Strategies for challenging PIP no points

Hi, Elaine, I had a thought; a friend of mine had a very difficult time with Lyme's disease at university. She had some blood tests. If there was any doubt as to the consultant's credibility, would things like blood tests confirming you had it be helpful? Also if you spoke to the GP maybe they could get you transferred to a different consultant perhaps?

OK I'm sorry please disregard my last post. It seems the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme's is somewhat controversial; see here for information which might be useful to read. Kind regards www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4489928/

I’ve only just seen Orangeblossom’s posts, a belated thank you.

I did look at the link bro gave, but the local law centre only does housing, and anyhow I don’t think I’d be eligible financially for legal aid.

‘Update’ is probably a better word than ‘progress’.

I wrote to the Tribunal Clerk asking if there were other Records of Proceedings (typed or audio), she confirmed there weren’t, but said that I could request a typed copy of the judge’s handwritten record; so I have.

She also confirmed that the leave to appeal to the upper tribunal is decided by a different judge to the one at the original tribunal.

So I have now written asking for leave to appeal to the upper tribunal – that had to be in within a month of the SoR, ie by 30 Jan. I put in a printout from the GMC website showing my doctor has not been struck off.

I have also made a complaint about the judge and the doctor to the Tribunal President. That has to be in within three months of the event complained of, so by 1 Feb.

I doubt that I will ever get an award of PIP out of this, but hopefully it will put the record straight about my doctor, and also prick the consciences of the judge and the doctor or at least cause them some inconvenience.

Thanks all

My request to the FTT for leave to appeal to the UT was turned down, within a week, and with a bald statement ‘No error in law’. No response to my arguments at all. I had assumed that turning down such requests would be the default position, I suppose I should be grateful they didn’t keep me waiting – though I did wonder if they would deal with the complaint before turning me down flat.

Their letter included a form to apply direct to the UT, which has to be in by 8th March. I thought I’d leave it till near the deadline to see if I got anything useful from the complaint...

Today I got a letter from the judge dealing with the complaint, asking if I am going to apply direct to the UTT, so she can consider if she can make a full response to my complaint immediately or whether she needs to wait for the UTT decision. She stresses the two processes are separate but sometimes she is assisted by information that emerges during the UTT hearing.

Not sure what to make of this. She has written to others present at my original tribunal, so I don’t know what else there is to ‘emerge’.

I know the forum doesn’t advise on this, just wondering if anyone had any experience/wisdom to share. Thanks.

elaine wrote: My request to the FTT for leave to appeal to the UT was turned down, within a week, and with a bald statement ‘No error in law’. No response to my arguments at all. I had assumed that turning down such requests would be the default position, I suppose I should be grateful they didn’t keep me waiting – though I did wonder if they would deal with the complaint before turning me down flat.

Their letter included a form to apply direct to the UT, which has to be in by 8th March. I thought I’d leave it till near the deadline to see if I got anything useful from the complaint...

Today I got a letter from the judge dealing with the complaint, asking if I am going to apply direct to the UTT, so she can consider if she can make a full response to my complaint immediately or whether she needs to wait for the UTT decision. She stresses the two processes are separate but sometimes she is assisted by information that emerges during the UTT hearing.

Not sure what to make of this. She has written to others present at my original tribunal, so I don’t know what else there is to ‘emerge’.

I know the forum doesn’t advise on this, just wondering if anyone had any experience/wisdom to share. Thanks.

Hi e,

It is not at all uncommon for The FTT to initially reject an application to appeal to The UTT !!

I have seen this happen only for The UTT to allow an appeal once the application was made directly to them.

I am not of course stating that this would necessarily be the case with you !!

If you are to try gaining permission to appeal to The UTT directly, I would not miss your deadline to do so !!

You could of course contact The Clerk to the Tribunal to gain further information about the Judge's comments.

However, as they say, they are two totally separate procedures.

When either party (DWP/You (The Appellant) ) seek leave to appeal an FTT decision to The UTT the other party will be copied in on all correspondence.

So when you requested an S of R, the DWP would also have been sent a copy, and DWP will also have be sent copy of any correspondence that you have sent to The FTT, and any correspondence that you have been sent in connection with this.

bro58