Tribunal Tommorow

Hi
I from what i can read you are going for a DLA tribunal if you are appealing against the mobility componment then i will suggest that you act as you would normally act at home, if you are unable to walk an great distances please tell them that, they will ask you how you got here and will expect you to answer with the help of others, ie you have been driven and friend has had to help you from the car to the place.
If you are able to walk someday and then can't the others please state what it is like for you if you walk too much today, do you suffer more the next day.
If you have stated that you can't sit for any periods of time please make sure that you get up and move around as it may be 30-60 minutes in the tribunal, and they will look at how long you have sat for.
If you are chanlangering them on the care side tell them what you can do but also tell them the concerquences of doing a task. ie if you have had a shower you might be able to do it but you suffer for the next few hours because it has taken all your energy

Do look at the information on the site and use it.
Hope it all goes well

Hi guys, i had the dates mixed up
My date is 13th not 12th early in the morning. Thank you Leanne that was very informative. Im hving a DLA tribunal and im fighting for higher rater mobility, so thats hat i need help with. To be honest questions like "can u walk 50 metres" throws me off so i wanted to know am i meant to expand that if i can walk 50 metres it'll affect me afterwards. Ive never been to something like this and im also quite young so im thinking wil it just be questions after questions. I just hope i am able to give them a clear picture of how i suffer.

Hi LolaDawodu,
I am also having mine on the same day as you, *goodluck - fingers crossed*. Thanks to all the comments, i never thought to expand on a question. I am so scared & my emotions are so close to the surface, i really hope i don't break down & cry as that's not me at all

Hi,

I had my appeal a couple of weeks ago now, and I was also very nervous. I can tell you that the people on my panel were lovely, genuinely interested in my case. There was a Carer, a Dr and a Lawyer on the panel and there was also a rep from the DWP who was there to give the reasoning behind their decision. I wasn't really expecting him to be there, but it wasn't really a problem, in fact I think it helped my case as he hadn't actually read any of the evidence I had submitted and he made a bit of a mess of things.

The Dr seemed to actually be aware of the medical problems I have, which was wonderful as it's not a common problem and a lot of my problems with my DLA decision were down to the DWP and Atos not understanding my illness.

The process was that me and my mother and the DWP rep were sat on one side of the desk and the panel on the other. They asked the DWP rep to go through the decision that I was appealing against and then the panel asked me a series of questions about my illness, how it affects me and about my day to day life. I didn't feel pressurised at all and I had the impression that they were really listening to me. After that I was asked if there was anything I wanted to say...there was so they let me talk for a little while. After that I was asked to go back to the waiting room to await their decision.

I was only in the waiting room for a few minutes when I ushered back into the appeal room. The decision was typed up on the desk in front of me...the panel also told me that they had allowed the appeal and told me that the info would then go to the DWP for them to change their decision on their computer system.

I was pleasantly surprised at how nice and understanding the panel were and at no time did I feel stressed or pressured. Everything was done at my pace and if I didn't understand something or needed something repeating it was fine.

I hope your experience is the same as mine..and I wish you luck with your appeal.

Ratch
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Hi, Zombii-Ratch

THANK YOU for posting about your experience in some detail. That's very helpful for me to feel less anxious about my own hearing, knowing that some people have a good experience with appeal panels.

Actually, my impression from tracking this forum for a couple of months is that a reasonable majority of people have OK or good experiences. And then there are some stinkers! So maybe a good rule of thumb would be "Expect the best. Prepare for the worst."

Thanks again.
Andy.

I would say hope for the best, prepare (or expect) the worst. Or perhaps I'm being pessimistic