Hi
I wish to know if anyone else uses standard appeal letters for Incapacity Benefit and if they have any trouble with them. Our team uses the following as the main body in our standard appeal letters that we issue to clients at first contact in order to lodge appeal but every now and again this is challenged and it has raised it's head again - JCP are asking for "grounds of appeal" - I believe our grounds are outlined and Reg 33 is covered and a valid appeal has been made and I am asking them to take to tribunal member to decide as otherwise we would have to revise our working practices. We would like to look at our practice within our team so we are looking for comments from other organisations and advisers and/or copies of your standard letters. If anyone has drawn up a standard ESA appeal letter I would also be interested to read this/copy it. Thank you, Emma

Our IB appeal letter:

Please accept this letter as an appeal against the decision, dated ______ , concerning my capacity for work and any consequential effect it has on my Income Support.
The grounds of my appeal are that: (please tick each box that applies)
I should have been awarded 15 or more points in total from the 14 different activities described in part 1 of the schedule to the Social Security (Incapacity for Work) General Regulations 1995.
I should have been awarded 10 or more points in total from the 4 different functional areas described in part 2 of the schedule to the Social Security (Incapacity for Work) General Regulations 1995.
I should have been awarded an aggregate of 15 or more points in total from all 18 functional areas/activities described in parts 1 & 2 of the schedule to the Social Security (Incapacity for Work) General Regulations 1995.
I do not consider that the Decision Maker took full account of the severity of my condition, including factors such as pain, fatigue and discomfort, and the way that this affects my ability to perform the activities with reasonable regularity.

We don't use standard letters for appeals - we used to but found that letter's tailored specifically to each individual client had more success at the reconsideration stage.


There are obviously parts of the letters that can be standardised but we make the reason for the appeal unique to each client.

Nicky

I think you have to go further but not much further. I've always found something along the lines of "I have problems walking, standing sitting etc, etc" perfectly sufficient.

I generally, dictate appeal letters to clients over the phone when they ring us to make an appointment (we don't do drop in) if they haven't lodged their appeal already. It thus pays not to get too specific at this stage until I've had a proper chance to interview the client, assess the case and look at the existing evidence.

If I had to say whether these grounds were sufficient I would probably say that they weren't. They don't really identify any issues and they are crucial documents in the appeal.

You would be surprised how many appeals turn up at paper hearings with no real grounds at all. Examples from last week:
"I'm in a lot of pain"
"I'm long term homeless & the decision makes me feel suicidal"
"How can you assess someone properly in 20 minutes? It's simply not a fair way of doing things!"

When I get an appeal I look first at the IB50 then at the IB85, then at what the appellant says on appeal. If the appellant doesn't identify the areas in dispute the tribunal has to identify them at the hearing. When people don't turn up or elect paper hearings tribunals find themselves in some difficulties especially if there are no detailed grounds.

The most helpful appeal last week was an appellant who had photocopied the Mental Health Test sent to him and rescored it with marginal notes about why certain descriptors applied to him. He didn't turn up but he won.
PB

If a client is not satisfied with the decision whatever the benefit it is always best to request written reasons initially, obtaining this gives the client a better understanding behind the decision.

Following the receipt of the written reasons it is a good idea to give a full picture as to why the client wants to appeal, why, because the decision has to be reconsidered it would be difficult for a DM to reconsider if no further supporting information is forthcoming.

Another option is to request an appeal either by the appropriate form or by letter stating briefly why the client feels the decision is wrong, in doing so acutely aware that the reconsideration would be of little value if no information has been given other that what they confess to be already aware of. Unless the Department has any substantial reason for not supporting the appeal to go forward they must produce their respective submission that supports the decision taken. On receipt of the submission ‘bundle’ it would possible to identify more informed reasons if not further reasons that support the appeal.

Often I quote on the appeal form or letter of appeal ‘due to nature of decision, detailed reasons to follow’ I have not had any challenges on this but it clearly will not assist any reconsideration that must be taken prior to the appeal being heard, that is not to say they could reconsider following further information/evidence materialising at a later stage before the hearing.

What you have to be careful of, if you make a statement on the appeal form or letter of appeal which is wrong or not accurate you or the client may have to explain this at the hearing. I prefer to have the full picture before giving supporting reasons. There are, however some occasions where it is abundantly clear that the decision is wrong as such would tend to use direct contact with the Department beforehand in an attempt to resolve the issue.

We alway's tailor letters to each individual claim. We do see a lot of people with mental health problems & always go through the descriptors & identify where we feel points could be scored. Increasingly though the DWP fail to contact the GP in mental health cases, particularly where there has been an earlier successful claim, even though the advice is to ask for one if the case is re-referred. As a sitting member what are your thoughts on this issue?

Wed 15-Oct-08 09:18 AM by ken

Edited to shorten link

What is the purpose of the the appeal letter? Are you hoping to get the decision overturned on reconsideration? If so,what is your success rate? I suspect quite low, because the DM has a bona fide (?) specially trained doctor's report. A letter is just a bunch of words from the client or rep.
With DLA I think it's worth it, especially in light of

DWP Standards Committee expresses concern about disability benefit decision making (October 13, 2008)

, but not IB.

If you're just expecting it to go to appeal, what's the point in elaboration and extra work at this stage?
A standard appeal letter, unless it contains strong contradictory medical evidence (eg CPN letter saying client in local psychiatric hospital following psychotic episode) ,is, in my opinion, likely to be ignored. And anyway, the real meat is is the report 'Gets up at 6:30 am and takes dog for a walk'. 'I haven't got a dog'. Why waste the effort which you're later having to put into the appeal?

I think Mitch's last paragraph is crucial. If you say a lot, based on the decision notification, but then see something in the report that can't be denied, you're up a gum tree. We just put '...because you have not fully taken into account how my illness affects day to day tasks' or somesuch. You're going to have to do it in the appeal anyway, so why bother?
It may be that I am missing a trick, and would love to know success rates for reconsiderations in these cases.
Standard appeal submissions for IB, now that's something else.......

Hi
We use the standard appeal letter with an intention of going straight to appeal - we tested our success rates using both methods - ie detailed appeal letter with a view to reconsideration v standard appeal letter and found the success rate at reconsideration did not justify the time we put into them so a standard approach has been used since. We explain this to clients who are always happy to go with this. We simply do not have the resources to meet, assess and prepare a detailed reconsideration within the timescales (I'm sure everyone is the same) as although there is 4 weeks for the client to respond they don't get in touch with us until the last minute- even with an extension and written reasons -we just wouldn't do that. As commented, we find it more efficient to look at a case once we have all the papers - I wouldn't like to prepare a full appeal letter outlining 10 MH points to find the client has been awarded 8 already and I am raising them at appeal!
I find your comments about DLA standard letter interesting though as we do have a greater success with a standard DLA appeal letter.
We will be discussing this again within our team so I shall present everyone's comments at our next meeting. I'm looking at preparing standard ESA letters as well although I think I'll need 3 - if anyone wants to add their tuppence worth in..
I really appreciate everyone's input.
Thanks.
Emma

I've never used a standard appeal letter.

If the time limit is short I identify one or two grounds that will be sufficient for the regs and then do the rest later. I wouldn't usually hold out any hope at recon unless there is substantial evidence - in which case I might delay an appeal whilst I can get this together, even if it means an appeal is submitted late.

I do not believe that a standard appeal letter is sufficient becuase it does not identify the grounds for appeal at all. I don't think generic grounds are sufficient for an individual client. This would be no different from the commonly slated DLA decision letter that only says you don't meet the listed criteria and doesn't say why a specific claim has failed and which are generally a waste of paper.

If you continue to use the standard appeal letter, it might be worth adding for the client that they would like an oral hearing, which will help with any strike outs for not returning a (or lost) TAS1.

What is important to me is the ability to prepare and to be in a position to start the hearing with the issues clearly identified.

The Gold standard would be:

Request for written reasons

Appeal with short grounds based on written reasons

Client Statement and Submission with fully argued grounds at least 2 weeks before the hearing.

This gives a tribunal time to prepare (and we do) properly to grasp the issues and to know enough to use the hearing time as constructively as possible.

BUT! I know about resources problems both time and money.

The worst thing is no attendance and no information at all as per my earlier examples.

The second worst is no early information and a long submission plus letters 5 minutes before the hearing.

It may be of interest that the Court of Appeal has just published a lengthy document as to what it demands in criminal appeals. There are some useful pointers in it.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldhansrd/text/81014-0001.htm#08101447000005

Philip Boyd