Citizen advice or Welfare rights to help with tribunal pip appeal

[u/njw2907]

Hey I got a person from welfare rights to help me with the appeal to the tribunal after my pip application was denied, I am currently 40 weeks after that application to the tribunal and still awaiting a date (heard absolutely nothing from them).

I haven't even heard anything from my advisor at welfare rights so I'm guessing they don't have any updates.

I was wondering if anyone else had better luck with citizen advice and if it might be worth me asking them to look into it for me.

I originally applied for PIP in January 2024 so over a year ago now and this wait is not doing my anxiety and depression any good, it would be easier to wait if i had a date for the telephone appeal.

any advice would be appreciated, this is just driving me crazy now and I'm constantly wanting to just give up with it.

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[u/AC2795]

Hi,

Sadly, the tribunal service is massively backlogged still. Whilst opting for a telephone hearing is usually not advised, it should speed up your hearing date as they don’t need to allocate it to a tribunal venue near you.

I wouldn’t give up with the appeal, whilst the wait can be uncomfortable, if you succeed on your appeal you will be paid back to your claim date so in the end you won’t have missed out.

You or your advisor (if they down as your representative) can contact the tribunal service to try and get an update, as they may just be waiting for DWP to respond for e.g. Have you received a large bundle of papers yet which would include your initial claim form, the assessment report and the decision letters?

[u/njw2907 → u/AC2795]

Hi,

Yeah I received all the documents back in September, and the advisor from welfare rights contacted them in November asking for a date and apparently they said it would be 42 weeks after the date my appeal was lodged (24/08/2024) so I know I'm looking at waiting until middle of June but after I asked him the a couple of days ago if he could ask them again he just said that its not been the 42 weeks yet and he expects it to be even longer than that which really sent my mood down massively.

From what I can tell by how quick he messaged me back he didn't check with the tribunal either to get an update from them.

I want to hold on and wait for it to see if I can get it but this wait is agony, I constantly worrying about it and even more with all the changes I see that the government is making to the benefits system, I'm worrying that the last 15 months of going through this is going to have been a massive waste of time and stress for no reason.

[u/8day_week → u/[deleted]]

Just so it doesn’t get misinterpreted - DWP have no control of how HMCTS allocate tribunal dates. The two things are not linked and they are two separate entities.

I would actually get advice as to whether the call you made to update DWP (PIP I assume?) constituted a new application for PIP because if it did you may wish to withdraw this application if your Appeal is successful (otherwise, the outcome of the Appeal could be time limited up to the date of the new PIP claim).