DLA Tribunal Hearing

Hi can you please help with this.
DLA reduced at renewal in Oct last year; I had my Tribunal hearing yesterday.Arthritis of my spine and other joints (knees, wrists etc), under a Professor of rheumatology for 12 yrs, he prescribed wrist supports years ago and muscle spasms in my chest are a problem.

Dr on the panel overpowered me asked if no-one had considered I had fibromyalgia I said in April this year it had been thought a possibilaty. He said he couldn’t believe It had not been mentioned before, why had no-one offered me a knee replacement, why did I wear the wrist supports as they clearly caused muscle wastage and talked in detail about fibromyalgia.

At the end he asked if I thought I would get better and I said no, he shot back at me with “why not you must have read that 60% of patients with fibromyalgia do, you need to adjust as people aren’t immortal and your husband may not always be here to care for you.”

My answer had been about arthritis, fibromyalgia wasn’t mentioned till 6mths after my allowance had been reduced and shouldn’t have even been a consideration at the tribunal. I fear an unfavourable decision will follow in the post. Can I request a paper copy of what was discussed and as an undiagnosed condition was the main focus of the hearing, could I complain.

Sheils wrote:

Hi can you please help with this.
DLA reduced at renewal in Oct last year; I had my Tribunal hearing yesterday.Arthritis of my spine and other joints (knees, wrists etc), under a Professor of rheumatology for 12 yrs, he prescribed wrist supports years ago and muscle spasms in my chest are a problem.

Dr on the panel overpowered me asked if no-one had considered I had fibromyalgia I said in April this year it had been thought a possibilaty. He said he couldn’t believe It had not been mentioned before, why had no-one offered me a knee replacement, why did I wear the wrist supports as they clearly caused muscle wastage and talked in detail about fibromyalgia.

At the end he asked if I thought I would get better and I said no, he shot back at me with “why not you must have read that 60% of patients with fibromyalgia do, you need to adjust as people aren’t immortal and your husband may not always be here to care for you.”

My answer had been about arthritis, fibromyalgia wasn’t mentioned till 6mths after my allowance had been reduced and shouldn’t have even been a consideration at the tribunal. I fear an unfavourable decision will follow in the post. Can I request a paper copy of what was discussed and as an undiagnosed condition was the main focus of the hearing, could I complain.

Hi S,

Sorry to hear of your problems at the Tribunal Hearing.

You can request a "Written Statement Of Reasons" for the Tribunal decision.

If you wish to complain, you can do so from this webpage :

hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk/HMCTS/Get...ourt_leaflets_id=254


bro58

Hi
Sorry I also meant to ask if the paperwork shows that fybromyalgia was considered during the hearing and in the outcome, is that enough for me to take my case to a commissioner.

Hi There
Following my post yesterday regarding my DLA being reduced to LRC last October and my Tribunal hearing on Tuesday this week, which I felt had gone really badly.

I recieved the dreaded envelope today with the Tribunal decision and couldnt face opening it so my husband had to do it.

I am over the moon that the Tribunal have upheld the appeal and reinstated me to HRM & MRC. It is all the great information I got from your site that enabled me to present my appeal in the correct manner, so THANK YOU SO MUCH.

I almost gave up several times but it was worth the stress and perseverance. So anyone else out there in the same boat, stick it out, theres so much to be gained.

Hi Sheils, so glad you had a positive outcome!

Best wishes,
Rachel