Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) Child Maintenance hearings where his Department was the first respondent were attended by an official from his Department in the latest period for which data is available.

From January to December 2022, there were 53,010 first-tier tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) Personal Independence Payment appeals. Of these, 13,600 (26%) were attended by a presenting officer.

From January to December 2022, there were 4,940 first-tier tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) Employment and Support Allowance appeals. Of these, 1,190 (24%) were attended by a presenting officer.

Information available within cost shows that from January to December 2022, HM Courts & Tribunals Service listed 4,840 Child Maintenance Service appeals. Of these 2,130 (44%) were allocated to a presenting officer to attend.

Please note:

• This information is derived from internal administrative data and is not quality assured to Official Statistics standards;
• This data is unpublished. It should be used with caution, and it may be subject to future revision;
• We have provided data up to December 2022, in line with published statistics;
• Figures are rounded to the nearest 10 and percentages are rounded to the nearest percent; and

• Appeals data is taken from the DWP computer system’s management information. Therefore, this appeal data may differ from that held by His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service for various reasons, such as delays in data recording and other methodological differences in collating and preparing statistics.