Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many decisions taken on claims for (a) employment and support allowance and (b) personal independence payment have been appealed in (i) Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock and (ii) the UK in each of the last five years; and how many of those appeals have been successful.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) does not hold accurate information on the volumes of appeals against decisions on claims for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Personal Independence Payment (PIP). At the point of receipt and registration of the appeal the Tribunal is unable to differentiate between appeals relating to new claims for these benefits and those relating to existing claims.

Information about the volumes and outcomes of appeals to the Tribunal is published at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics. The information provided below is a further breakdown of this data (excluding reassessment decisions).

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¹ Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock may be represented by the venues at Ayr, Dumfries, Irvine, Kilmarnock and Stranraer. Social Security and Child Support data are attributed according to the venue nearest the appellant’s home address. HMCTS cannot retrieve data based on the appellant’s actual address, or Parliamentary constituency, but can produce data detailing numbers of cases dealt with at regional centres, or at a specific venue.

Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system

² PIP was introduced as a new benefit in April 2013 to replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for people aged 16 to 64, and appeal volumes have been rising ever since its introduction. In addition to new claims for PIP, the Department for Work and Pensions is also transitioning individuals in receipt of DLA, over to PIP, via a reassessment programme.