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Considering DLA when looking at PIP appeal.
Hi, im looking for a little bit of clarity around a Tribunals powers if possible.
I am working with a client who was receiving High Rate DLA Care and Mobility and in 2018 was invited to apply for PIP. She did so but the award was refused. She appealed and sought advice from us when the appeal bundle arrived. We drafted her submission, submitted medical evidence etc, and the appeal was listed for April 2019. However a few days before the hearing we received a directions notice saying the hearing was postponed because the Tribunal were concerned that there was evidence in the bundle and medical records to say that she shouldn’t have had DLA for as long as she did.
hearing is now next week and has been scheduled for 3 SLOTS!!! Medical records have been obtained at the Tribunals request back to 2013.
The client was awarded DLA as a 15 year old (She is now mid 30’s) and it was awarded as a life time award. The client understands the rules of DLA and as far as she is concerned there has been no improvement in her care needs or her mobility and so she has never notified DLA.
My concern is that this is going to turn in to a DLA appeal rather than a PIP appeal. The DWP have been instructed to attend, and it almost feels as though the Tribunal want to find evidence to allow the DWP to investigate this clients DLA, rather than focus on her PIP.
S12(8)(b) Social Security Act 1998 states that Tribunals must not take in to account matters that were not obtaining to the date of the decision. Given that we are looking at a PIP decision from June 2018, what jurisdiction does the Tribunal have to go back beyond 2018 and consider DLA related issues?
Many thanks in advance for any information you can share.