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Does the committee believe this drivel of an answer?
Interesting- I was copied on a DLA appeal bundle yesterday where the initial decision not to award DLA had been made almost entirely based on an ESA85 (client has appeal ongoing against the negative WCA decision too). The ESA85 has (most unusually) not been included in the bundle on the basis that as client has appealed against the resulting WCA decision, it cannot be relied upon as evidence.
This would be a positive development were it not for the fact that in the above case, it’s still abundently clear that the decision not to award DLA (or to subsequently revise the decision) has been based on the contents of the ESA85, being as the info on client’s claim form, a factual report from his surgery and a subsequent letter from his GP all support an award of DLA. So not including it in the bundle seems a bit pointless really.
Combining appeals seems to be trend. The judge in WS v SSWP (DLA) [2012] UKUT 202 (AAC) said it was a cool thing to do because it introduces consistency and a more informal way of doing things, and so on. I wish the minister had stronger views about the need to address the ATOS errors that generate the appeals in the first place.
I’ve got a DLA case where the DM used an ESA85 compiled 18 months prior to the DLA claim. Included in the papers is the tribunal’s decision (where I was the rep’) overturning the ESA decision. Also included in the papers is a GPFR which states that symptoms of depression are severe, confirms, among other things, low mood, panic attacks, ocd and agoraphobia. A further letter from the G.P. was also included which is also detailed and supportive. SoS’s sub’ simply dismisses the ESA tribunal’s decision, flatly rejects the G.P. evidence in total and relies on the discredited ESA85. If anyone expects me to believe that this kind of nonsense will not carry over to PIP then they have quite obviously taken leave of their senses. Incidentally, I’ve now just received a lengthy psychiatric report cataloguing a long history of abuse and self harm, with referrals to the Acute Care and Community Mental Health Teams. I’ve submitted that today. I’m not rushing to put money on the SoS taking his hands from under his backside and revising the decision.
From standard PIP disallowance letter, presumably about to be removed from the website of a government department near you:
‘I’ve considered all the information about your conditions and how they affect you as identified
in:
• the “How your disability affects you” form
• the information provided by the health professional consultation report
• the information provided by Jobcentre Plus’
See http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/pip-notification-pip7011.pdf
I wonder what sort of information from Jobcentre plus they mean, given it clearly isn’t an ESA85?