Advice on pip tribunal appeal would be great fully recieved!

We started the appeals process to get her mobility upped to full a few years ago now and had no idea just how messed up the system is!

My partner is now on the full mobility aspect of pip and has been for around 4 months.
However we started the Mandatory Reconsideration debacle a few years ago now and had now idea how badly the courts will screw you over.

Once the appeal went to the tribunal stage we had to wait months for anything to happen. No surprise there then. However in July of 2022 last year the courts gave a Judges direction requesting more information. We were given 2 weeks and the DWP were given 4 weeks. Ok, they required a lot more info from them than us! We duly complied and that was that, couple of months later we contacted the courts to enquire what the state of play was and were told the DWP was yet to respond and we should probably give the DWP a call to remind them.

We duly did this only to be told (very hostile) by the DWP that they didn’t have to respond as they had no case to answer and as such we should probably drop it.

We finally got a date of a video hearing of April 4th 2023. At this point the DWP had still not responded. On commencement of the hearing we were informed that the DWP had finally responded late in the previous evening to the court. The judge stated he was happy to accept their evidence even though we had not even seen it. When I asked why they it was ok for the DWP to respond 9 months late and late in the evening the night before the hearing we were basically ignored and fobbed off while the Judge had a laugh with the DWP representative.
When I asked what would have happened if we had missed our two week deadline I was told in no uncertain terms that the appeal would have been dismissed. It was all the DWP representative could do to hold back her laughter, but did break out into a huge smile and proceeded to speak over us.

The judge then adjourned the appeal while he looked into if he had jurisdiction in this case?

I telephoned the courts in late May to be told the entire panel had recused themselves and nobody could tell us why. Since then I’ve left 4 callback requests, no one has had the courtesy to call us back, the one time I have managed to get through to someone we were told that the case wasnt even with a judge anymore and they had no idea what has happened so we should just wait! Since then we have heard nothing, we can’t afford to spend over an hour a time on hold on a PAYG mobile to try and get hold of someone, that’s if you don’t get cut off first!

We are now at a point where I don’t know what to do, my partner doesn’t want to rock the boat as the system is so clearly biased against us she gets scared she’s going to lose her benefits every time I suggest calling them…

Are we just wasting our time here? We did approach a so called specialist no win no fee company but they did their level best to screw us over as well as they took the case on then did nothing and when they failed to return a pip renewal application they insisted they complete as they are the experts by the DWP deadline, they didn’t bother, then ghosted us, leaving me having to literally beg the DWP for another few weeks to return said form, they eventually did relent and give us the time but only after leaving a negative review on trust pilot did the company get back to us stating they only take cases they can win, contradicting EVERYTHING they told us prior.

I just feel like giving up as everything has gone against us through no fault of our own but I simply don’t see how we can possibly win this!

Any advice at this stage would be gratefully received

Apologies for the long message, so thankyou to anyone who reads all of this.

awesome letter of complaint.

Many thanks for the response. I shall use the template again.
However, I have now sent 3 letters of complaint and have yet to receive any response whatsoever!
I’m not expecting a response to any correspondence I send as it’s become increasingly obvious that responding to claimants simply is not important to them.
I will, however not be letting this go and will advise on the unlikely event I get a response!
Many thanks

Just thought I would post an update on my partners tribunal case.
As advised I used the templates to send a letter of complaint, sent it guaranteed delivery as I did 2 of the 3 others. The tracking confirms delivery but the courts say no letters have ever been received!
Not that I’m surprised… appears to be they take delivery, see it’s some sort of complaint then just bin it!
Seems little point in doing it again as they are clearly not bothered and couldn’t give a shit if people are being treated fairly or not!
Now to the tribunal hearing.
Firstly the DWP didn’t bother to show up and secondly the judge (3rd judge now) stated she does not have jurisdiction over this case.
She said they are having issues with the DWP not showing up but said even if she was the right judge she would not have continued without them. When questioned by me as to why it had AGAIN been given to a judge that did not have jurisdiction she didn’t have any answer except to blame clerks etc.
When I asked why the previous judge was happy to accept evidence from the DWP 9 months late at 9pm the night before the hearing with nothing given to us, once again she had no answer but did say as it’s been accepted it’s accepted and no judge will override that. I asked if any of my letters of complaint sent guaranteed delivery were now in the bundle pack (she was the first judge of 3 that stated she had read it, the previous 2 said they hadn’t until 30 minutes earlier when they ‘flicked through’) but said no there was nothing that had been added except the ‘evidence’ the Dwp produced 9 months after the 1st judges deadline for requested documents! Do, adjourned AGAIN through no fault of ours!

All in all I’ve pretty much given up on this now, the courts aren’t interested, judges are quite happy to accept documents 9 months after deadlines set and more than happy to tell us that the case would have been thrown out if we had been even a day late and then joke about it with the DWP in front of us!
Complaint letters are not only ignored but clearly ignored deliberately as I know they were delivered as I have tracking to prove this! If I was able to afford a lawyer (I’m not) or we qualified for legal aid (there is none) this would be a very different animal but as we are just working class scumbags on benefits we don’t count! Again proving we have a 2 tier justice system in this country!
It’s pointless! This isn’t going to go in my wife’s favour, we will be lucky, in my opinion if it’s heard at all!
Even the Dr and the disabilities specialist, meant to be there for her benefit, have NEVER uttered a single word! They just sit there looking embarrassed! Not a single god damn word in any of the three jokes that are passed for a tribunal hearing??? god knows why they are even there! Oh sorry… they are getting paid to sit there given it an air of legitimacy! I forgot that!
While I thank all who have given advice to us I give up!
This has been 3 years of stress and bullshit and while I thank all who have taken the trouble to read these posts and thank all those who have given advice from the bottom of my heart when you have had these experiences and you can’t even get letters of complaint sent guaranteed delivery past whoever is taking the post the whole process is pointless and if the judge won’t proceed without the DWP who break the rules and don’t even show up what’s the point of any of it? Easy… there is no point! It’s just an exercise in futility and adding more stress to my wife who has chronic fibromyalgia and myself who has mental health issues as it just makes EVERYTHING worse!