I have a DLA appeal hearing in a few weeks time for a child with ADHD who is just 15. The mother will be attending and I have various medical and social reports as evidence. Will the tribunal expect the child to attend?

Some do - I never take child. Only once have I been ordered to by Tribunal and it lasted no time as they would not speak to Chair. needless to say an award was made.

CDLA/1721/2004 reported as R(DLA)3/06 states power to ask child to attend by Tribunal should be exercised with great care and caution with regard to child's welfare and possible unreliability of the child's evidence.

Also states that the Tribunal drawing an adverse inference from the child not attending was inappropriate and unlawful.

Whether a minor or not an appellant cannot be forced to attend a tribunal hearing. I had a similar case recently where tribunal adjourned and invited the appellant (who by then was 16) to attend. Teh appellant however has stated categorically that he does not want to go and wants the appeal to continue in his absence, albeit there will be a witness.

IMHO the tribunal is then obliged to condsider hte case on whatever evidence is available. If the tribunal decided to draw some inference on the appelant's absence that may well be open to challenge depending on the facts of the case.

Having been present at a Tribunal hearing where a child with severe behavioural problems attended because babysitting arrangments fell through, I'd say on the whole, no. Nobody likes children on the floor under the table, deliberately upsetting water and climbing up the filing cabinets...

Hi
I have in front of me Commisioners decision R (DLA) 3/06 in which this issue is looked at and in a nutshell no the child does not have to attend. If you need to know more go onto the new ossc site. Just put ossc in google and when you go into the siteclick on "our decisions" In the search engine you can pick a catagory e.g DLA care and then a sub catagory I think I found my decision after putting in supervision.

At the practical level it is probably quite unusual for the child to attend and tribunals are fully entitled to take personal evidence from the carers who probably have more insight into the behaviour than the child themselves. The question I suppose is what is the best evidence. Some tribunals do like to see appellants where there is a mental disability (as we all know there is nothing like meeting people with these disabilities to get a really good idea of how they are affected) but it certainly isn't necessary.

It can be a good idea to get soem sort of evidence from an involved professional with wide experience of the condition, as long as they don't tend to give the impression (as can happen) that this perosn is perfectly normal. They often just mean perfectly normal for someone with ADHD/attending this special school, etc)