Disabled People Overturn Benefits Decision

DISABILITY BENEFITS - Since 2013, hundreds of thousands of benefits decisions have been overturned across the UK after disabled people battled a "complex and distressing" appeals system to win their case at tribunal, disability charities say.

Anyone denied Personal Independence Payment – which covers the additional expenses faced by people with disabilities and is worth between £23 and £150 a week – can request a reconsideration.

If someone is still unhappy with the result of this, they can further appeal it at an independent tribunal.

Nationally, claimants have won more than two-thirds of the cases that have reached tribunal since 2013.

Nina Huszarik, lead policy adviser at charity Scope, said far too many disabled people received the wrong decision first time around and were left without financial support as a result.

She said an enormous number of disabled people's lives had been thrown into turmoil by "failures of the benefits system", with many not well enough to face the mental and physical stress and exhaustion of taking their cases to appeal.

A wrong decision regarding disability benefits is overturned every minute of the working day, a charity has said as it calls for claimants to have access to a specialist assessor.

Scope said thousands of disabled people are fighting to access the main disability benefit, Personal Independence Payment (PIP), with more than 12,000 successfully appealing incorrect decisions every month.

PIP can help people with extra living costs associated with their long-term condition and is split into two parts: mobility and daily living.

Applicants who are unhappy with a decision about access to the benefit can appeal through mandatory reconsideration, where a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) adviser re-visits the case and decides if the outcome should be changed.

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