My son has received d la since he was a child. He is now aged 22 and his last award for dla, ran out around july 2011. He re-applied and initially they lost his claim and he had to apply again, which meant quite an extensive gap, by the time he completed and submitted a second set of dla forms.

Anyway, his claim was unsuccessful and i advised him to appeal against the decision and initially wrote to dla asking for them to reconsider their decision - this had also been unsuccessful. He then wrote asking for the matter to be heard at the tribunal and waited patiently for notice and paperwork relating to the appeal - which seemed to take an awful long time ! But he eventually received a wad of paperwork at his home address and had mentioned to me, that he was totally confused by it all and what he was supposed to do with it/about it all.

I asked him to bring the paperwork round to me, to have a look at - expecting to make sense of it all and advise him on what i felt he could challenge and if any extra evidence required.

When he brought it around, i was astonished by the sheer 'bulk' of the paperwork - as it seemed so excessive. When i looked through it all - it was a mess! It clearly had every bit of paperwork, evidence, doctors letters (gp and psychiatrist reports) and other agencies he was involved with going back approx 7 years (when he was age14!

:???:CONT/........

they had incorporated every bit of evidence that had been sent to them dating back to 2005 and logged it as part of his appeal and had all been used in reaching a decision on this applicationi! It just does not make any sence at aLL, it is so obviously ridiculously irrelevant to his situation today and is so illogical? There was a letter, which needed completing and returning to the Tribunal, confirming he still wishes to proceed with appeal, (standard form) which needed to be returned within 14 days) so I completed this for him and returned it to the address specified and he still awaiting a hearing date., However, its a total mess - what should he do and how does he address this. I have never seen anythihg so blatantly disorganised, incorporating so much out of date evidence and information and literally taken from previous claims that are no longer relevant.

ANY URGENT ADVICE WOULD BE SO VERY MUCH APPRECIATED, I AM THINKING THIS IS AT LEAST NOW A CASE (DECISION AND APPEAL) BASED ON BIAS - AS IT ALSO CONTAINS INFORMATION AND PAPERWORK RELATING TO A PREVIOUS APPEAL WHICH HE LOST (APPROX 5 YEARS AGO!). iTS RIDICULOUS, BUT HOW CAN HE ORT THIS OUT AND USE THEIR ERROR TO HIS ADVANTAGE, IF HE CAN AT ALL?

MANY THANKS ALL

This means it's going to appeal.

Can anybody advise me on the 'lawfulness' in the Disability Service /Appeal Tribunal - using paperwork dating back 7 years in order to determine a decision to award Disability Benefit. Given that there is a cross over, from Child to Adullt and such paperwork retained and produced by the Disability Service, not submitted as part of current claim???

Thanks

I've been told they can use whatever they want. I've had similar - submitted a piece of evidence 5 years ago and that was used instead of the evidence submitted 2 years ago. How I was 5 years ago is irrelevant.

" desperate for help in clarifying matters in relation to paperwork for tribunal...................................."

Can somebody please clarify something for me please, when a new or renewal claim is received by the Disability Unit - should the DM not have regard to the DWP DR Policy (Data Retention); which clearly stipulates for the purpose of DLA Claims - the evidence/paperwork submitted in support of a claim (ie: from client, GP, Tribunal Decisions, Statement of Reasons, Leave to Appeal by SS Commissioners, Decision to set aside, etc) - th ese documents, should be categorised as being either 'supporting' or 'ephimoral' and legislation allows storage of up to 14 months for Supporting Evidence/Documents and less is allowed for Ephimoral. Whilst there are certain exceptions that exist, they really only lead to destruction of all documents being processed up to 14 months following the final decision made in clients particular case or path the claim has taken. So if an appeal is lodged and decision opposed etc or a new tribunal to make fresh decision - it is 14 months from any of these particular processes.

So basically once matters are completed, by way of appeal, re-appeal, new tribunal appointed for fresh decision. Once that absolute final decision reached and no further right of appeal can arise - the 14 month time limit will commence.

In this paricular situation (my original post re: DLA Claim) the decision reached and vast amount of the evidence/documents collated and presented to the Tribunal - is based on supporting evidence which had been presented as relevant, some 6-8 weeks ago? Also included in the somewhat dated 'appeal bundle' is the original decision 'not to award DLA' the appeal papers and the appeal tribunal decision ' agreeing with DM, not to award' 'leave to appeal' granted by the ss commisioners, a freshly constituted appeal hearing (as original decision, erroneous in low/struck out' then the new decision, awarding DLA - LRM & MRC.

If this is considered in any way 'permissable' or 'acceptable' in processing a new claim - I belive it to be 'discriminatory and would be bias' in DM /Tribunal decision,as judgement likely to be clouded by previous information/circumstances/decisions - which likely to be unfavourable for cliient.

It is likely to suggest and present arguments for the Tribunal to use and result in their deciding, not to award DLA; and agree with DM - and not a decision that may have been reached without prejudice/bias.

My understandingi in making a claim for DLA, it is supposed to be based on the substantial affect a disability has on a person's day to day living. Looking closely at the last 3 months and those effects (disadvantages) continuing to have that effect (lasting) for at least another 6 months?

Apart from all of this, the fact that the majority of evidence included in the Appeal Bundle - relates to a great deal of supporting evidence being (1) dated (2) irrelevant /child focused (3) not a true reflection of disabilites now. Is likely to cause much confusion for Tribunal, in reading reports written by CAMHS (child and adolescent mental health services; psychiatrist); SEN Statement of Educational Needs; YOT reports (youth offending) - this is just messy and in my opinion unstructured and unsatisfactory!

Please Please can somebody consider all of the above and offer some advice as to how I can best tackle this - prior to Appeal Hearing date which is scheduled for 26 June, I am compiling a submission for Tribunal and want to incorporate the inconsistancy in the schedule of documents paperwork and put it to them that this is not lawful etc But not sure how to word it and use the correct legal /procedural terms which are being breached?

ANY URGENT HELP AND ADVICE WOUILD BE MOST APPRECIATED - TIME NOW NOT ON MY SIDE AND NEED TO GET SUBMISSION OFF PROMPTO!

THANK YOU TO ANYBODY WHO MIGHT BE ABLE TO HELP!!!!!!

NADIA

Can anybody advise me on the 'lawfulness' in the Disability Service /Appeal Tribunal - using paperwork dating back 7 years in order to determine a decision to award Disability Benefit. Given that there is a cross over, from Child to Adullt and such paperwork retained and produced by the Disability Service, not submitted as part of current claim???

Thanks

Quite simply, the DWP will attempt to show your son's claim in the worst possible light. That is their job.

They can introduce anything they like if it will mean that they could win at the Tribunal.

They can (and I can vouch for this as it actually happened) use comments made during a telephone call made by the DWP to the claimant 8 months after the appeal was lodged, that were thought at the time to be innocent, and by the time the DWP had finished transcribing it, twisting the comments out of context and sending it to the Tribunal as extra evidence, it made my dad appear to say that he agreed that the medical assessment was correct in every way!!!

They will stop at nothing!

My understandingi in making a claim for DLA, it is supposed to be based on the substantial affect a disability has on a person's day to day living. Looking closely at the last 3 months and those effects (disadvantages) continuing to have that effect (lasting) for at least another 6 months?

Yes. The evidence you submit needs to be relevant to how your son was at the time of application.