PIP Appeal Adjourned, Lapsed, Withdrawn, or Postponed: What Each One Means

Adjourned: The Hearing is Paused and Rescheduled

An adjournment means the tribunal hearing started (or was about to start) and has been postponed to a later date. Your appeal is not over — it has been paused. Common reasons for adjournment:

• Missing evidence. The panel identifies a document or medical report that it needs before making a fair decision. Rather than decide without it, they adjourn and direct one or both parties to provide it.
• New evidence on the day. If you bring significant new evidence that the DWP has not seen, the panel may adjourn to give both parties time to review it.
• The appellant is unwell. If you are too ill to continue the hearing, the panel will adjourn rather than proceed without hearing from you.
• Complexity. The panel needs more time than the scheduled hearing slot allows.

After an adjournment, HMCTS will schedule a new hearing date. Your appeal continues from where it stopped — you do not need to resubmit the SSCS1 form or start the process again.

If you want to request an adjournment before the hearing date (for example, because you have a hospital appointment or are waiting for an important medical report), write to the tribunal office under Rule 6 of the Tribunal Procedure Rules. Explain what you need and why. The decision to grant it rests with a tribunal judge.

Lapsed: The DWP Changed the Decision in Your Favour

A lapsed appeal means the DWP has revised its original decision and given you what you were seeking — or at least part of it — before the tribunal hearing took place. Under Section 9 of the Social Security Act 1998, the appeal automatically lapses when the DWP supersedes the decision with a new one.

DWP statistics show that 17% of initial PIP appeals lapse before reaching a hearing, and for appeals arising from award reviews, the figure rises to 44%. In other words, a substantial number of appellants receive an improved decision without ever attending a tribunal.

There are two scenarios:

Full lapse. The DWP awards exactly what you were appealing for. The appeal ends automatically and there is nothing more for the tribunal to decide.

Partial revision. The DWP offers a partial increase — for example, awarding Standard Rate Daily Living when you were appealing for Enhanced. In this case, the appeal does not automatically lapse unless you explicitly accept the revised offer. If you do not accept it, your appeal continues against the new decision.

Be cautious with partial offers. DWP sometimes contacts appellants or their representatives before the hearing to offer a settlement. If the offer is less than what you believe you are entitled to, you have the right to reject it and proceed to the hearing. One appellant who rejected a lowball DWP offer — lower rate mobility with no daily living — went on to win a full Enhanced Rate award at the tribunal.

Withdrawn: You Cancel Your Appeal

Withdrawing means you choose to end your appeal. This is your decision — the tribunal does not force you to withdraw (though it may ask whether you wish to if the panel warns you about a potential reduction in your existing award).

You can withdraw at any point before the tribunal makes its decision: before the hearing, at the hearing itself, or even after the hearing has started but before the decision is announced. Once a decision has been made, you cannot withdraw.

To withdraw in writing, contact the tribunal office and state that you wish to withdraw your appeal. At a hearing, you can tell the panel directly.

Think carefully before withdrawing. If you withdraw, the DWP's original decision stands, and you would need to start a fresh claim or wait for a new decision to challenge. The main situation where withdrawal makes sense is if the panel has warned you that they are considering reducing your existing award and you decide the risk is not worth it.

Postponed: Your Hearing Date is Moved

A postponement happens before the hearing begins — HMCTS moves your scheduled hearing to a new date. This might be because:

• You requested a postponement due to illness, a hospital appointment, or another good reason
• The tribunal venue is unavailable
• A panel member is unavailable
• HMCTS has administrative reasons for rescheduling

To request a postponement, write to the tribunal office as early as possible, explaining why you cannot attend on the listed date and providing evidence if you can (a hospital appointment letter, for example). Postponement requests are decided by a tribunal judge and are not automatic — the closer to the hearing date you request one, the less likely it is to be granted.

A postponed hearing does not affect your appeal in any other way. It simply means you wait longer for the hearing to take place. Given that MoJ statistics already show a mean wait of 37 weeks from SSCS1 submission to disposal for SSCS cases overall, an additional postponement can add several more weeks or months.

Which One Applies to You?

If you are unsure what has happened to your appeal, check the "Manage your appeal" online service or contact the tribunal office directly. Each of these situations leaves your appeal in a different state, and the next steps are different for each one.

Our PIP Tribunal Appeals guide includes a post-decision flowchart that covers all of these scenarios — adjournment, lapse, withdrawal, postponement, and what to do after the hearing itself — so you know exactly where you stand at every stage.

See more England and Wales guides →