E.S.A. Tribunal - outcome

patmdoyle

Sorry, as so often happens another member has added their own questions to your thread.

Like many here I am also an ME/CFS sufferer. I scored no points and I am waiting for my appeal in Feb 2011.

The first thing you need to do is to seek face to face advice with a suitable advisor, the CAB or a Welfare Rights Officer would probably be best. A Solicitor may be able to help you, but most do not have any real benefit background and obviously there might also be charges for their assistance.

You are already reading the "ESA Appeals" document in the members section, so that is a good start. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find representation for the Tribunal, some CAB offices still do it but most don't, ditto for WFOs. Many members are successfully representing themselves, so not having one doesn't have to be an issue, in fact having a bad one is a lot worse than not having one at all.

You do not have to declare a representative up-front and as the current waiting time for Tribunals appears to be 5-6 months (although there are regional variations), there should be plenty of time to find one if you believe you really need them.

Gordon

If you have evidence available within the timescales for returning your GL24 appeal form, then you should include it. The Decision Maker will auomatically reconsider the decision as part of the prcess and additional evidence might result in the over-turning the original decision sooner rather than later.

You can contnue to submit evidence to the Tribunal throughout the process, providing you allow time for the administration associated with doing so to occur, in practice the limit is about 3-4 weeks before the hearing. That said, the earlier you do so the better, and if you can do so within four weeks of receiving the evidence pack from the Tribunal Service, that is best.

Remember to send copies of your evidence, never the originals.

Gordon

patmdoyle

These are things you should discuss with an advisor.

What I will say, is that the ESA WCA is a test of your abilities not your disabilities.

You should concentrate your time in providing evidence as to why you are unable to perform the tests as illustrated in the ESA documents in the members section.

Gordon