Refused permission to appeal to Upper Tribunal

[JTucker]

Hi all

 

In short, my Fibromyalgia wife got her 15 point at tribunal after failed WCA and put in WRAG group. We did request support group and had good reasons for this on Reg 35(b).The first tribunal's decision was that:

"We cannot see, however, how being asked to attend the occasional job focused interview could constitute a serious risk to the appellant's physical or mental health"

I replied to the first tier Tribunal to ask for a change of mind or permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal. I included a supporting report from my GP who supported our view. Their statement of reasons said that 'attending the occasional interview in our view would not constitute a serious risk to the appellant's health'.

The ESA wrag group requirements from the gov.uk website which states that persons “have to go to regular interviews with an adviser. The adviser can help with things like job goals, improving your skills, work-related issues”.

In my view, 'occasional' and 'regular' are 2 very different things and noted this in reply to First tier. Now they have said they can't change their decision and refused perission to appeal to Upper tribunal. I know I can appeal directly to the Upper Tribunal which I intend to do. I know the Upper Tribunal can't accept any new evidence, but could someone advise me on whether the First Tier had a duty to consider the GP report which we gave them after they refused support goup for my wife.

Many thanks

JTucker

[id6052]

any evidence that you wanted the FtT to consider should have put in front of the FtT before the hearing, or at the latest on the day of the hearing

[abc123def]

I suspect it is a play on words and won't make any difference even if you are given leave to appeal the tribunal decision. People I know who are attending WRAG appointments are going no more often than monthly, often longer between appointments than that. The tribunal may therefore call those occasional, but as the periods of time may be more or less exact, others may deem them regular. If someone has an annual check up that would be regular but is only an occasional appointment. What the tribunal is saying is they do not deem the WRAG appointments cause a risk to your wife.