PIP Tribunal - How much background history should I put in?

Hi lauren,
I always think it is important to provide detailed information. This helps give a picture of you and how you cope with your disabilities. As long as the information isn't repetitive and comprise a huge amount of pages then I would say include it. Medical reports showing your diagnosis even if several years ago can be helpful, but try to include an upto date version if you have this.
Presumably you are arguing that the assessment didn't really illustrate your health issues. So, yes of course criticise that - (not everything, try and group things into 4 or 5 major areas with bullet points and use one or two examples of each.) However, if you only include the criticism and not the background info, it will be a bit one sided. Tell the tribunal how it really is, eg tell them you have had 2 lots of surgery, but the pain is still there, tell them you can't take certain meds because of the side effects and why. Tell them how depression has made you feel anxious, and that your incontinence means you have to wear pads, and these can leak. Yes, my example all sounds terrible, but it will show your disabilities. PIP is a rather negative process, but at least whilst you are doing the claim form/tribunal etc embrace the negativity, be eg depressed lauren who struggles to get out of bed through pain and can scarcely walk to the bathroom, and you stand a good chance of winning the tribunal. You can smile and try and hide your disabilities and get on with things when not dealing with the tribunal!
I hope this makes sense.
Good luck.
Let us know how you get on.
LL26