What do we risk accepting a 2nd tribunal for PIP?

Hi Fiona

Welcome to the forum, you might want to have a look at the following FAQ which explains where everything is.

Welcome to Benefits and Work .

I would have to agree with Citizen Advice, you cannot quarantee anything at a Tribunal, at present your daughter has been awarded standard mobility, from what you have said in your post, I cannot see you loosing this, you may even get awarded the enhanced mobility.

We do have an excellant guide which will answer your question, unfortunately we do not know your daughter so we cannot give you a definitive answer. Have a look at our PIP Claim guide for a better understanding of the criteria your daughter will need to meet.

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/help-for-claimants/pip

Read about the reliability element in the guide - if your daughter cannot do something:

• Safely – in a fashion that is unlikely to cause harm to themselves or to another person.
• To a necessary and acceptable standard – given the nature of the activity.
• Repeatedly – as often as is reasonably required.
• In a reasonable time period – no more than twice as long as a person without a physical or mental health condition would take to carry out the activity.

then you should not be considered able to do the activity.

If you have any further questions, then please return to the forum.

Gary

Hi Fiona,
The re-hearing will be a completely new hearing, different panel.
There is a small risk that your daughter could lose the mobility award, as the tribunal has a power to reopen the whole award. If the tribunal is minded to do this then it would have to give a clear warning. A failure to do so would be a further error of law and would be appeal able as was the original tribunal decision. Once a warning is given, you could withdraw the appeal if you wished, or normally you would be invited to go away and have a think! You don't have to withdraw of course.
Remember reopening the whole award is a power NOT a duty.
If the trib. wanted to reopen the award this would also have to be thoroughly explained as to why this was necessary and explain the decision. So, effectively there has to be a plausible reason for reopening AND a warning to remove the existing award.
That said, just check the review properly has the award already been set aside? This basically means that it's as though the original trib. hearing didn't take place at all, ie revert back to DWP's award of points. (Which might be zero!)

The review decision may specify that only DLiving is under appeal, otherwise I suspect the whole decision has been set aside.
If the whole award is in fact set aside, don't worry about this. Clearly your daughter has sufficient disability to allow mobility award.
Gary has given you a link to the members guides these have lots of information.
Have a good look at these. Firstly make sure that you understand how the points system works and double check that you are confident how many points your daughter should get. If you notice that perhaps she should have had more points on either component you can raise thus at the new hearing, and explain you have had more advice since first hearing and now believe more points are possible. If you can, write a few paragraphs about each activity and how your daughter's disability match the points. If more than one level applies, for example with dressing or bathing, then if they all apply equally, you should get the highest value in that section. (PIP Regs. 2013 reg.7.)
The following format is sometimes helpful:
Eg If she needs supervision to cook

"My daughter can not prepare food. She needs supervision" .[explain all the difficulties and safety issues etc remember All 4 reliability criteria per Gary must be met. Explain if the criteria can't be met.Give examples.]
then add
"as a result she should be awarded 4points 1e as she requires supervision all the time."(The descriptors only require difficulties for the majority of days, but if it's all the time you can say so, or describe the majority of days pattern, don't just say 'sometimes'- it won't work unless you explain it's still majority of days!)

Write this for all the descriptors that apply.
You can then send this in to the trib office before the next hearing.
If you have already done this, it is possible to send in additional information if you want to clarify or add something.
I assume you are appointee?
If so you could explain why you were appointed, often this relates to inability to budget or read, so this could be further evidence.
Otherwise you may be able to get a report from school,college or support worker if you haven't already done so. These kind if reports are always useful, especially if the report maker can make direct comments about how your daughter can (or can't!)do descriptor activity.
I hope this helps.
LL26
PS I forgot to talk about paying back. Any money already paid by DWP was paid in respect of a legally made trib decision. Even if that decision is overturned it was legal to pay you at the time and hence whilst technically might be an overpayment it would not be recoverable.
Another point to mention is that if you'd daughter can achieve daily living at either rate, then you or another might be able to claim Carer’s Allowance for looking after her, or alternatively there might be additional money on means tested benefits. (Will depend on the benefits and who she lives with etc.)