Employment and Support Allowance: Appeals

Justice written question – answered am ar 17 Gorffennaf 2013.

Danfonwch hysbysiad imi am ddadleuon fel hyn

Photo of Liam Byrne Liam Byrne Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the annual cost to the courts and tribunal service of employment and support allowance appeals has been since 2008.

Photo of Helen Grant Helen Grant The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women and Equalities

Appeals against decisions made by the Department for Work and Pensions on an individual's entitlement to social security and child support are heard by the First-tier tribunal—Social Security and Child Support (SSCS), administered by HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS).

The following table shows the estimated total cost to HMCTS of employment and support allowance (ESA) appeals in the years 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13. For each period the estimated costs were calculated by multiplying the average cost of an individual SSCS tribunal case in that year by the number of ESA appeals disposed of during the year.

Estimated cost of employment and support allowance appeals
  Number of all ESA appeals disposed of(1) Estimated total cost (£ million)
2008-09(2) 125 0.03
2009-10 70,535 21
2010-11 176,567 42
2011-12 204,321 47
2012-13 268,137 66
(1) Data include both cases cleared at hearing and those cleared without the need of a tribunal hearing, through being struck out, withdrawn or superseded. (2) Employment and support allowance was introduced in October 2008 and this is reflected in the volume (appeals would not have started to have come through to the tribunal until some weeks after October 2008) and cost provided for the period 2008-09.

The increased cost is due to inflationary uplifts and also due to the expansion of the tribunal to deal with the increased volume of appeals received.

In addition to local initiatives, such as identifying additional hearing venues across HMCTS estate, and increasing the use of Saturday sessions, HMCTS continues to respond strongly at a national level to increase the capacity of the SSCS tribunal and reduce waiting times. Measures in place include ongoing recruitment of additional judges and medically qualified members and the review and continuous improvement of administrative processes both internally and between HMCTS and DWP. All of this is having a positive effect. The total number of disposals (which includes appeals disposed of at a tribunal hearing as well as those struck out, superseded or withdrawn) has increased significantly from 279,000 in 2009-10 to 465,500 in 2012-13 (an increase of 66%).

The average waiting time for all appeals heard by the SSCS tribunal has fallen nationally from 23 weeks in 2011-12 to 18 weeks in 2012-013 and for ESA appeals specifically, the average waiting time has reduced from 23 weeks in 2011-12 to 17 weeks in 2012-13.

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