Unsuccessful Tribunal Hearing

as far as I am aware if your doctor has signed you off sick you have the right to reapply. Ring this number 0800 882 200. This is an independant goverment provided disability and long term sickness helpline who will be able to advise you on what to do next and they are extremely useful as I have used them on many occassions and have given this number to many people who have also got the cls number from them which is free welfare benefit legal advice. Give them a ring and make sure you get all the acts no.s from them too as we had to quote them at the ESA recently for my son because they wouldnt except that he had the right to a single person premium because he is on DLA because he lives at home. There help got it through quicker

Thank you for that. I didn't know about the welfare rights office being able to help. Worth looking into.

Thank you so much to everyone who has answered my questions. I didn't expect that I could take my case up again and thought I would have to try to get to the job centre fortnightly. The stress I felt has reduced because of your help and I really am very grateful. This site has been a lifeline for me, and must be for so many people. I've gone from to

Thank you again.

Hi,I suggest you appeal to the upper appeal board and if that fails, then start a new claim.You may find that they will eventually send you for a medical which I advise you to attend. I did after an upper appeal failed, and was successful.Every person looking at your case has their own oppinions and their own ideas on implementing the rules, despite them supposed to be impartial. After all they are only human, but sooner or later someone will look at the case and say why has this carried on so long.

Its a case of gritting your teeth and plowing the field for all you are worth.

Good luck

Hi Georgina, I'm just a normal person (also called Georgina!) with c.f.s. and i was on i.b. until end march this year, i'm now having to go to tribunal as i attended a medical and failed it, appealed but they still say no.

the thing is like you I went on my own to the medical and now sincrely wished I hadnt, as the paper work most of it doesnt seem to relate to me at all, like in it they say I said I needed to drink in the morning (I had said yes apparently when asked if I had a drink in the morning). I now know what they meant, I think I must have thought they meant tea or coffee, not alchohol.

With c.f.s it is very hard to think. I find I am following what someone said about two mins ago trying to dechipher that and then they are on to something else. also I got tired in my medical and started just to say yes / no, also whenever i did try to explain they said no room for it on the form and it had to be this or that. no room for describing good / bad days.

so i'm wondering if the brain fog you didn't understand things properly, or like me you kind of just got by, also y ou know with this condition we have to be positive, i find its really hard for me to think what i cant do i focus on what i can do. but with us its how regular we do it. look in pevious threads on the forum you will come across notes on that with legal links about it.

Georgina wrote:

I could appeal to the upper tribunal, but I can't see that I will have any more success there really.

The condition is so variable from one person to another and a common assumption is that you haven't got it if you aren't bed-ridden. The truth is that you can feel so different from one hour to the next depending on what is happening in your life and how you manage to pace your activity.

The ESA forms only seem to allow for a more regular degree of incapacity, which makes it difficult to fulfil the criteria, as if you say you can do something one day but not the next, they put you down as being able to do it so you don't get the points.

Hi Georgina,

You can only appeal to the Upper Tribunal if your First-tier Tribunal made an error of law in reaching their decision. The way to if that's the case is to request a full statement of reasons for the Tribunal's decision and have it looked by an experienced welfare rights adviser. You must make such a request within 4 weeks of receiving the First-tier Tribunal's decision.

The tests for an 'error of law' by a Tribunal are in an old, but still relevant Commissioners Decision.

Test for error of law

R(A)1/72 states that there is an error of law if:

1. The decision contains a false statement about the law e.g. they got the law wrong or misinterpreted it.

2. The decision made is supported by no evidence

3. The facts found are such that no person acting judicially and properly instructed as to the relevant law could have come to the determination in question (a perverse decision).

4. There has been a breach of natural justice, i.e. the procedure followed leads to unfairness.

5. The tribunal did not give proper findings of fact or provide adequate reasons for its decision. There must be sufficient reasons so that you can see why it reached the decision it did.

“The minimum requirement must at least be that the claimant, looking at the decision, should be able to discern on the face of it why the evidence has failed to satisfy the authority”

Hope this explains things.

Good luck.

Jim