DLA and ESA

I was due to go to a tribunal today and tomorrow. Today was to appeal against the decision to turn down my application for DLA, tomorrow is the appeal against the IB to ESA decision, which only awarded me 6 points.
I hardly slept last night and was dreading the tribunal, which had already been postponed once. When the phone went and the Clerk on Court was calling, I was convinced it would be another postponement. I couldn't believe my ears when she told me the Tribunal was prepared to award me high mobility and medium care.
She said that it might not be necessary for me to go tomorrow but, if I did, I should make the tribunal aware of today's decision which would "make a huge difference".
I'm in debt, which will take a little time to clear. It's taken since the end of September last year to get to this. Many tears, much depression, that almost made me give up. But I stuck it out and a lot of that was due to your forum and the support.
Thank you so much, and please wish me luck for tomorrow!

C,

Good luck for tomorrow. I'll be thinking about you. Get a good night's slepp!

Confused wrote: I was due to go to a tribunal today and tomorrow. Today was to appeal against the decision to turn down my application for DLA, tomorrow is the appeal against the IB to ESA decision, which only awarded me 6 points.
I hardly slept last night and was dreading the tribunal, which had already been postponed once. When the phone went and the Clerk on Court was calling, I was convinced it would be another postponement. I couldn't believe my ears when she told me the Tribunal was prepared to award me high mobility and medium care.
She said that it might not be necessary for me to go tomorrow but, if I did, I should make the tribunal aware of today's decision which would "make a huge difference".
I'm in debt, which will take a little time to clear. It's taken since the end of September last year to get to this. Many tears, much depression, that almost made me give up. But I stuck it out and a lot of that was due to your forum and the support.
Thank you so much, and please wish me luck for tomorrow!

Hi C,

Really pleased for you, that is good news !!!!

Once you receive the decision notice through the post, it may speed up the payment of any back pay owed if you send a copy to the DLA Unit.

Thanks for letting us all know, and for the kind comments.

Wishing you the very best of luck for tomorrow !!!!

Please return to let us know how you get on.

bro58

Thank you for the good wishes. I hardly slept last night and kept hoping I wouldn't have to go. I was offered an earlier appointment this morning and took it. I had to take a taxi to the Tribunal office and it took ages to walk the ramp up to the building.
My daughter and the lady from Citizen's Advice were with me and the judge told me immediately I went in that I'd won the appeal and complimented me on the letter I sent to them about the medical.
They asked me a couple of questions and that was it - almost a year of worry over with!
Thank you again for all the support. I'm going to take a nap now. I'm completely exhausted.

Confused wrote: Thank you for the good wishes. I hardly slept last night and kept hoping I wouldn't have to go. I was offered an earlier appointment this morning and took it. I had to take a taxi to the Tribunal office and it took ages to walk the ramp up to the building.
My daughter and the lady from Citizen's Advice were with me and the judge told me immediately I went in that I'd won the appeal and complimented me on the letter I sent to them about the medical.
They asked me a couple of questions and that was it - almost a year of worry over with!
Thank you again for all the support. I'm going to take a nap now. I'm completely exhausted.

Hi C,

Congratulations on the double success !!!

As with my comment regarding your DLA success, it may help to speed things up if you post a copy of the tribunal's decision notice to the Benefits Office dealing with your ESA.

You can take that well deserved nap, now.

bro58

Yes, I'll do that, thank you. I was told by Citizens Advice that I will need to submit a doctor's note to cover me for about 3 months as, due to backlog, it can take that long for the DWP to sort things out.
There are two more things I wanted to say:
First, I wouldn't recommend anyone to go alone to an assessment. There was an amazing difference between the DLA and ESA ones and I put a lot of that down to my daughter being at the DLA one and taking notes.
Second, the Tribunal was quite informal and friendly, nothing at all to fear.
And now it's definitely time for that nap!
Thank you again.