I claimed for DLA in July 2010 and was refused, so I'm appealing.

Because I have some mental health issues (though not seeing a psychiatrist at the moment) I had a mental health advocate help with my forms and she sent off for my appeal etc. with my consent form.

Anyway, skip forward to now. I've just been told that my appeal is on 6th December.

I have several problems:

My advocate has told me that she now can't come with me to my appeal as since joining with MIND their company has a lot of work. This wouldn't bother me, but they joined with them about 3 months ago. Plenty of time for her to inform me that she can't come with me to my tribunal.

When looking through the evidence they sent me, the reports I gave my advocate to send weren't in there. I had some reports from an OT that came out to see me and do a few assessments. I have her the reports MONTHS ago. She put in her letter for my appeal that she was going to send them, and apparently never has.

The only appointment she's offered me in the run up to my appeal is on 25th November. That's too late for the reports. That's the last day I need to have sent in any extra evidence. So any evidence I get, I can't send in.

The thing that infuriates me the most, is she told me that some of my problems couldn't be included in the form because they weren't proper disabilities, so I left them out, and played down some of the pain I get because it is caused by one of the things I was told couldn't be included (I'm morbidly obese, mostly caused by hypothyroidism, though that wasn't diagnosed at the time of my claim, and poly cystic ovary syndrome, which was diagnosed)

So although I get a lot of pain when walking, I didn't include the pain due to my weight because I was informed that I couldn't include it. So thanks to the advice, I've probably ruined my own chances of getting DLA.

I've pretty much accepted that I'm going to lose the appeal due to these issues. The only person that can accompany me on the day is my mum, who has no more idea than I do about how to represent myself.

I'm going to claim again, though I'll wait until this hearing is over since it's only a couple of weeks away.

I suppose I'm really looking for advice on proper wording on forms, and in the tribunal, I'll still try to win, even though I don't think I will.

I'm sorry, this is a real ramble, I find it hard to make words make sense when I'm stressed as I am now.

Anyway, any advice would be appreciated.

Biscuit

You do need to include everything on the form; no matter how minor it may be.

Yeah, I'm going to on my next claim, even if it seems insignificant.

I had my appeal today. My mum came with me, and helped me answer some of the questions. I was only in there 15 minutes.

Luckily I managed to get the occupational therapist reports in to them on time (after getting them from my advocate) and they accepted them, so after only a few questions they sent me out, and I was successful!

I've been awarded low rate care and mobility for an indefinite period.

I was really surprised, when I got out of there I was expecting them to tell me that I wouldn't get anything.

That's good to hear.