Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate his Department has made of the average length of time between an person appealing a decision on (a) employment and support allowance and (b) personal independence payments to that person receiving an outcome in the latest period for which figures are available.

(1) Information about waiting times for appeals to the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support), including (a) Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and (b) Personal Independence Payment (PIP), is published at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.

(2) HM Courts & Tribunals Service administers appeals from appellants living in England, Scotland, and Wales (Great Britain) and not the United Kingdom. The Northern Ireland Courts & Tribunals Service administers appeals from appellants living in Northern Ireland. The data requested at 2(a) and (b) for appellants in Great Britain are not held centrally, and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Latest figures (between April 2014 – September 2018) indicate that 3.9m ESA (post WCA) decisions have been made. Of these, 8% have been appealed and 4% have been overturned. For PIP, the latest figures (to December 2018) indicate that since it was introduced, 3.9 million decisions have been made. Of these 10% have been appealed and 5% have been overturned at tribunals.