Does the DWP have any obligation to get medical evidence Translated if it might be material to a PIP appeal

I would be grateful for anyone’s thoughts here.

I had a 1st tier Personal Independence Payment tribunal set aside on the basis that the Tribunal had ignored my request for adjournment on the basis that medical evidence which could make a material difference from the clients home country of Slovakia had not been interpreted.

The set aside notice says that the onus is on the Citizens Advice to get the evidence interpreted. I thought that the Department of Work and Pensions would do this – I had previous sent a request to the Department of Work and Pensions, but it had been ignored. I am pretty sure that they had done this for another old case of mine (but that was a overpayment case where fraud had been involved).

a) Do people think that the Department of Work and Pensions have any obligation to do this service.
b) If not does the evidence have to be certified in some way – the directions notice does not specify this.

Unfortunately, I have a hunch that regardless this evidence wont make a material difference – but hey ho.

I had an unreported case at Upper Tribunal a few years ago involving untranslated legal documents relating to a property abroad. The First Tier Tribunal decision was set aside on the basis that the documents were not translated fully by the interpreter present at the hearing. The judge had asked him to ‘summarise the main points’ whiuch we successfully argued was a breach of natural justice.

A direction was given for the organisation I worked for to pay for professional translation of the documents certified by the translating company for the rehearing.

I’m not saying that this is definitely the correct legal position but it is what happened to us. I haven’t got an electronic version of the judgement at home but I can dig it out and send it to you next time I’m in the office (probably next week) if it is of any use to you?

I also recall another case where I asked both the Tribunal and the DWP to translate some documents from Belgium and I was told rather unceremoniously by both where I could get off. They may have quoted some law, I can’t remember. I can try to find it for you if I can remember who the client was.

I would think that if you’re the party seeking to show entitlement then you’re the party who is going to have to get it translated. It is not, at present, the role of the DWP to help you prove your entitlement.

All that said, I would query the specific use of the medical evidence. Is it likely to offer anything beyond diagnosis, treatment. prognosis? Are those currently gaps in the evidence? Are they even at issue?

Hello there Dick, hope all well in Soupville.

I had an appeal relating to capital, and Spanish legal documents played a leading role.

The (then) District Judge adjourned for us to go and get an acquaintance of client to provide a translation.

This was duly submitted - and sent back, as HMCTS then decided it needed to be official certified translation (a different Judge taking a different view).

A direction followed that we should sort this out.  Bits of correspondence to and fro, and in the end the pandemic hit, and I sat myself down with google translate and cobbled it together myself, with a statement explaining what I’d done and it was as accurate or inaccurate as my methods would allow.  It seemed to make a lot more cohesive sense than I might have expected it to, and in my mind it was better to put something in front of the Tribunal rather than have determine it as inadmissable.

My client was a bit peeved his acquaintance had put in all the time and effort for no result, and it must be said HMCTS were not consistent on how they were prepared to deal with it. 

Just as an afterthought, he looked into the cost of getting the whole document translated as per HMCTS directions, and it was somewhere upwards of £1000.

I’ve had the alternative format team turn an entire set of appeal papers into large print, including retyping medical evidence from scratch, which was rather impressive in an utterly pointless sort of way. It arrived in 4 bound volumes with laminate covers and cost circa £1,800 or more. For some weird reason they don’t want to do it again. Then again, judges issuing directions which instruct clerks to scan and produce pdfs to email out rather solves it nowadays.

I never told them that the client told me that they never read any of it and just trusted me to get on with it.

Insert appropriate emoji here.

These things do cost. Thus my exhortation to be really sure that there are gaps within the evidence which could not be comprehensively filled in some other way as opposed to getting a lovely Slovakian translation which starts with the inevitable “I saw this well dressed, articulate gentleman today…” and which really means “I saw this rich mouthy so and so who has diagnosed themselves on the internet” etc.

My client had medical documents from Denmark. CHADA refused to get it translated, for the purposes of carrying out a WCA.  The claimant refused to participate in the WCA, without the documents having been translated. A complaint was made, which was eventually looked into by the ICE, who got CHADA to translate it as their own expense.

Anyone would think they were exempt from EA 10.

Thanks everyone - The set aside notice didn’t specify a certified copy - And Citizens Advice definitely wouldn’t stump up a grand - or anything for a copy -> don’t think the client will afford that either - So its to work with Google Translate me thinks