Appeal Lost

afraid to say i lost my appeal last week, gutted. waited 9 months and scored 12 points on the atos medical. i have cfs/me and know most people score 0 at the medical, i didnt feel my conditon was taken seriously at the tribunal or they believed me. it was much harder than i imagined and i lost my temper with them a little bit as it was so upsetting. i was told the doctor was new one and i thought he was hopeless and ignorant, i dont think he'd ever heard of this condition before. they ignored all other evidence and focussed on one 2 sentence letter from a rheumatologist saying he could find nothing wrong with me after id had an ECG and autonmoic tests done for low heart rate but they took the letter literally. those with and who know about cfs/me will know that there are no tests on the nhs that show cfs/me. anyway, put in a fresh claim for esa today, the cycle continues

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your appeal, you have the right of further appeal to the Upper Tribunal, but only on a point of law.

In order to do so, you will need to apply to the tribunal for a full statement of reasons for the decision within one month from the date of the summary decision. It is also advisable to ask for a record of the proceedings.

Any appeal to the UT will not affect your new claim to ESA.

For further information see this thread HERE.

thanks crazydiamond, im not satisfied with it but i wont be appealing i dont have energy for it anymore, will save my energy for the trauma of the questionnaire and medical in the coming months.

Sorry you had such shitty treatment at the tribunal, de1. People's ignorance can be really infuriating.

I too have CFS/ME and i'm really apprehensive about the tribunal. If you get a doctor who is ignorant about the illness, what the hell can you do? Except explain as clearly as possible how it affects you, obviously!

On the plus side, it sounds like I don't need to worry about it for 9 months as my appeal has only just been passed to Tribunal Service. (sorry - feeble joke)

Well done you, for putting in a fresh claim immediately. Respect!

A further claim should be made as soon as the ESA disallowance decision letter is received.

This will protect a claimant's benefit position in advance of an appeal. Although the DWP state that you cannot submit a further claim until 26 weeks have elapsed following the date of the adverse decision, unless you have had a significant deterioration in your health or you have a new condition, in order to determine the actual deterioration in health or assess a new medical condition, the whole WCA has to be repeated again. The DWP cannot reject your claim without reference to further/new medical evidence, which may include another medical assessment

Furthermore, more importantly, the tribunal will only look down to the date of the decision under appeal, so a deterioration or a new health condition cannot be taken into account.

de1 wrote:

afraid to say i lost my appeal last week, gutted. waited 9 months and scored 12 points on the atos medical. i have cfs/me and know most people score 0 at the medical, i didnt feel my conditon was taken seriously at the tribunal or they believed me. it was much harder than i imagined and i lost my temper with them a little bit as it was so upsetting. i was told the doctor was new one and i thought he was hopeless and ignorant, i dont think he'd ever heard of this condition before. they ignored all other evidence and focussed on one 2 sentence letter from a rheumatologist saying he could find nothing wrong with me after id had an ECG and autonmoic tests done for low heart rate but they took the letter literally. those with and who know about cfs/me will know that there are no tests on the nhs that show cfs/me. anyway, put in a fresh claim for esa today, the cycle continues

If the dr was "new" and you could prove he did not know what he was on about then you might have a case to go to a higher tribunal .... with one of the members not being skilled in what they where doing.. there must be written somewhere the ability needed in a dr on a tribunal

the problem you have is even if he is new and you thought he did not take your illness in a serious way ...

all he needs to show is one award in favour of someone with me/cfs and your case is shot as that shows as you say they just did not believe you


you say there are no tests on the nhs for me/cfs what can be done private ??? do they have tests ? if so whats the cost?