[2024] UKUT 244 (AAC)

The Secretary of State awarded the appellant 4 points on daily living activity 1 (preparing food) and daily living activity 4 (washing and bathing) on the basis that she needed aids for those activities. The appellant sought mandatory

The appeal hearing was originally scheduled to take place face to face on 26 April 2023. The appellant telephoned the Tribunal that morning to say that her daughter had just been admitted to hospital and she was with her. She offered to deal with the appeal by telephone from her car. The Tribunal decided that would not be in the interests of justice and adjourned the hearing. The adjournment notice included the following:-

1.

The appeal is adjourned for telephone hearing on the first

available date with a time estimate of 1 hour.

(i)

Do not relist on a Friday. The Appellant indicated that she

would be willing to attend a face-to-face hearing at a venue

convenient to her home if there is an available listing sooner

than waiting for a listing by telephone.

As the Tribunal that made the decision under appeal subsequently noted in its decision, it is unclear why the Tribunal directed that the hearing should not take place on a Friday as that is in fact the only weekday on which the appellant does not work and was therefore probably the opposite of what was intended.

Without further reference to the appellant, the hearing was then listed by the Tribunal to take place by telephone. The appellant participated by telephone without objection at the time.

A bundle of documents before the Tribunal included the following written evidence from the appellant that is referred to by the parties’ in their submissions as relevant to this appeal:-

Some days I struggle putting compression garments on and I

need help and support from friends and family. I have good

days and bad days. Most days I need help to put these on. I

struggle getting them on my legs when I have a lot of pain and

heaviness. Sometimes I get cramp and pins and needles in

legs and feet. A family member helps with this by assisting with

the garments. I struggle using my wrists. [page 33, FtT

bundle].