Moving from DLA to PIP – Tribunals looking at DLA awards
The Upper Tribunal has made an important decision which may help people moving to PIP from DLA if their DLA award was made or renewed relatively recently before being moved to PIP. The UT said in 2015 that Tribunals do NOT have to look at previous DLA awards when looking at the case of someone appealing after being moved from DLA to PIP.
In decision CPIP/1042/2016, however, the Upper Tribunal has said that sometimes it IS right for Tribunals to look at previous DLA claims when looking at a DLA-to-PIP appeal.
The cases where the Tribunals should look at DLA awards are those when a DLA award has been made quite close to the DLA-to-PIP reassessment date or where there is some relatively recent medical evidence submitted for DLA which might be useful for looking at the PIP claim.
The Upper Tribunal added that the DWP should tell DLA-to-PIP Tribunals about the dates of the last DLA award and when changes were last made to that DLA award.
This will help the Tribunal to decide if it would be worth asking the DWP to send them the former DLA claim file as well as the current PIP file.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU
This will help you if you used to be on DLA and appeal against your PIP decision, IF your DLA award was made in, say, the two years before you moved to PIP. You can then ask your Tribunal to ask DWP to send them copies of your old DLA claim file including all the medical and other evidence used DWP to award you DLA.
You can ask them this before your hearing (by asking for a judge to issue a direction) or at your first hearing (which will then be adjourned if they agree). The advantage of having your old DLA claim file is that the Tribunal will have to look at all that evidence as well as anything on your PIP claim and – if they turn you down - explain why a DLA award was right but a PIP award is not.
This analysis is brought to you by BuDS Benefit Information Project. It is general information only and you should take advice about your specific case.
You can read the full judgement here: https://www.gov.uk/administrative-appeals-tribunaldecisions/ap-v-secretary-of-state-for-work-and-pensions-pip-2016-ukut-416-aac