Legal Action against the DWP IS POSSIBLE

MY EXPERIENCE SO FAR "

This is NOT LEGAL ADVICE it is my experience of procedure in my own case to help others.

Since been refused DLA to PIPS and Revision this is what I have learnt.

1/ There is NO LEGAL AID for Welfare Claims. HOWEVER there IS LEGAL AID Available for the 2nd Tier of an appeal BUT NOT THE MAIN APPEAL.

2/ There is LEGAL AID available to Sue either the DWP or Capita AND the Assessor is a Nurse or health professional, mine is an RGN and someone kindly pointed this out to me they owe me a legal duty of care. HOWEVER this is if you sue IF YOU HAVE BEEN DISCRIMINATED AGAINST and you would need to SPEAK TO A SOLICTOR about this. You have to be specific and be able to prove it, such as suffering a loss of benefits because of bla bla bla

You NEED A SPECIALIST Solictor who does welfare cases all the time, other advised me of this on here, THANKYOU ALL>

3/ I have no responsibilities or dependants so am willing even to live on beans on toast to start proceedings against the DWP. BE WARNED You can expect to pay £150 - £200 an hour for
specialist. No point using people who have never done these cases. I will ONLY PROCEED if a solicitor tells me I am certain of winning. I have discussed payments over a period, but it may only take a short number of hours to get the stage where legal proceedings are issued under my instructions.

IMPORTANT : I am confident of PROOF That do not just shows illness but the EFFECTS OF ILLNESS which then put me in a prescriptor. I think Gordon told me that just having an illness will not guarantee to get you benefits.

When to use a SOLICTOR : Do not use a solicitor unless you have PROOF of specific effects fits you into a prescript or, Solictors need 100% Evidence of how the illness affects you from professionals and needs to be specific. You need Proof of letters you have sent as well.


COSTS

To Help Others I have started this post to help others, other people on the site got me to this point
Thankyou to those.

1/ I will keep a cost sheet of how much it costs me to the first stage of serving legal notice and then report back and how easy or hard it is.

2/ Found out that the first thing the DWP does when they get a writ is to have the claim checked by someone more senior. In my own case this would include a letter to me telling me they have received no further medical evidence when they have and I have proof as its registered.
They have told this 1000s of times as I have read this all over the website and others. Lies Lies Lies. When they have to stand up in court and argue against evidence then they will take a claim more seriously as they will be accountable to a judge, not just fobbing us off.

3/ I have not yet had advice about suing Capita and the Nurse for damages or comensation because of their reckless actions, BUT I CAN GET LEGAL AID for this.

WILL KEEP PEOPLE INFORMED, initial costs to me will be £180 when i have full appt next week and I will then make an Immediate decision after hearing what legal counsel has said about my probability of winning. 60/40 is not good nor is 70/30 Am looking for something more certain, like yes its is virtually certain you would win but we cannot promise it. 95/100 sounds ok

More updates if I issue the writ against the DWP or whether they look at my claim again.

UNEXPECTED DEVELOPMENT

When I got in My ANSWERPHONE is BLEEPING with messages

unexpected as last week no one was listening, will have to see why they want to talk.
Will ring my solicitor before I speak to them.

Clarification of my original post which Gordon kindly allowed to HELP OTHERS as have not yet served a writ.
When I said you CAN GET LEGAL AID to sue Capita and possibly the assessor definitely if there an RGN or higher, this would be under DISCRIMINATION laws if you feel you have been discriminated against such as the severity of your disabilities not been reported. But you will need advice, IT WILL NOT GET your benefits back and I have no idea how much damages compensation you would be awarded but am looking into that next week.

Big THANK YOU to Gordon for allowing this POST, though am bipolar and have extreme mental problems I had a background in business before becoming so ill so have tested out what others on here have advised and hope my experience will Help Other People.

Having to wait a year for a tribunal its a DISGRACE. Do Not take it personally when you get horrible letters, especially if your anxious, they may help you later, make sure you save everything.

Good Look To Everyone.

Cipolar wrote: "....... you CAN GET LEGAL AID to sue Capita and possibly the assessor definitely if there an RGN or higher, this would be under DISCRIMINATION laws...................., IT WILL NOT GET your benefits back and I have no idea how much damages compensation you would be awarded but am looking into that next week"

Hi,
to add to your posts.

Some people may get legal aid, those with a certain level of income or savings/capital may not. Solicitors are exensive criters as I found out for my disability discrimination case against employer. I ended up with an excellent solicitor on a no win no fee basis who was a specialist in discrimination cases.

However, two important points need to be made.

Legal aid may mean no legal costs from your side win or lose. If you win, any benefits you have received from the initial date of claim to date of tribunal may be recovered ie jsa, esa, etc, but not PIP. If you succeed in an award, you may not end up with much.

Secondly, if you lose, or are advised to withdraw your claim, be aware that the other side can apply for costs against you. This does not mean they would be granted, but it is a tactic that "the other side" do to stress you out and try to "encourage" you to give up. They did this with me.

A good solicitor is not going to say you have a very high chance ie in the 90% bracket - because they don't have all the picture/evidence from the other side. In my case, the employer came back with contradictory accounts (they lied through their teeth!). If I hadn't had the evidence I did it wouldn't have been allowed by the judge to continue. Just because you start a discrimination case does not mean it will be allowed to go full term.

Finally, as regards the level of compensation - look up vento bands. Three bands of differing amounts of award reflecting the circumstances. Its just my opinion, but if your going on discrimination regarding the assessment, then this would fall into the lowest band as this covers "one off" incidents (middle band is several incidents, high band is significant incidents or one major one).

I was in the middle band category. I got a settlement at the lower end of the band range. Had I gone to tribunal and got the same amount, I would have actually received a few hundred £ as the rest would have been recouped by the dwp to cover esa payments (basic amount, not the premiums) If you settle beforehand no recoupment is made.


I would encourage anyone to consider that it is a very very stressful process. I am glad I did it - but having said that, I would never never do it again.

Everyone has to make their own decision on things like this. I just wanted to express my view as someone who has gone through the process.

Ty

Thankyou TY for adding such USEFUL INFORMATION to my post.

I have learned a toot from your own experience and will be fully investigatigating any merit of compensation claim before I proceed.

The most INTERESTING POINTS that I have learnt from you are is what you quoted below :
QUOTE :
Legal aid may mean no legal costs from your side win or lose. If you win, any benefits you have received from the initial date of claim to date of tribunal may be recovered ie jsa, esa, etc, but not PIP. If you succeed in an award, you may not end up with much.

THANK YOU FOR THAT, If i am only in the first tier of compensation, Low then the stress will not be worth it.

I was glad for your experience and thanks for writing in so much detail, I would rather put this experience behind me, especially if there is not much money at the end of it after finding out just HOW STRESSFUL it was for you and was thinking of much higher figures in any case.

MY OWN Case is developing, not sure how yet, so have not started legal action against the DWP over PIPS. Am giving them a few days to resolve and if not will instruct solicitor.

Read in an article yesterday, that the DWP are Fast Tracking PIPS when some has taken Legal Action, cannot find the article, but if I do will put it up on here.

I do believe the DWP PIPS is in Meltdown and there is lots of information coming into the public eye.

LETS HOPE They SACL all these Private Companies making money out of Inaccurate Assessments and The MISERY they are causing.

Hi Cipolar,

glad to have been of use. I am glad you realise that the high level of stress would not be worth it, although you are still considering your options.


The last set of data I looked at stated that something in the order of 85% of cases started do not go full term. Settlement is one reason but is rarer than people think. Its mostly due to the complainant withdrawing, or one or both sides advised that the case is too weak with little prospect of "winning".

Be aware of legal tactics used by the opposition. They will deny that you meet the disability criteria because if that is not established the case is dropped. Even if you provide proof you do, they have the legal right to ask for up to date independent evidence in the form of a medical assessment (far longer and more intense than any DWP health provider). They do this as a delaying tactic, which in turn bumps up costs/recoupment.

All your evidence will be counter claimed to try to weaken it. If they find anything they will use it against you. Look up the case of Zia and others v Brighton University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust ......four men claimed racial discrimination, but because they tried to use a covert recording of a meeting, their case got thrown out (however legitimate their claims were) because of their actions - with the result that the four men had to pay costs between them of £69,484 - and that's without the costs of tribunal as they never made it that far!


they advise you that they establish the right to seek costs against you from the start, which could mean quite hefty costs, if awarded, even if you withdraw in the early stages.

Be aware that public bodies don't settle at the start. They try to "encourage" you to drop your claim. They are more than happy to chuck money away fighting a claim to the end in the hope you drop out/discourge others from claiming. Have a read of some of the cases by googling REDMANS EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNAL CASES - you will find the case mentioned above on this site.

IF they decide to settle, the offer comes literally a couple of days before, or on the day of the tribunal. Once you have amounted significant costs and stress.



Please think carefully about starting the process. If you think your going to get some sense of justice (with or without some money), you don't - you just are relieved its all over. And the opposition just carry on like nothings happened. I got a personal sense of achievement for standing up for myself - set against a significant deterioration in my health due to the stress.

Ty