PIP Tribunal

I attended a 1st tier tribunal hearing for my PIP appeal today (I was awarded DLA higher rate for care and mobility for life but am being transferred to PIP). The tribunal was awful. They made me feel like a criminal and tried to catch me out all the time (which they didn't because everything I've said in the forms was the truth). After 45 minutes I was told we were having a break and to go to the waiting room. They had focused almost all of the questions on Preparing food and dressing and not even mentioned mobility (I'm a wheelchair user and had lost my mobility component altogether, although the DWP admitted they were wrong in the court papers, despite maintaing they were correct in the mandatory reconsideration).

When I was called back in, I was told the tribunal were issuing me with a warning that they could remove points altogether if they wished and said it was adjourned and I HAD to consent to them contacting my GP. I said that they had not even discussed mobility at alI but the judge said this tribunal is now over and I would be seen by another tribunal in a few weeks time. I'm terrified that I'm going to lose my existing points

What I want to know is this - can I withdraw my appeal even though it has been partly heard? I can't find this information anywhere online. I just don't think it's worth taking the risk. I have chronic severe back pain and sciatica but very little in the way of concrete medical evidence to support me. I can't believe this is happening to me!!

Thanks Gordon. I have now withdrawn my appeal. I really feel I was at risk of losing what I already have because like many other people I don't have much in the way of concrete evidence. Yet they way I actually live, i.e. the care that I receive from my wife, is all genuine as described in the claim. It's disgraceful that I was awarded DLA for life, both components higher rate and yet the Government can introduce such changes. I know there is a remote possibility that I could have won had I proceeded but I also suffer from depression and was concerned about the affect this was having on my mental state.

Hi M57, I know that would have been a very difficult decision for you - but it does sound as if it was the right one