I just wanted to say this in case someone on here is facing the same situation I was in yesterday.
After having my PIP stopped, a Mandatory Reconsideration, a refusal to accept the evidence that a PIP assessor had lied about our meeting and then waiting a year for a tribunal date, I was ready to give up.
I went from an enhanced rate of care to nothing.
My tribunal was yesterday afternoon.
I didn’t even prepare for it.
To be honest I wasn’t even sure if I could go through with it. I was sick and tired of being made to feel like a fraud and a ‘chancer’ for trying to access a benefit that means the difference between existing and an actual life for my family, because of the additional costs of my disability.
After looking online I’d seen a few positive things about tribunals but they were outweighed with negative ones, describing being cross examined and grilled.
I didn’t sleep two nights before the tribunal, and started crying before I even walked into the room. I was expected hostility and condescension.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
The judge, doctor and disability specialist immediately informed me that, after reading my medical reports, they were happy to restore my prior level of benefit without even asking any questions.
They then asked permission to query me on some mobility questions, which I hadn’t ever applied for as in my opinion I can walk around fine. They wanted to know about my mental health re:journeys.
They awarded enhanced care and standard mobility. And they said that as I was never going to get better, that we shouldn’t have to go through this every three years. They have put in the letter that it would be inappropriate to fix a term on the award.
I very nearly didn’t go, so I wanted to put my experience out there, in the hopes that someone who might ace been about to give up sees it.
I will be forever grateful to the tribunal for treating me with kindness and like a human being. In fact, I’m almost glad the DWP forced me to go to tribunal.
Please don’t stop fighting.