Blue Badge yet no award of PIP Mobility

The tribunal is entitled to depart from the blue badge assessment, but would be expected to give some reasons for doing so.

There is perhaps more mileage if the tribunal has considered walking 50 metres with stops as ‘standing and then moving 50 metres’. The commentary to Sweet and Maxwell suggests that the distance should be moved in a single stint, as with ESA. Furthermore, virtually any stop more than a second or two would bring the time scale outside a ‘reasonable time’ (as defined), especially if the person is moving slowly already.

Having a Blue Badge isn’t evidence for the purposes of evidence before the tribunal.

The evidence used to make the decision in awarding the Blue Badge is the important thing.

Different conclusions can be reached by different tribunals on the same evidence - in this case it’s a different body making the award and therefore the tribunal can clearly arrive at their own decision regardless.

Was the evidence before the tribunal?

If not, had you tried to obtain the evidence?

Example of Blue Bade assessment (awarded in this case). This one is from Calderdale; I’m pretty sure that the Kirklees version asks the assessor to try to observe the claimant walking 80 yards

Thanks for the assistance.  I had not tried to obtain the evidence due to this being at cost to the appellant and going via a subject access request.  I have now requested it in anticipation of the reasons for the decision shortly.

As mentioned, I had a few issues with the hearing.  Mainly the ESA LCWRA not being considered despite it being raised (I would have at least thought an adjournment to get the reasons for that decision perhaps?) and also the fact that the appellant had not attended any support groups for her fibromyalgia.  I thought this was irrelevant as the appellant clearly stated she did not know about them and her GP had not mentioned this to her.  I imagine that the lack of ongoing support may be something the Tribunal will rely on in its reasons.

I may want to come back to you all once I have the reasons.

Thanks again!

Not sure I would generally bring ESA into play on a PIP mobility case and as per the previous comments it’s not incumbent upon a tribunal to seek any additional evidence unless it fills a gap in their knowledge. The question would then be what’s the gap?

Trying to get an award by analogy would start most tribunals down the line of thinking you have a weak case. Many many clients will be on ESA and may well already have a Blue Badge. Neither would be my starting point. How far? Reliably, repeatedly, safely and/or in a reasonable time, would be the whole of my argument. The rest would be mentioned only as icing on the cake and I would never have the expectation they would swing an award. The danger is that the exact opposite occurs and that ESA are alerted to a fresh decision denying PIP mobility and so on.