UK: DWP "limited capability for work" Tribunal - help?

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Can anyone in England recommend sources of help / information for going through the Tribunal process against the Department for Work and Pensions?

I'm recently diagnosed with ASD after years of anxiety and depression treatment that's never really done much good. Also waiting for ADHD assessment.

I was assessed as "limited capability for work" 2 years ago. However that decision was reversed last year after a follow-up assessment, despite the fact NOTHING HAD CHANGED in terms of my health or treatment.

I don't want to avoid working completely, however I know full time work always eventually causes me to burn out, after long periods of stress / anxiety / depression / low self esteem. Part-time work gives me a bit more breathing space and is therefore a lot more sustainable.

At present DWP's attitude seems to be that I could be a rocket scientist tomorrow if only I stopped being so lazy and got organised. They don't have the first clue about mental health issues - in their eyes you're either 100% broken or 100% fit. Which makes me wonder why they have a category called "limited capability for work" in the first place.

So it looks like I might have to take them to Tribunal. I am very nervous about this, and wary of falling into organisational / procedural traps with my appeal.

Who are the best people to ask for advice / assistance / back-up?

Don't worry too much about the tribunal. They are mostly quite easy to deal with; they will ask you relevant questions, and they will take what you say seriously.

I'm not sure what the current figure are, but statistically, you have a very good chance of winning your appeal.

Do bear in mind that the DWP will try to discourage you. When they provide you with their statement of reasons, don't take them too seriously. Last time I had an appeal, they were scraping the barrel for excuses, but still put a lot of effort in to make the crappy excuses sound important.

Make sure you are familiar with what the law actually says. The questions on the medical questionaire and the things an assessor will ask you bear very little resemblance to the definitions in the law.

When writing an appeal, I find the best formula is this:
-Figure out which descriptors in the law apply to you.
-State that it applies to you and give examples or medical evidence to back up why it applies.
-State that the DWP's interpretation of the law or evidence is wrong.

Hope that helps. The website https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk is useful. Most of their information is paid for, but they have some useful free stuff.

Unfortunately I don't really know anyone who can help you as such. A solicitor may be able to, but that might be expensive. Some disability charities and the Citizens' Advice Bureau provide help with benefits but I've never used them myself. I deal with the DWP myself; While it is stressful, it is probably less stressful than trying to deal with a charity.

Someone told me that the tribunals lean on trying to present you as being 100% fit for work, as they expect you to appeal the tribunal if you are not.
This gave me a dilemma because I was not feeling up to trying to fight their decision. I wrote myself rough notes on how I felt so I was less likely to get mindblank, as I had to go in and see them. I had planned to just come off benefits and go back to selling posessions to survive like I had done before during burnout (I have a large model railway collection as it is my special interest, and so I was slowly selling some of it to survive).
The staff in my local benefits office saw I had notes and as while reading them to remind myself I was on the fringes of a partial shutdown so my reading was effected, so when one of them said "Can I read your notes" I let them. (I was embarissed!)
I had told them that I was not up to appealing. They asked to copy my notss so I let them, and they sent the copy to their head office and the decision that I had to look for work was reversed. If it was not for the staff at my benefits office I would be back to how I was which was stressful. (Not having the money waiting for things to sell when no one wants them and one knows a car insurance or cat tax bill is coming up is not easy!)

The system expects you to appeal. The problem here in the UK is that the way the system is set up, the mentally vunerable who are not vunerable enough to need a carer as they can hold their own in this regards, but they are still not able to face the work enviroment be it permamently or temporarily, tend to be the very ones who would not appeal because they are not able to face the appeals process. The systems flaw is that it is designed for people who are not on the autistic spectrum to negiotiate. (I don't blame anyone for this because I understand how difficult it is to design a system to catch out the ones who try and commit fraud while trying at the same time to protect the vunerable, so it is not an easy task to make such a system.
I found that with the assessment questions and the PIP questions (I did not get PIP but I was not really expecting to get it) whose forms are fairly similar, all ask questions that do not pick up on the difficulties that I face. The forms were not asking the right questions somehow to pick up on the struggles I faced after my last few burnouts because the main issues I struggled with depended on if I was in a partial or full shutdown or not.

Just had to shorten my answer by half to make it fit without the "Capta" thing stopping me from posting as it was so slow loading up, I tried several times with no joy.