The Short Answer

A tribunal decides which descriptors applied at the date of the decision, so the evidence that moves an appeal describes function rather than diagnosis. Care plans, occupational therapy assessments, statements from people who help you and dated diaries showing frequency all speak to descriptors. GOV.UK warns that late evidence delays hearings, so early is better than complete.

What the Tribunal Is Deciding

Which descriptor applied, on more than half of the days, at the date of the decision under appeal. That single sentence governs what evidence is worth sending.

It has two consequences. Evidence about the condition is rarely decisive, because the condition is usually accepted. And a deterioration since the decision is not an appeal point — it is a change of circumstances, reported separately, and a tribunal deciding an earlier period cannot use it except where it illuminates that period.

Last checked: 7 August 2026

Evidence That Speaks to Descriptors

Ranked by how directly it answers the question.

  1. A statement from someone who helps you. What they do, how often, for how long, and what happens when they do not. No formal format is needed. This is the document that most often decides an appeal, and it is the one claimants most often omit.
  2. A dated diary over four to six weeks. It answers frequency and repeatability, which no clinical record does. Note the activity, whether it was completed, how long it took, and what followed.
  3. An occupational therapy assessment. It lists aids and adaptations against tasks, which maps onto the aid descriptors almost line for line.
  4. A care plan or support plan. It names hours and tasks.
  5. Clinical letters that describe function. A consultant's note that a patient cannot walk more than 20 metres is worth more than a full diagnostic history.
  6. A prescription list. It corroborates treatment burden for the managing therapy activity.

GOV.UK's own description of appeal evidence names "a report or care plan from a specialist, therapist or nurse" and "a letter from someone who knows you".

Writing a Statement That Works

Four elements, per activity. What happens when the task is attempted. How many days a week. What help is needed and who gives it. How long it takes compared with someone without the condition.

Then add the aftermath, because the reliability criteria require an activity to be repeatable "within a reasonable period of time and to the same standard". An activity completed at the cost of the rest of the day has not been completed reliably.

Avoid the two framings that lose points: describing only crisis days, which invites the reply that the activity is possible on most days; and describing an average, which produces a description matching no descriptor.

Timing

Send it as soon as you can. GOV.UK lists late evidence first among the three named causes of delay, alongside arriving late and registering a representative late.

Evidence can be uploaded through the online appeal account, or sent by post to the address in the acknowledgement letter. Send it as it arrives rather than holding everything for one submission.

Delay is the cost of waiting. GOV.UK states it usually takes at least 6 months for an appeal to be heard, and the mean age of a social security case disposed of between January and March 2026 was 35 weeks.

Last checked: 7 August 2026

What a Tribunal Cannot Use

Anything that does not bear on the descriptors at the relevant date. Financial hardship, the fairness of the system, and the conduct of the original assessment are not grounds in themselves, however genuine.

Where the assessment report misrecords what was said, that is usable — it goes to the weight of the report. Requesting the report and the audio recording shows precisely where the record and your account diverge. The hearing itself is recorded as well, and a copy is free on application within 18 months of the hearing date.

Last checked: 7 August 2026

The Hearing

The panel is a judge and one or two experts, and GOV.UK describes them as impartial and independent of government. They decide the descriptors afresh rather than reviewing the DWP's reasoning, which is why the evidence sent for the appeal matters more than the wording of the original decision.

Last checked: 7 August 2026

What the panel asks, and how to answer, is on hearing guide. The whole route is on challenging decisions.