Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much her Department has spent on defending benefit appeals in each year from 2010 to 2022.

DWP cover the administration costs of an Appeal. However, the Department is unable to provide the total government spend on defending appeals.

This is because appeals are a joint process between DWP and HM Courts and Tribunals Service. DWP do not handle tribunals for appeals; the cost of handling appeal tribunals sits with HM Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) and we do not hold their cost information. If this information was required, we would suggest that this element of your request be submitted to HMCTS.

The only DWP staff who attend actual Tribunals (and therefore defend appeals) are Presenting Officers. We do not have information before 2013-14.

The information for the financial years covered by the request are detailed in the tables below:

Cost figures are rounded to the nearest £0.1m

Data Source: ABM

The cost figures quoted are estimated DWP level 1 operating costs, including both direct delivery staff and non-staff costs. Non-staff costs are only those costs incurred in local cost centres, relating to direct delivery staff.

Costs provided are for Presenting Officers only and excludes Admin Support or Decision Making operational staff dealing with the Appeals processing work. Child Maintenance Group figures include Enforcement Presenting Officers.

Please note that the data supplied is from the Departmental Activity Based Models. This data is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standards. It should therefore be treated with caution. The Departmental Activity Based staffing models are a snapshot of how many people were identified as undertaking specified activities as assigned by line managers.

The data is frequently revised and changes to definitions / benefits / DWP structure effect comparisons over time. It should therefore be treated with caution and must be seen as an indication of cost, rather than the actual cost.

2020/21 figures impacted by COVID