if your chosen representative does not inspire you with confidence then seek another as quickly as possible. No good representative will tell you that yours is a great appeal and you cannot lose the appeal. He/she can be optimistic but listen to what he/she is doing to secure evidence for the tribunal.

 

EVIDENCE FOR THE TRIBUNAL

 

The Disability Benefits Unit will prepare a set of documents for the appeal and these will be issued to you. The documents should consist of any medical evidence you submitted as part of your application for the benefit. It will contain the completed DLA claim form signed by you, your GP’s report, if such was requested by the department and, most importantly, it will

contain the Medical Examiner’s report. You will recall that this is the doctor who visited,

 examined and did not believe you. Calling into question this report should be your

representative’s main aim and, in order to do this he should, or you should, seek a report, from your GP and any other medical service you have access to or the staff of which who can detail your symptoms and the effect upon you, of those symptoms.

 

There is no legal aid available for representation at appeals, however, legal aid can be used to gather the evidence so that your GP, etc can be paid for the reports they write. Legal aid will be granted in cases where the client is in receipt of income support but access to legal aid is means tested and so based upon income. Consult a solicitor, explain what you seek and remember it should be possible to consult a solicitor who makes no charge for the initial interview.

 

Your representative will go through the case with you. He/she will question you regarding medication and symptoms. He/she should also be interested in the EMP visit although one should not labour the point; a doctor sits on the tribunal and we all know just how much of an ‘old pals profession’ medicine is!!!!

 

Your representative may prepare a written submission, for the appeal, in which case you should read this very carefully and point out any errors or inconsistencies and have these

corrected. The submission will be forwarded to the Appeals Service before the appeal; all new medical evidence should be attached although it is still possible to submit new evidence on the day of the tribunal.

 

A useful piece of evidence can be the Community Care assessment carried out by the social worker. If you have never had such an assessment then you should request it by writing to the Social Work/Services Department. You should include, in this request, a request for a full copy of the completed assessment and pass this to your representative. This is useful because the mentioned department may provide you with ‘aids’ for instance a stair lift, hoist, ramp, Home help, O/T, Meals on Wheels etc—all ‘aids’ that confirm a need for assistance with activities of daily living.

 

Next issue will be the final instalment of this advocacy special regarding what to expect at the tribunal. If anyone has any ideas for a special; feature or would like to have a go at writing one get in touch.

 

This article first appeared in The Quarterly—Newsletter of the 25% Group. July 2005. Issue Number 19.