should go in with your eyes open, the questioning will be robust and you must consider your ability to handle this if you opt for an Oral hearing, the following are posts from members who have been successful at appeal, both Paper and Oral

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/component/sear...se=all&Itemid=100549

If you decide to opt for a Paper hearing then contact the Tribunal Service but first make sure that any evidence and testimony that you want considered has already been sent as you will not receive notice of the hearing, just the result.

Gordon

Porridge wrote: OK, thank you Gordon. As I supplied plenty of up to date hard evidence from doctors, and I comprehensively filled in the PIP 2form, very carefully following the B&W guides (ALL OF WHICH WERE COMPLETELY IGNORED BY THE DECISION MAKER IN FAVOUR OF THE VERY POOR QUALITY AND UNPROFESSIONAL F2F ASS-ESSMENT), do I need to go back to those same doctors and ask for yet more evidence for the tribunal? The evidence is very full and supports descriptors and everything I have put in the PIP 2 form. I am asking this because I think that I could put toegther a good and very strong case on paper.

Appeals are not always about submitting new evidence, what you do have is a further opportunity to present your case and to deal with any of the issues that the DWP have raised, however, if you are happy with what you included in and with your PIP2 then you can go with that.

Gordon