First Tier Tribunal recommendation

Hi,

We recently represented a client at FTT and successfully had Reg.29 applied. The tribunal recommends the DWP reassesses the client within 3 months…. We’re going to get a statement of reasons, if only to see if it might give us a clue to the tribunal’s reasoning. The client was very emotional during the hearing, and accused the tribunal of being rude and showing a lack of respect.

I don’t suppose there’s a great deal we can do about the recommendation, but perhaps there is. Perhaps we could make our own recommendation to the DWP, but I doubt it would carry as much weight…. Any suggestions?

Get the SOR and ROP and go from there.

Seems a bit mean, doesn’t it? Why make a recommendation like that?

Hard to say. You’re second guessing everything until you’ve the statement and record.

I guess I’m not expecting to get anything from the transcripts, but should I expect to? Does the recommendation need to have a rationale, and does the rationale need to be recorded? I suppose the question is, given that the recommendation to the DWP isn’t binding, could it be arbitrary?

It isn’t binding in law this is only a recommendation, and the likely hood of it happening seems a little remote, given they (JC+) first have process the decision and then put the benefit back into the system and payment , at best they will get the ESA50 out then it will be all the wait on ATOS. It is possible they could, but the reality is it will be unlikely.