Your Rights

Appealing against Disability Living Allowance and Attendance Allowance decisions

Summary: Guidance on appealing a decision about your disability benefit

• An oral or paper hearing
• Preparing your case
• Do I need a representative?
• The appeal hearing
• The appeal decision
• The appeal process
• Further information

---

You can usually appeal about a decision regarding your Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or Attendance Allowance (AA). At an appeal hearing a tribunal of three people will look at the facts and evidence about your case. They then come to their own decision about your benefit claim.

The tribunal is completely independent of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) which makes the initial decision about your benefit.

The tribunal’s decision will be either to:

1. give you an award of the benefit, or increase your benefit

2. leave the decision/s made by the DWP unchanged

3. reduce your original award, if applicable, for example if your condition has improved.

Note: it is unusual in our experience for the third, to happen.

An oral or paper hearing

You can choose to have an oral hearing or a paper hearing of your case. An oral hearing is when you go along in person to the tribunal. A paper hearing is when a tribunal will make a decision on your case based on the paper evidence only. We recommend that you choose an oral hearing as this gives you the best opportunity to explain the facts of your case.

Preparing your case

The tribunal members will have the same bundle of documents that has been sent to you, and your representative. It is vitally important therefore that you get help to read through the papers to establish what the documents say about your case.

The documents will include:

• The DWP’s submission, outlining the history of the case, the relevant law and the reasons for the decision
• Your completed claim forms
• Any medical reports used to support the decision.

Do I need a representative?

You do not have to have a representative, although you may prefer to be represented. Even if you have a representative, you will have to answer questions about the help you need. You can bring a family member, carer or friend with you for moral support. If they regularly help you they might be able to give some evidence to the tribunal. However this will be up to the tribunal chairperson.

Know the qualifying rules

The tribunal must follow the law so you need to understand the law relevant to your appeal. This is simply the qualifying rule for the rate of benefit that you hope to get.

Most welfare rights organisations, including RNIB Welfare Rights Service, can advise you further on the qualifying conditions relevant to your appeal. Our information on Disability Living Allowance or Attendance Allowance pages provide some relevant information.

Establish the facts of your case

You must put forward the facts of your case and show the tribunal that you meet the qualifying conditions for the rate of benefit you hope to get. Do not assume that the tribunal will know the facts of your case, or information about you already, or that they will guess, even if you think it is obvious.

For Disability Living Allowance or Attendance Allowance, it is a good idea to keep a diary of your daily routine over one or two weeks. Take note of even the most obvious difficulties you have seeing the things you need to see for yourself every day.

Evidence

You have to prove that you are entitled to benefit on the balance of probabilities. This means that what you say must be more probable than not. It is important therefore if possible to have evidence to back up what you say.

Evidence could include a letter from your GP, consultant, rehabilitation officer or social worker. If you are asking someone to provide further evidence make sure it is relevant to the issues in your appeal. Talk to them beforehand and explain what issue you would like them to address in their letter or report.

Written submission

It is a good idea if possible to prepare a written submission for an appeal, as it will help the tribunal focus on the information you believe to be relevant to your case. Do not worry if you are unable to prepare a written submission, if you are having an oral hearing. You will still be able to explain the difficulties you have to the tribunal in person.

The appeal hearing

There will be three members on the tribunal :

• a legally qualified chairperson
• a medically qualified person, usually a GP

and

• a disabled person or a person who has experience of the needs of disabled people.

It is a relatively informal hearing. The tribunal members will usually want to ask you some questions relating to the issues you have raised in your appeal. This is when you give the facts relevant to your case that meet the criteria for the benefit. Take your time and think carefully about your answers. You should ask the tribunal Chairperson to explain anything you do not understand.

For examples of the sort of issues that you should tell the tribunal, please refer to our Guide to claiming Disability Living Allowance for adults.

The appeal decision

The tribunal will make a decision on the same day, normally straight away after a private discussion between the tribunal members.

If you are not successful you may be able to challenge the decision further.

If this happens, you must ask the tribunal for a “statement of the reasons” for the decision. You can ask for it there and then, or you can write to request it within one month of the hearing. You should seek expert advice on how to challenge the tribunal’s decision further.

The appeal process

To request an appeal complete the DWP form GL24 “How to Appeal” and send it to the office dealing with your claim within one calendar month from the date on the decision letter. The form is available from the Disability and Carers Service or from the Directgov website.

The DWP will look at their decision again to see if they can change it without a tribunal. If the decision is changed in your favour your appeal will lapse. If the new decision does not give you everything you asked for you will have to make a new appeal within one month of the date of the new decision.

Your appeal request is sent to The Tribunals Service (TTS). They will send you a ‘pre hearing enquiry form’, TAS1, to request details of your representative, whether you want an oral or paper hearing, dates to avoid for the hearing any special requirements, etc. You must complete and return this within 14 days.

TTS will write to you with a date for an appeal hearing, approximately 3-4 weeks in advance of the date.

You can claim back the cost of travel expenses to get to the tribunal venue for both you and a companion. You should ring the clerk of the tribunal before the hearing to get permission if you require a taxi to travel to the venue.

Further information

Help from RNIB

Our team of specialist advice workers can provide you information about your appeal at any stage of the process. We give advice on how to prepare and present your case and help finding a local representative. Occasionally, we provide representation but as we are a small team we can do this in only a small number of cases.

Please note that we can only give advice about benefits for people with sight loss and their carers or dependants.

RNIB Helpline
105 Judd Street
London
WC1H 9NE

Call 0303 123 9999
Email helpline@rnib.org.uk

If you use a language other than English, please let us know which language. We will try to arrange a telephone interpreting service.

Other useful contacts

There are also a number of local organisations that can offer further advice and assistance on appeals.

• Local Citizens Advice Bureau
• A local Disability Information and Advice Line (DIAL) group - call 01302 31 01 23 for details of your nearest branch.
• The Law Centres Federation - call 020 7387 8570 or 0161 236 5333 for details of your nearest branch.
• Local Age Concern - call 0800 009 966
• You can also contact your local council’s Welfare Rights department, if available.

This information gives general guidance only and is not an authoritative statement of the law.

Help make a difference to the lives of others who are living with sight loss by joining RNIB as a member. By adding your voice to ours, we can make a significant difference through our campaigning work. Call the RNIB Membership team to find out more on 0303 1234 555.

Return to Welfare Rights homepage

Content author: helpline@rnib.org.uk

Last updated: 07/05/2009 11:56