A decade-long legal ordeal ended in victory for a man suffering from severe trauma caused by a traffic incident after an appeal led to him winning the benefits to which he was entitled.
Although he had initially been given a score of 0 to evaluate the sum of benefits that he would be eligible for, a review at a tribunal last month gave him a score of 12.
Marcin Brajta, a trainee solicitor from Hackney Community Law Centre representing the man, said: “It shows how completely wrong they got it if you’re going from zero to over 12.”
He was assessed on 12 factors, including his ability to leave the house unimpaired and manage his therapy. A private contracting company for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) initially scored the man 0, leaving him unable to claim any benefits.
The man, who has not been named, had been involved in a traffic incident in 2008 when his bicycle collided with a police car door as it opened. The police admitted that they were at fault.
Jeremy Oglivie-Harris, a paralegal representing the Legal Centre, said that the man developed what was “clearly PTSD”. The man began to show signs of “depression and anxiety alongside things like agoraphobia. He literally couldn’t leave his house without someone with him.”
His claim for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) was declined due to the delay between the accident and his application. However, he had also been denied therapy by the same company ten years earlier.
“When we came out of the tribunal, he said this was one of the best things that’s ever happened to him,” Oglivie-Harris recounted. “It should never have come to that though.”
