ESA tribuanal

Hi Gordon,

Thats what I thought, but in the booklet that came with the appointment letter it stated that if you would like a copy of the report to phone the centre you deal with (in my case Wolverhampton) and request a copy. So a very harshly worded (yet still civil and polite) letter has been sent to the DWP detailing the deliberate omissions and factual inaccuracies, asking that the decision making process be halted until what I have detailed as missing or wrong has been included for a DM to make the assessment on, as the document it is being based upon is flawed and any decision as such will be based upon less than the truth, quite how far I will get who knows, but I wanted it noted that I was shocked and disgusted at its contents.

The assessor has recommended that I could be returned to work within 3 months (despite degenerative disc disease and osteoarthritis, never ending IBS and on-going nerve damage in my dominant arm) So reading between the lines I think i'll be changing from SG to WRAG, can I ask you, in your experience / opinion do you think this will affect my benefits? I get £73.10 living exp, £37.65 support group, and I get both severe £64.30 and enhanced £16.40 dis prems, so if I do go from SG to WRAG will any of thes change / stop? I seem to remember hearing that WRAG was getting reduced a while ago (or was that just for new claimants). Or might it even be date sensitive, my claim which is ending soon was lodged in December 2015 and after a man recon and a cancelled tribual, (called off days beforehand because they decided I was actually telling them the truth) at which point they gave me the 27 points I'm now on, that ESA award letter is dated 16th June 2016. Once again my thanks as your input and expertise is greatly appreciated, I'll try to leave you in peace as I'm clear on the PIP query now, just this possible change in my ESA I now worried about. I've think I've had my monies worth this month, thanks again

Kop.

Hi,
Thanks for that info, so let's see what this letter of complaint achieves, if nothing then it'll be a man recon and a tribunal, i'll not let this slide, just cos some assessor wont put down every bit of information he could. I'll update you as things progress, thanks again.

Kop.

Hi,
Just a quick update, the DWP have realised there error in sending out my medical report too soon and queried how I came to get it, to which I replied I just asked for it and wasn't questioned if I'd had my decision so you are totally right in what you said about how I shouldn't of had it until I'd had my decision. Yesterday I received a call informing me of their decision to put me into WRAG for 12 months, so despite my call to ask to halt any decision they acted before they had a chance to read my letter detailing the errors and untruths in the report, what they have said because my letter is so detailed they will use this for my MR, I've asked them to wait until I write containing further detail of how things affect me and more about this flawed report, whether they do or not who knows as they certainly ignored my first request, I have been informed that this decision will come by post and not phone, tbh i was surprised that I got a call so soon after my f2f in all honesty, I'll let you know how things progress.

Regards,

Kop.

Hi Gordon,
The latest news on my ESA claim; my MR has been unsuccessful and I'm now looking into getting someone to represent me at my as yet to be instigated tribunal.
Thanks to my local council cutting back on funding, my first option (who helped me with my first ESA claim in 2016) an organisation called Disability North, are no longer able to represent me because of where I live.
So my question is, seeing as the option of legal aid has been denied us, should I decide to go down the route of professional representation, be that a solicitor or a benefits specialist, and given that we are ultimately successful, are the costs I'd incur reclaimable in the event of the DWP's decision being overturned ? or would I have to just accept the costs, despite these costs being entirely down to the fact the initial DWP decision was wrong and has now been overturned ? My thanks again in advance for your input.

Regards,

Kop.