Expediting an appeal

A brief overview - My client is a Swiss National, failed R2R for IS last year, appealed as we believe she should have a retained right of residence though husband/father of child who is no longer in the UK, claimed JSA in the meantime and has been satisfying all of the conditions, but has been turned down for payments because failed HRT.

I appealed this decision and asked for an urgent review which I was pretty sure would be successful as she has lived here 4 years, all possessions here, no property at home or intention to return and now has a permanent Housing Association property!!! However, I have just spoken to the BDC and review has been carried in respect of all of this information and decision remains that same!

I have a separate battle with HB/CTB to consider her entitlement using their own rules, because at present they say that are waiting for the JSA decision to decide whether she has HRT for entitlement to HB/CTB, and therefore are not making any payments nor ending entitlement and issuing a decision letter against which we can appeal. In the meantime I have a client who is in recovery from being on a mental health section for 2 months at Christmas time with a 3 year old son and, and a race against time to keep their new Housing Association property, because no rent has been paid since they have lived there.

I have never contacted the Tribunal Service before and asked for a hearing to be expedited, do you think this would be an appropriate situation to do this and what is the procedure?

Thanks in advance.

Our local TS office (Liverpool) has a procedure for expediting appeals where claimants are left with little or no income.

I don’t think its a national initiative so it may be worth making enquiries of Birmingahm TS to try the same if they’re not already doing so.

I have a client who is appealing a DLA decision and has terminal cancer.
I am able to ask the tribunal to do this for me/the client.?

I wish you luck with the expediting appeal request. I made a request for an expedited hearing on 09 September 2010, the client had all income stopped; she was suffering extreme hardship. It is still not listed.

At a recent TUG’s group the Senior Judge advised writing directly to the Judges requesting a direction to list as this will carry more weight and likely to be the quickest route.