ESA Appeal Review without attending tribunal

My husband suffers from PTSD and has been absent from work since April 2009. He had his medical in December 09 ans scored a derisory 6 points. Sadly he is still too ill to work .
With the help of this website we submitted an appeal with supporting medical evidence including 5 reports from his consulktant. The appeal was lodged with the tribunals service in January and we were led to expect a hearing in July but had no date set.
Today hubby has received a letter which I quote
'about your support allowance appeal
I have been advised that the appeals officer has reviewed the decision on your case and that the new decision is a more favourable one.
This means that your appeal has now lapsed and I will take no further action.
If you think the new decision is still wrong you must lodge a fresh appeal.'

Not really understanding what this means I rang the tribunals service and the lovely lady I spoke too says they are part of a pilot scheme to reduce the burdon on the tribunals service. A team of 5 are reviewing disputed cases where points have been awarded at ESA medicals to try and free up the 15000 backlog at the office where they normally handle some 5000 appeals per year.
She believes it means that hubby has effectively won his appeal though we have to wait for confirmation from DWP who may not have been informed yet.
I'll update this thread as soon as I have more concrete news as it may have ramiffications for many other members

I hope she is correct. well done. I just recieved a letter today so say I score 0 points so I am just starting the appeal process. Im not happy as the assessor has obviously wrote what she wanted and not what i told her or my evidence provided
Hope you get a letter of comfimation soon
susan

Hi catvinnat,

I've just seen your post today, my apologies for not replying sooner.

If your husband's appeal has lapsed because of a more favourable decision that can indeed only mean that he has been awarded ESA, otherwise the appeal would be continuing.

You will need to wait until you get a decision letter before you know which group he has been put in.

If it is the work-related activity group and your husband believes he qualifies for the support group he can still put in a fresh appeal, although there are risks attached to doing this. See our guide to ESA appeals for more on this.

Good luck,

Steve

Thanks Steve
we are still waiting for DWP to inform hubby of which group. I suspect it will be the WR one but whatever, at least its some progress even if it only lasts for a year before he loses his contributions based esa.
Sadly he is now under inordinate pressure from his employer so we have a competency hearing to deal with rather than a tribunal.
I am just awaiting a callback with some legal advise as we may have a strong employment tribunal case for constructive dismissal following their latest dispicable tactic.
We shall see.....
thanks for your support

after 3 weeks of chasing the DWP being passed from pillar to post with no further news I rang the tribunals service again. The lovely lady I first spoke to has dug out hubby's file and the result (we believe)is that he's been put in the support group - quite a change from the original 6 points he was given by ATOS.
No celebrations yet as we won't believe it til we get it in writing but if its true it will be a tremendous relief.

To anyone who is wondering whether its worth all the hassle just do it. The onfo on this website is the best, we wouldn't have had the heart or the courage to plough on otherwise.

Next stop DLA!

HI ,CONGRATULATIONS SURE YOU LL GET A LETTER SOON
YOUR COMMENTS ABOUT THE BACKLOG ETC WERE INTERESTING
ALL THE BEST WITH YOUR DLA YOUR HUSBAND DESERVES IT AFTER
GOING THROUGH ALL THIS. IT HAS OBVIOUSLY BEEN A LONG STRESSFUL
BATTLE YOU COULD DO WITHOUT BUT AS YOU SAID WITHOUT THIS WEB SITE MOST OF US WOULD GIVE UP!
I HAVE JUST BEEN TOLD ON THE PHONE MY ESA CLAIM HAS BEEN DISALLOWED EVEN THOUGH I SCORED ENOUGH POINTS TO BE A"BORDERLINE DECISION"
LOOKS LIKE I AM JOINING THE CROWD WITH AN APPEAL THE NEXT STAGE