tribunal - help

Hi Row,
You should have time to ask your GP for a copy of your husband's medical records. The GP shouldn't charge. (your husband will have to do this, unless you have authority eg under Power of Attorney or express permission.) Maybe you have a copy of the diagnosis report confirming autism. This will be useful even if several years old.
What I suggest is to write a letter to send to the Tribunal - you may be able to upload it via the online service if you used this. If you do this now, then this should get to the Tribunal, but there is a danger it might not, so time is somewhat of the essence. If you have help from an agency/support group or get treatment/therapy somewhere try and get a report or letter from them too.
Firstly write paragraph/s about your husband's general health, when he was diagnosed, have things become worse over the years etc. Refer to your husband's own medical reports. You could explain eg that he doesn't engage with people to help, maybe he doesn't realise his limitations. Even if not directly related to PIP say what he does to give a picture. Perhaps he leaves a load of mess, maybe he lost a job in unfortunate circumstances because of his behaviour. Does he get easily upset about things, or does he rage?
Then next paragraph/s criticise the use of the UC report and/or adopt what may be relevant. If the report is all wrong, try and work out the major flaws and group into 4 or 5 bullet points eg
- report relies on out of date information
- Assessor make assumptions which are not borne out by what was said
- Assessor has misunderstood the severity of husband's disability
etc etc
Give examples of the worse criticisms to explain.
You can compare the UC report with any GP report to highlight inaccuracy if this appears relevant
Remember it is highly unlikely that the Assessor would deliberately lie and you can't prove this - so words like didn't hear or incorrectly recorded/misunderstood are good choices.
Then focus on each descriptor - analyse what happens - how does your husband perform - what help either from a gadget (aid/appliance) or from you/others. Does he need prompting? What happens when things go wrong. Give examples. Time taken, getting distressed, pain etc are all relevant considerations.
Try not to repeat exactly what is in the claim form, but this is your chance to write from your perspective (assuming that you will be doing the writing and husband won't.)
Criticise the scores awarded by DWP and say why. Give what you think is the correct scores. Remember that you need to consider what happens for the majority of days. (if there is no variance then no matter.) There are 4 criteria which need to be met -all 4 - consider each PIP activity - can you husband do the task
1. safely ie without a substantial risk to his health or another's health
2. In a reasonable time - no more than twice the time of an able bodied person
3. Repeatedly across the whole day as many times as reasonably required (note different activities will have different repetition needs.)
4. to an acceptable standard - eg significant pain, unacceptable behaviour, safety issues, leaving a dangerous mess eg when cooking, not completing a task, causing anxiety or fear could comprise this

You can then have a closing paragraph/s explaining that you have written this on your husband's behalf. Explain eg that your husband ignores his disabilities, and won't acknowledge them. Maybe he doesn't like talking about them and may easily say 'Oh yes, I can do that...' but the reality is he can't. Explain this. Explain the things your husband ignores or just doesn't see or feel.

If you can not get medical evidence, send in whatever you have -your explanations and observations will be the best evidence.

At the hearing - firstly make sure that the Tribunal has got any letter you have sent in - if not you may be able to read it, if it is not too long -make notes - if you continually interrupt whilst your husband is speaking this might antagonise the tribunal - but you can make a quick note and then you should be allowed to give evidence -then be prepared to criticise what your husband has said. This may come across as being unkind - tell your husband in advance - being brutally honest is the only way your husband will get PIP. If he says he can manage, but the truth is he puts himself at risk, doesn't do the task properly, takes too long, gets distracted and doesn't finish or screams the place down, he won't be doing the task to meet the 4 criteria, however he thinks he performs. If you don't say it how it really is, the Tribunal won't know and then can't award points!
I'm afraid you will need to be blunt if necessary.

I hope this helps.

Good luck. Let us know how you get on.
LL26