UK: Text box tribunals to replace most PIP and ESA appeal hearings - Benefits & Work, 5 March 2019

Text box tribunals to replace most PIP and ESA appeal hearings
Benefits & Work
5 March 2019

Guidance: HMCTS tribunal reform event 26 February 2019
Held at Exeter Combined Court on 26 February 2019, this event discussed the future of the tribunals system.

[PDF] Tribunal event slides 26 February 2019

 

This sounds like a way of dehumanising the patients and the courts and removing the patients from the whole process of appeals so that the court is not swayed by real sick and suffering people.

 

Yet another obstacle placed in the way to stop sick people getting what they deserve.

 

Having fought the DWP over PIP for more than a year and having failed at the Tribunal stage this month, I can speak about this subject from experience. The fact is that the court system is extremely biased against claimants who cannot appear in court - most appeals fail when you can't attend. I couldn't attend. I couldn't travel so far from home and would have been unconscious in the court from fatigue/pain and brain fog. So the judge only heard the DWP's side and went against me, because I wasn't there. So therefore if there was a way for very sick people to have a fair trial from a distance I support it 100% and if it's true they could still have an oral hearing if they wanted it, then that would be ideal.