Reconsideration taking longer than 11 weeks

It's the most recent that I have from my contacts at the DWP. The 15% success rate for DLA reconsiderations hasn't improved that much. It was around 10% when I retired as a DLA Member in 2005. It's due really to better training for Decision Makers and complaints from the President of Appeal Tribunals about poor quality decision making.

There is little communication at all levels between the DWP and the Tribunals Service The backlog of tribunals for DLA has risen mainly due to so many ESA appeals, since the medical member and Tribunal Judges hear both DLA & ESA appeals, although DLA Tribunals also have to have a Disability Member on the panel.

As Gordon states he hopes the Tribunal Service are not being subject to outside pressure and I hope I can assure him that they're not. All Tribunal Members are judicial appointments made by the Ministry of Justice, with all appointments having to be approved personally by the Lord Chancellor.

A Tribunal is a Court of Law, albeit an informal one and any attempts to interfere with the course of justice carries stiff penalties.

Hope this of some help.

Jim

Hi Ladymadonna

Will your consultant explain in the letter the DLA have now requested, the help you need from someone else and that you have you needed this help for 3 months prior to your claim and will you need it for another 6 months or more?

There is no reason why you shouldn't ask your consultant to send the evidence to you and then you forward it to the the DLA. Keep a copy and write your name & NINO on every page, if appropriate number the pages. If posting you may want to send by a method whereby you can trace delivery.

I hope this is of help.

Michael

Gordon wrote:

Mark Sutton wrote:

No doubt, but something certainly seems to have increased the number of ESA claimants being placed straight into the WRAG without a medical in recent months.

Since the entry criteria have not changed, one must surely look to other factors?

The two sets of statistics you are referencing have nothing to with each other.

Gordon

Granting immediate entry to the WRAG to those who clearly qualify will surely mean fewer appeals and more successful reconsiderations will obviously have the same effect.

Gordon wrote:

Mark Sutton wrote:

Granting immediate entry to the WRAG to those who clearly qualify will surely mean fewer appeals and more successful reconsiderations will obviously have the same effect.

My impression, based on members posts, is that being placed in the WRAG without a medical, has actually increased the number of appeals

Gordon

Well, that's certainly true in my case.

But I suspect that many who qualify for the Support Group are just putting up with being in the WRAG and we'll never know how many people appealing to move from the WRAG to the Support Group would have been refused ESA altogether had they attended a "medical".