Incapacity Appeals

A question about : Incapacity Appeals

I am currently in the process of appealing after going for a medical and being turned down.

I do have welfare rights help and am waiting for them to send me some things in. I am also still waiting for a copy of the medical report.

Anyone that has been through an IB appeal what did you say when you put your appeal in? How much information did you give about why you are appealing? Did you put a letter from your GP in with it?

Best answers:

• Medical evidence can go in after the initial appeal
• Bear in mind if your condition worsens after the appeal it wont go in your favour because they are there to assess how you were on the date of claim been stopped.
  If possible get someone to represent you there and provide as much evidence as possible.
• If your condition "significantly worsens," you can submit a new application for IB.This won't affect your appeal....
  Sure that is the case??
• Keep a diary of how your day to day life is affected and how you feel before, during and after you are doing day to day activities. Even if you do it now while you are waiting to go to appeal/tribunal it still shows them how your illness affects you. I did this for mine and felt it was quite valuable in showing the 2 members of the panel how my illness affected me
• It is a long term condition so it getting worse is not really an issue, it goes up and down on daily basis anyway.
  I have managed to get representation so that is good.
  I am just concerned about what we say on the appeal form. The guy who is representing me said it doesn't really matter as the agency will ignore it, as they will review the case, it won't be overturned and then pass it the tribunal service.
  However I read somewhere that any information you don't put on the appeal form won't be able to be used at the tribunal so am concerned as to what I need to say.
  I am annoyed as once again the post has arrived and the copy of the medical report is not here.
• When did you requst a copy of the medical report? Have you requested the papers from the Incapacity Benefit department as listed on the letter saying they would stop your benefit? I did this and it was with me within a few days!
  When you send the appeal form in (I assume its the GL24 or something like that) that information will be put with your appeal papers but you are able to send more information and medical evidence up until 7 days before the appeal tribunal - though one of the panel members hadnt read mine so he read it just before I went in to the tribunal.
  Send in everything that may be of use in your appeal to the appeals service when you get the appeal date or when you have received notification that it is in the hands of the appeals service.
• If you are under a specialist at the hospital ask them to write a letter for you. I did this and sent it in before my appeal and they granted my claim straight away.
• the DWP are known for holding back medical reports that award benefit since it can be used as evidence in future appeals.
• My wife's appeal, which took 13 months from the stoppage of her claim, was upheld one day before the date of the tribunal, apparently by the tribunal people. (I don't really understand the logic of this, but it was the tribunal people who phoned her to tell her not to bother coming to the tribunal, as her claim had been accepted).
  She had submitted a reasonable case for herself, and had supporting letters from medical staff. She was not going to represented, as the person who was to have represented her had her funding withdrawn a month before the tribunal and we couldn't organise any other representation instead. Her medical staff faxed the tribunal service about this loss of representation, and pointed out how difficult it would be for her to attend the tribunal unrepresented, but I doubt that directly influenced their decision to allow the appeal without a tribunal hearing.
• They cant withold the report their are laws which say they must let the claimant have a copy of the report.
  In my case, I have been told 3 times now my last report is on the way, they havent said I cant have it. The problem is it hasnt arrived at all.