Morning

I'm afraid I have become a bit out of the loop with appeals since starting to work for a Housing Association and I havent done an ESA appeal Tribunal yet. I have a submission now and wondered if anyone has one of their subs that they could share to point me in the right direction.

All help appreciated.

Thanks

I would guess that anyone who was in a position to advise would want to know a bit more about the nature of your client's condition and how it affects him in practice before they could give you anything really useful and relevant.

And don't look at me! I've never repped in an ESA appeal. In fact our Bureau doesn't seem to be getting many queries (and I don't rep anyway).

I have had 4 ESA appeals so far, two revised by the DWP on further evidence and two successful at tribunal. I’ve always said that we will have to run more reg 29 arguments for ESA than we did for ICB (exceptional circs – return to work, risk to health, etc) and strangely two of my cases were successful on reg 29, one revised by the DWP and one at tribunal.

I never do written submissions on ICB/ESA - PCA/WCA appeals. I just list the descriptors, orally, by their numbers in the schedules at the beginning of the hearing. Similarly, I’ll make a brief oral submission on a reg 29 argument. I will have already gone through the descriptors in some detail with my client prior to the hearing, they will be listed in the client's file and I will have the case in my head. The tribunal, myself and my client will make sure that all the evidence is brought into the open at the hearing.

The most important factor is a client’s credibility. If you’ve got that and the case itself is fairly good (without or without supportive medical evidence) then a written submission will not add much. If a client blows his credibility at the hearing then all the written submissions in the world won’t help him.