Tue 22-Jul-08 12:02 PM by ali l

I have appealed to the commissioners on behalf of a client, and the DWP in their response have basically said, "Yeah you're right, that was a rubbish decision, and we think it should go to a new tribunal". They have then sent out new appeal stuff - can they do this without a decision from the commissioner? We haven't withdrawn the appeal at this end.

Probably the likely outcome in this case is that the commissioner would refer it to a differently constituted tribunal anyway, but surely there's a point of principal here?

Ali,

What 'new appeal stuff' have they sent?

David

The letter saying: "Thank you for your letter telling us that you want to appeal. We got it on 1/7/08" (which is a bit of a fib) and then goes on to say they'll reconsider the decision etc.

Sounds to me like an administrative foul up at the DWP.

I don't know which DWP office you're dealing with but most of the appeal teams in our area are pretty helpful, I would give them a call.

David

I did that this morning David, after phoning the Commissioners' office to check I hadn't missed anything, and it does seem to be that the wrong letter has been sent out. I was asking the question as I'm not too experienced in doing Commissioners stuff and didn't know if the DWP could just decide that they could go ahead and request a new tribunal. I thought it didn't look right and that they should wait for a decision from the commissioner, and it turns out I was right! Thanks for your help anyway.