PIP discrimination regarding PIP and Medical Evidence UPDATE

My daughter has ADHD, and I appreciate the hyper focus you are in now.
I don't have hyperfocus but it became something that took over my limited energy for most of a year.
Everyone was telling me, and is telling you I notice, not to get side tracked into the injustice of the process. I couldn't stop myself. Wasted time writing things i had to erase later.
Do listen to their advice as much as you are able.

The FTT has a very limited remit I discovered. They cannot consider issues under the equalities act. Some tribunals can issue a sort of notice of concern to Public Bodies about those issues, but not this one. One mention just in case it goes to a higher Tribunal is enough in your submission. Raise it - don't labour it.

Try to keep your points tight. I found it difficult not to wander off into arguments about the utter absurdity of some of the HP/DWP decisions.. Try not to comment on the "system" - it's not in the FTTs remit. They can't do anything about systemic problems it's not relevant to them and it will clog up and obfuscate the matters at hand. They don't want to work that hard to find the points that are salient to the hearing. Try to keep it relevant to them and their purpose. Make it as easy for them as possible, don't confuse matters.
There is a separate complaints procedure to the DWP to do that - if you have the energy, following which you might - MIght reach the equivalent of an ombudsman. Probably not worth it because if the FTT find in your favour, the complaint process considers that to be a remedy to your problem and the complaint proess stops.

Cite any legislation/ case law you think is relevent at the start.
I am still not clear about if it is necessary for particular legislation to be referenced to permit a further appeal on a point of law - so do it just in case.
Identify which descriptors decisions you are appealing. THIS IS THE NUB OF THE FTTs INTEREST and address each one separately.

In my hearing the Tribunal discussed each of the 3 descriptors individually with me, and then took a sort of recess before coming back online to move on to the next descriptor I think that's how they manage their process. At the end they may tell you their decision. They did so with me.
Other tribunals may function differently but I think its probably common practice. Thats ALL the Tribunal is focused on - not the big picture, not the injustice, not the failings of the DWP . They have the DWP evidence and they have yours and they make a decision for each descriptor based on that alone in consideration of the legislation and case law - which they're probably very familiar with, but it's still worth citing.
Present your evidence about YOU not the DWP
In the end I decided to state the point where the DWP were incorrect, i stated why they were incorrect, and reference my evidence which i put at the back of my submission. You can refer them to it if necessary during the hearing.
Think about these tribunal members having about an hour to consider your case..
Make it punchy at the front of the submission. The DWP do a "key Points" in their submission. Put your own key points that probably contradict the DWP points at the start of yours. Make it punchy not a monologue of DWP failures. They'll get the picture.
It is so very hard to divorce your experience of the process from your court heaing. Facts, Facts, Facts, not opinion, not injustice, not recrimination - they say black, you say white, and this is why it is white

A note of caution! i don't know what was going on at the court office that processes evidence, but I had difficulty getting a single legible copy of my submission to the other parties. it was chaotic.
I had posted my submission which was duplicated disordered and about 25% illegible.
I am not good with tech, and needed the help of a friend to get an online digital copy sent. This did get fully and legibly reproduced and disseminated, but it was totally out of order - the first page came in at page 28 I think !!.
The court office will mark all your papers with a letter and number for reference. Make sure all your papers are clearly and boldy numbered by yourself, and very clearly so that the recipients can find the intended order. I also included a contents page. Don't number the blank sides of any papers - they won't be reproduced - it makes for confusion, as it looks like pages are missing on your own page numbering system.

Make the court office ( in writing), and tribunal aware of any difficulties you have had with submitting your evidence - it could prejudice your case if they can't access your evidence easily. They offered to postpone my hearing to allow the judge to instruct the court services to provide a proper copy. But i elected to go ahead as they could read the written submission i had made for each descriptor I was appealing. It was a mess they told me they had recieved 800 pages !!! Tell the court clerk if you are worried about your evidence, she will speak to you before the hearing.

If you are having a remote hearing. It is not ZOOM that the courts use, but if you have zoom on your laptop, you will probably not have any difficulties signing in. You will probably recieve the signing in instructions the day before. You can test the ability to connect using those instructions - their web page has a facility for you to try a test connection before the hearing.
At my hearing, and it may be because I am not tech savvy, all I could see of the Tribunal was a sort of strip of an image of 3 people at a desk down the left side of my screen. I was shown on my own screen as a small box in the top right hand corner. My impression is that they can see you much more clearly than you can see them.

I also have hearing aids, and found the volume pretty difficult but not impossible. it's harder when you can't make out people's faces and see their mouths - i think we may all lip read a little without realising it.
Imagine you're at one end of a school assembly hall and they're at the other and you'll get the idea.
I so hope this helps you and others. Having someone with you will probably help if you're worried about hearing or making the online connection.
OH, almost forgot. If you think you might have problems, because of your disability, in fully participating during the hearing, eg brain fog, speech difficultis etc., Put that on the front page of your submission. I did and was asked at the start how my disability might show during the hearing. It did and they were able to recognise that I believe. AND if you've written a significant submission - tell them how you managed that - how long did it take - did you need to be medicated, or did someone help? Eg.,How did you manage it with brain fog ? it's obvious that they're going to wonder, so address it.

Good luck to you and everyone else going through this. It is hard, and I think is too hard for many. Remember the system may favour the DWP, but those Tribunal members are not the DWP. They will not favour either party. They will press you and ask searching questions. They may even have an unfriendly tone of voice - ignore it, it's not personal - they are trying to get to the facts.
Your task is to give them the facts to help them reach the correct decision about your case - nothing else.

Good Luck everyone, hope this has helped.
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That's so kind of you, but it's about the help we can give to each other that makes it possible for me and for others. it's sites like this that makes the impossible become manageable - thank you !

I've just done a more specific, detailed description of my experience - knowledge reduces anxiety for me. so i hope it helps some others to have an idea of what they might experience.

It would help if Tribunals were standardised so we could create a "typical experience" page. The government had one but it appears to have been taken down. i was imagining a zoom meeting but it wasn't, and that made me more anxious at a time I most needed to calm down. There are a lot of minor adjustments/ improvements that could be made to make the court experience more user friendly for the disabled. i don't know who to contact about that - not as a complaint, just feed back. Could anyone tell me who to contact?

I still have to wait for the appeal time to pass before anything is certain and then start the process of recovering the back-payment whatever that is ?! And then there's the prospect of it starting over for a LCWRA review which may or may not be happening next October.
I used up my privte pension trying to avoid claiming benefits, and i was right. i haven't had a day since i first submitted my PIP claim that i haven't felt as though "under the heel" of the DWP.

It's no way to exist, and no way to treat people. We have to do more somehow, more that just helping each other over the assault course of achieving awards.
I'm sick to my bones of hearing how hard working people are carrying the burden of benefits claimants. i was a hard working person who contributed to a system that i believed in, and believed it would provide for me and my loved ones if it was needed. What i've experienced feels punitive. I'm 64 on the 6th and what i've experienced and learned has brought to mind echoes of the system my grandmother experienced; when the worthy of the "poor relief board" would sort the "deserving" from the "undeserving" poor.
The degradation she experienced, and the humiliation of submitting to a stranger inspecting her home and instructing her she could sell a pan or a blanket first before becomming a burden to society and a drain on the purse of respectable working people.
Poverty equated to low morals. And that's how it keeps being represented now in the language of politicians and their ilk.

I don't feel triumphant, i feel degraded and humiliated. I'm not relieved I'm spitting feathers at our continued collective impotence.. There are many places in the world where if you're run over by a car you'll lie in the road until a relative comes to scrape you up. I don't want to live in such a country. The "welfare state" is a precarious privilege we have to constantly defend, not a dirty word.
Sorry, I'm just so mad LOL x

Hi CarolsB

Just wanted to add my heart-felt congrats on your award.

Hello,

Thank you all for your contributions - really interesting and well thought-out. CarolsB, I so agree with your last post. I, too, am fed-up with politicians droning on about "welfare" as if it is something we can't or shouldn't afford. I feel the word should be reversed - I want to live in a country where we can all "fare well", whatever our disabilities or limitations.

Best wishes,

Wendy