unable to attend appeal

cliluk wrote: Help I'm at my wits end. My partner who has metal health issues was due to attend ESA appeal but suffered a massive seizure 1.5 hours before the appeal was due to be heard. He's been in hospital for 3 days now . The strain of this process is making his health worse can't bring myself to put him through it again but also can't afford to loose benefit . He needs to get into the support group what can we do .

It all depends on what happened to the original hearing, was it adjourned pending their attendance?

If the appeal is still pending then you have two options, they attend and present their case, or they can switch the appeal to a Paper hearing and a Decision is made in their absence based on the evidence already submitted. Statistically a Paper hearing is less likely to be successful.

It is important to note that this latest seizure or any deterioration in their condition since the original Decision will not be considered by the Tribunal, whatever route is chosen.

If the hearing was held in their absence then you will need to find out the result. If they were not placed in the Support Group then it may be possible to apply for a Set Aside, which will result in a new hearing, but you only have one month to do this from the date of the Tribunal Decision. This would imply that your partner wants to attend the hearing.

Gordon