Hi everyone,
My daughter and i attended an appeals tribunal on 17/12/13 and today received a decision notice stating that the appeal has been allowed and that she has been awarded lower rate mobility and middle rate care allowance, backdated to 31/03/13 for an indefinite period.Whoopee!!! and a huge thank you to B & W as without the information obtained from your site i'm not so sure we would have been so successful.
The judge actually commented on our submission stating that it was one of the best he had heard.This was all down to B & W in our opinion as without it we could not have done such a good representation without using some of the case law we had obtained.
Since renewal on 31/03/13 my daughter had only been getting lower rate care allowance but prior to renewal she was getting lower rate mobility and higher rate care allowance.
Our problem now is we appealed against the non award of lower rate mobility and higher rate care allowance but the appeals tribunal, although stating that the appeal has been allowed have only awarded lower rate mobility and middle rate care allowance.There is no reason shown as to why higher rate care allowance has not been awarded.We don't know if this a mistake and how we go about querying this.
Has anyone else had a similar experience.
I don't want to stir things up too much in case this messes up the award she has just been given as obviously this is better than what she has been getting since 31/03/13, but at the same time i don't really see why they have downgraded her.
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again B & W for the valuable guidelines and information obtained from your site.

Big C

You can only challenge the Decision if you can show that there has been an Error or Law, as a first stage to this you need to request a written Statement of Reasons, please be aware that the DWP will also receive a copy of this opening up the opportunity for them to challenge the Decision as well, whilst it would be unusual for them to do so it is still a risk that you must consider.

What is an Error of Law?

Tribunals – Requesting a Statement of Reasons

You do not say how old your daughter is but the rules for claiming DLA as a child are different than those as an adult (16 and over), so it is possible for the award to change simply because of this.

Higher Rate Care is awarded where their are substantial care needs both day and night, whereas the Medium rate is for day or night, if you believe an HRC award is justified you should have a look at your submission and evidence to see if it could be misunderstood or that you did not emphasise it sufficiently.

We can only offer limited support for an Upper Tribunal appeal, our recommendation is that you get face to face advice from an advisor with experience in this are.

Please be aware, the most likely result of an Upper Tribunal Decision, is that the original Tribunal is ordered to be heard in front of a new panel, with a direction as to how to avoid the Error of Law, this will be a full re-hearing of the case, so you do risk the possibility of this new hearing reaching the same conclusion or even a worse award.

The following provides additional advice about appeals to the UTT.

www.disabilityrightsuk.org/appealing-upp...er-tribunal-decision

Gordon