Evenin' all,
I have a client who was buried alive in a mineshaft (ex-miner) and as such suffers flash-backs and severe depression. To complicate matters he is deaf. Four years ago he was granted a payment by the NCB for Vibration White Finger. When he applied to DWP for IIDB he was refused(note evidence of vibration white finger was shown to DWP doctor) Given that this evidence was available hasn't an official error occurred? Client did not appeal this decision because of mental health but given that official error has occured does it matter? Your thoughts would be very much appreciated

The Criteria for the NCB payment and for the IIB are different. With the NCB they will offer pay out on any stage of the VWF condition stage 1 and 2 are mainly based on sensory changes (tingling, numbness, loss of touch etc), PDA11 Vibration White Finger for the DWP is all about the blanching, with sensory changes as contributory. The blanching if I remember the stages wouldn't coming to the assessment unless it was a stage 3 or 4.

It is likely that at the DWP examination the client spoke about anything other than blanching, or did not involve the relevant fingers or amount of blanching. If the NCB claim report also has a stage less than 3 that wouldn't help.

Client may have grounds for claiming Civil and IIB for the accident resulting in his being caught in the roof fall, pschological injuries including the flash backs/depression.

The different criteria for civil and DWP claims for VVF often causes problems, very few claimants make the link between the name of the condition and the sysmtoms. ie The civil claim tends to be for 'hand/arm vibration syndrome' rather than Vibration White Finger.

Thank you Neil I appreciate your help