Face-to-face assessments for Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) claimants in England will resume from 12 April 2021. Face-to-face assessments for Work Capability Assessments (WCAs) (for claims for the additional health amount of Universal Credit and Employment and Support Allowance) and Personal Independence Payment (PIP), will resume from May. Initially, this will only be for those who we are unable to fully assess by other channels.

People will be invited for their appointments by letter, which will clearly set out what to expect at their appointment.

Face-to-face assessments will take place alongside existing paper-based assessments, and telephone assessments (for WCAs and PIP), which will continue to take place where suitable.

At the end of each year, Amanda collates our official figures for the claimants we have represented in court as full legal advocates. These figures are made up of cases which we have taken on for PIP, ESA and DLA and UC.

2020 was an extremely challenging year for Fightback. The disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic meant that from April, all appeal hearings took place via phone hearing. This meant that with short notice, we had to create a dedicated space for telephone appeals. We also had to contend with the constant changes in local restrictions and laws and last minute notice of these appeals of as little as 3 days. This would often leave us short staffed at numerous times due to quarantine periods and child care needs, but our legal advocates managed to attend all of the ones we were requested presence on.

With this in mind, we are delighted that we have managed to increase our win percentage rate to over 90% on average. We are extremely proud of this record and will strive to increase it once again in 2021.

2020 Figures
Total of all Appeals – 386
Overturned early – 122 – 31.6%
Overall Success Rate – 90.9%

Previous Years:
2019
Total of all Appeals – 436
Overturned early – 74 – 17 %
Overall Success Rate – 89.9%

2018 – 298 Appeals at 87% success rate
2017 – 200 Appeals 89.5% success rate

It’s with the help and support of all of our followers and members that we are able to achieve such fantastic numbers on behalf of our clients. We would not be here, and would not be able to do what we do without you. While we know 2021 will be a challenging year, we are looking forward to helping as many people as we can and striving for fairness and justice in the benefits system.

We would like to take a moment to thank each and every Fightback follower for their continued support during the past year. It has undoubtedly been an extraordinary 2020 in every sense of the word. Like many charities and organisations across the UK, we were severely impacted by the Covid – 19 pandemic but we are please to say that, whilst we’re not out of the woods yet by any means, we were able to adapt, improvise and overcome obstacles to ensure we could deliver help and assistance to people who rely on us.

Despite the challenges we have faced, we’re delighted that we have been able to assist hundreds claimants over the past year. We are currently calculating our success rate for 2020 but early indications suggest that we achieved over 90%. We’re extremely proud of this figure which is even greater considering we were short staffed at several points over the year due to COVID-19 government guidelines and laws.

Our services have included free advice, assessment preparation, form filling, video court hearings and our VIP Platform services to mention a few.

Towards the second half of the year, we were able to create the Fightback4Justice Hometeam thanks to a local grant. This allowed us to visit and aid people in the community who were not able to leave their homes due to shielding. The role of the Hometeam has been crucial to so many people who had been suffering from a wide range of conditions such as depression, anxiety and a feeling of isolation brought on by the pandemic.

We’re very much looking forward to a brighter 2021 and we can not wait until we can bring back our face to face services such as office appointments, FB4J Roadshows and our monthly drop ins.

Thanks once again for your support.
Fightback

We’re delighted to welcome a brand new member to our team this week so please give a warm welcome to Sonya. Sonya joined Fightback in 2020 and brings with her a wealth of experience in health care and science. She studied Medicine and Surgery at The University of Liverpool, with further specialised study in women’s health at The University of Manchester. Sonya has held clinical roles within the NHS and private sector throughout the North West of England. Her experience incorporates many medical specialities, along with dentistry and laboratory scientific analysis.
Whilst recuperating from a debilitating accident, Sonya completed further study at The Open University. This included English law and legal research. She graduated with First Class Honours.
Sonya works part time in the legal department at Fightback. She is ideally suited to the intricate analysis and evaluation of medical evidence that is involved in a great deal of our work. Her role as a legal advocate involves drafting legal documentation for the court, liasing with clients and representing them in court.

For the other half of the week, Sonya continues her postgraduate legal education. She is currently studying an LLM at Liverpool John Moores University before she begins her vocational barrister training. Sonya is delighted to have found a role that incorporates all aspects of her academic study and experience. Ske looks forward to a long and fulfilling career here at Fightback.

DWP have suddenly announced that they have changed the safeguarding procedure for vulnerable claimants.

This is not including past claimants but in future, a case conference will take place first rather than DWP just stopping benefits if a claimant fails to attend a work capability assessment (WCA).

This follows Upper Tier ruling where the court deemed it to be unfair. Since then we have successfully argued everyone of the cases we have submitted as Mandatory Reconsideration for failure to attend.

The change may also have  happened because the DWP are in court for a two day hearing soon brought by the family of Errol Graham.

Errol who sadly starved to death in June 18, after his benefits were stopped because he failed to attend a WCA.

This was done without DWP checking on his mental or physical health wellbeing, even though he was known to have serious mental health issues.

The family are challenging DWP’s safeguarding procedures and the family’s lawyers are set to scrutinise the guidance issued to DWP decision makers.

Pip and UC important caselaw for terminal illness 2020] NIQB (N Ireland) as a Judicial Review case it is most likely to impact rules on if terminal illness awards ie proof you will be dead in 6 months. This has now been said to contravene art 8 human rights act – right to family live and peaceful enjoyment of your home/belongings (includes money)  meaning in your dying days.
It won’t change rules yet as still ongoing but likely to in coming year.

High Court holds that special rules for terminal illness, in case where claimant cannot demonstrate their death can be reasonably expected within six months, are ‘discriminatory and ‘manifestly without reasonable foundation’

Upon careful scrutiny of all the evidence, I can find no evidence, justification or rationale to explain why the applicant was not deemed to be entitled to the enhanced rate of PIP for activities of daily living and the standard rate of mobility from the date when her terminal diagnosis was confirmed. This difference in treatment is manifestly without reasonable justification and is, therefore, in breach of Article 14 ECHR in conjunction with Article 8 and Article 1 of Protocol 1.’ (paragraph 104)

‘Again, upon careful scrutiny of all the evidence, I can find no evidence, justification or rationale to explain why the applicant was not deemed to be entitled to the LCWRA component of universal credit from the date on which she made her claim for universal credit. This difference in treatment is manifestly without reasonable justification and is, therefore, in breach of Article 14 ECHR in conjunction with Article 8 and Article 1 of Protocol 1.’ (paragraph 106)

At the end of each year, we take a moment to tot up our results of the course of the year so that we can provide an accurate figure on cases which we have taken on and have achieved a successful results on. 

This year has been the busiest yet for fightback and we are over the moon with what we have managed to achieve. Our figures on overturned appeals for the past three years can bee seen below as a percentage. Don’t forget that we did over 880 appeals last year. Keep this in mind when you read over our percentage win rate.

2017 – 89.50% Success Rate

2018 – 87% Success Rate

2019 – 89.90% Success Rate

It’s with the help and support of all of our followers and members that we are able to achieve such fantastic numbers on behalf of our clients. We’re excited to keep this successful streak going in 2020 and for many more years ahead! 

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