A MAN who has had to wait over a year for a tribunal to decide whether he is fit to work has spoken of the anxiety the ordeal has caused him.

Mark Spraggon, 47, has been waiting since November 2017 for a hearing for his Personal Independence Payment, a benefit paid to people with long-term health conditions and disabilities who are unfit to work.

He was told recently he would finally be given a date for the tribunal to be heard after it was put back twice.

Mr Spraggon, of Scott Street, Barrow, said he suffers from epilepsy, asthma, a spinal deformity and is also 90 per cent deaf.

“It has put me in debt and caused me a great deal of stress," he said.

Off work for 10 years before the benefit was withdrawn by the Department of Work and Pensions, he says he takes 17 tablets a day and suffers from a spinal deformity.

He said he is now suffering from anxiety because of the wait.

“They are saying I am fit to work but there is no way I am,” he said.

“I’m not coping with this.

"I didn’t have anxiety before all this happened.”

Mr Spraggon said he has been struggling for money since the benefit was withdrawn and hopes to be repaid the £5,250 he would have been due.

The carer’s allowance his wife Sharon previously received has also been stopped, leaving the couple in financial difficulty.

Mr Spraggon said he owed a pawnbroker more than £1,000 after selling off many of the items in the home.

He said he wants to move out his current flat because it involves him having to walk up stairs.

“I do not want to live here,” he said. “It means I have to walk up stairs, which is not good for me.

“If I could find somewhere else to live then I would but I can’t afford anywhere better.”

The waiting limit for a tribunal following an appeal is supposed to 49 weeks, which will have passed by the time Mr Spraggon’s case is heard in February at Barrow Law Courts. He said he was relieved he had been given a date for the tribunal but was sceptical it would go ahead.

He said: “If the tribunal finally goes ahead then I will be happy.

“But already it has been cancelled twice and I am still not confident it will actually go ahead this time.”

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice, the Government department which schedules the tribunals, said it was trying to ensure others were not forced to wait long for hearings.

He said: “We understand that delays can be stressful which is why we continue to appoint more judges and panel members and are developing a new digital system to speed up the appeals process.”

The digital system was rolled out nationally in July. The Ministry of Justice said more than 3,000 appeals had been submitted online since that time.

Recent figures for Cumbria showed 69 per cent of PIP decisions were successfully overturned after appeal.