Preparing submissions for appeals 

Once your Appeal has been accepted by His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS), they will write to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and explain that you are appealing against their decision for your benefit.

The DWP will then gather all the evidence together for your case.  This will be your initial application form, the Health Care Professional’s (HCP) report on your assessment, the Decision Maker’s (DM) decision and report on why they have reached that decision, your Mandatory Reconsideration, the DC’s decision and report on that, your SSCS1 form and then the final decision by the DWP. All of this information will come to over 100 pages and will be sent to you and also to One Stop Advocacy if I am your representative, and is called THE BUNDLE.

The Bundle

NB When The Bundle arrives, please do not become distressed about it. When reading the papers do not become upset about the decision and do not take it personally, take a step back and look at each descriptor objectively. If you do not you will not be able to think clearly. Not all of the descriptors/questions will apply to you, just use the ones that do. If you have been awarded some points for some of the descriptors, either after your assessment or at the Mandatory Reconsideration stage, put that in the submissions. 

Once you receive The Bundle, if you wish me to work for you, please contact me and make an appointment so that we can complete your submissions together. It takes approximately three hours to complete these; if you cannot manage to do them in one appointment that is not a problem, and it can be split in to two appointments.

You do not have to do written submissions, but I find that they really help at the Appeal as nothing is then left out. One of the worst things is to leave a Tribunal thinking ‘I wish I had raised that point’. It also means that the Tribunal will know which descriptors you are asking them to look at.

Make sure every point that you raise makes sense, it is written in plain English and can be easily understood.

Submissions

The submissions are your arguments against the DWP’s decision. You have to go through all the evidence and look at each point the DWP have raised, then we explain why we think you should be awarded points. This needs to be backed up by evidence, normally medical evidence from any medical practitioners who have been involved in your care, so your GP, consultant, physiotherapist, mental health support worker and so on.

YOU NEED TO SEND IN YOUR MEDICAL NOTES IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY DONE SO. If you do not, the Tribunal may adjourn your Appeal. 

It is really important to use the benefit criteria to do the arguments. Please find the criteria for Personal Independence Payment, Employment Support Allowance and Universal Credit elsewhere on this website. I discuss with the client each point and then decide how many points the claimant should have been awarded and put each of those descriptors with the points in the submissions.

Send the submissions by signed for post, I also email a copy to HMCTS, especially if we need to get them there quickly. You will have been sent a sheet with your reference number on to send up with further evidence, please make sure you include this sheet and send the submissions to the address on there.

One Stop Advocacy.