Daughters tribunal, no decision given ?

After a horrendous nine months my daughters tribunal was this morning, it's has been a hellish time and after feeling like it was a pip assessment all over again at tribunal today they said they would write with a decision,
Has anyone any idea why this is, regardless of the stack of information hospital and specialists reports,Drs letters, our evidence etc she was still taken to tribunal, due to her autism we tried to help her along and was told to wait till the end, we by the end were so overwhelmed by the process we forgot loads of relevant information I suppose. Didn't mention the aids she uses, the range of issues with all the conditions she has.
We had no representative,
We feel lost and crushed by this whole process and feel like we haven't helped her today by leaving out so much in hindsight that was probably all relevant but you would expect them to know as they've read her file, haven't they?
We were told the Dr sitting in on the panel had only been drafted in this morning as the GP who had been due was off ill.
Dreading the no envelope for her as she feels they are saying she has lied about all her issues. Don't know what to do know.

Hi John - just to offer some reassurance the same happened to my daughter and we walked away thinking and feeling the same as you and that she was not successful but two days later we received the letter stating that she was. I sincerely hope this will be the same for you Jan

I can only agree with other members and Gordon's comments. I sat on DLA Tribunals for over ten years and although where possible, the Tribunal will do their best to give a decision on the day of the hearing, sometimes hearings run late, so it's not possible to give the appellant the decision on the day of the hearing.

However, the Tribunal don't leave the building until they've made a decision, often working after 6.00pm, or later. This is because the majority of Tribunal members only work part-time, so may not meet up again with the same members for weeks or often months.

Decisions can be unanimous or a majority decision of 2-1. All three Tribunal members have equal say be they the Tribunal Judge ( qualified solicitor with at least 10 years experience), the Medical Member (usually a GP, but sometimes a Consultant) and the Disability Member ( who has wide experience of disabilities and/or are disabled themselves.)

The Tribunal Judge does not a casting vote and often from my former experience, their was a 2-1 majority from the Medical Member and the Disability Member, with the Tribunal Judge being the dissenting member.

Decisions sent by post can take up to five days sometimes longer, since it is the Tribunal Clerk who has to write up the Tribunal's decision and send a copy to both the appellant and to the DWP Decision maker which also has to include reasons for the Tribunal's decision in plain English.

I hope this of some help in explaining why it's not always possible for the appellant to receive the decision on the day of the hearing.

I have been to two tribunals which I was not told at the time what the out come was both times I won this will not help how you feel at this present time but I think it can depend on who is sitting at the time good luck

Hi everyone and thanks so much for your input,
The envelope arrived and we couldn't quite believe it but she was successful, on the day she had been so distressed but tried to explain just some of the difficulties she faces in a day, and how so many others take even thinking for granted. We are so proud of her as it was an arduous task for her but she's a real fighter even though she feels weak.

Award stands until 2018, and now we are lodging a complaint against the assessor to attempt to ensure she does not oversee people with aspergers and ASD spectrum conditions again if at all possible. The disability advisors have advised us to take this step considering how the assessment and report were handled.total inconsistency and lies again on their part.

It sadly appears those of us that have a disability who attempt to make a real hard go at living a typically developed life are penalised, we have always raised the children to strive regardless of adversities they face each day and this clearly was the crux of this long 9months. As yet we are waiting to see if they will appeal but the most important thing for us was clearing our name and proving we did not lie like they said we did, and if nothing else we did that.

The tribunal paperwork states that due to the information collected on the day, in conjunction with the extensive amount of supporting evidence and her autism reports the appeal was upheld.

Good luck to everyone of you fighting for justice for your cases, I wish you every success we will await the dwps next correspondance and see if they want to appeal.