Hi all,

Brief recap - DLA high rate care and low rate mobility went to 0 points for both components of PIP in March of this year.

- Mandatory Reconsideration rejected a few months later.

- A few days for my appeal hearing in September my Citizens Advice caseworker accepted an offer of standard care on my behalf without my consent.

I launched an appeal against this decision in October with Welfare Rights. DWP responded a few days ago and now my tribunal date has been arranged for 16th December!!! Are they usually booked so soon??? Is this a bad sign??? Aaaaaargh.

CoolgirlM

It is unusual for a Tribunal to be booked so quickly but you should not read anything into this, it is purely an administrative process with no regard to the content of your appeal.

Gordon

Thank you for your response .

Is it okay to write a personal statement for the tribunal panel, as I tend to stutter when I’m nervous, so I wanna have something on paper that they can understand in case I make a boob of myself when they question me.

Hi CoolgirlM

Yes, you can write a personal statement and submit it with your evidence for the panel. If I was doing it, I would address the statement to the judge and panel (even though you won't have their specific names), and explain in the first paragraph just as you have done so above why you're including it in your evidence.

BIS

Thank you BIS.

How concise should I keep the statement as I have a few pages so far :-/

Hi CoolgirlM

Your question is not an easy one to answer. The panel have to read through every page of the case and if you have a lot to say then, you should say it and not worry about the number of pages. The most important thing is to make sure where you are challenging the assessment report you keep the PIP criteria in mind. I would also make sure you signpost any evidence you have throughout your pages. So for example if you're talking about Preparing a meal - I would have something like:

I am unable to prepare a basic meal due to severe osteoarthritis in my fingers as noted by Dr X - consultant rheumatologist (letter dated 3/10/18) where he says ' the patient's fingers show severe deterioration in the past five years'. Although the assessor said I could use adapted cutlery - this is untrue as noted by the report from K Langham - Senior Occupational therapist (letter dated 4/12 18).....

Obviously I completely made that up - but I think that it's always useful to flag up any evidence you have throughout your replies - because it links it clearly to the PIP criteria. It doesn't matter how many times you refer to the same report - it just hammers it home.

BIS