Social Security Benefits: Appeals
(asked on 18th June 2018) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average waiting time is for an appeal on decisions relating to (a) personal independence payment, (b) employment support allowance and (c) universal credit was at the Newcastle Social Security Tribunal in each of the last three years.
Clearance times are dependent on several factors, such as the availability of the appellant or their representative, or hearing capacity at the local Tribunal venue. Additionally, a decision on the appeal may be reached after a hearing has been adjourned (which may be directed by the judge for a variety of reasons, such as to seek further evidence), or after a hearing has been postponed (again, for a variety of reasons, often at the request of the appellant). An appeal may also have been referred back to the First-tier Tribunal by the Upper Tribunal for disposal. Cases may also have been stayed at the First-tier Tribunal, pending a decision by the Upper Tribunal on a lead case.
Latest figures indicate that since PIP was introduced, more than 3.1 million decisions have been made, and of these under 9% have been appealed and 4% have been overturned. For ESA the figure is only 8% of decisions made were appealed and 4% have been overturned at tribunals.
The information requested is set out in the table below:
Average time in weeks from receipt at HM Courts & Tribunal Service to outcome | |||
Newcastle Manor View House (Social Security & Child Support Tribunal hearing venue) | |||
Financial years April - March | Personal Independence Payment 1 | Employment and Support Allowance2 | Universal Credit3 |
2015-16 | 15 | 17 | ~ |
2016-17 | 15 | 15 | 12 |
2017-18 | 21 | 19 | 13 |
Notes:
1 Personal Independence Payment (PIP) (New Claim Appeals) which replaces Disability Living Allowance (DLA) was introduced on 8 April 2013, and also includes Personal Independence Claims (Reassessments)
2 Includes Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and Employment Support Allowance (Reassessments)
3 Universal Credit was introduced on 29 April 2013 in selected areas of Greater Manchester and Cheshire, and has been gradually rolled out to the rest of the UK from October 2013.
~ Equates to a value of five or fewer
Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system and are the best data available.
The data may differ slightly to that of the published stats as these data were run on a different date.