Personal Independence Payment: Appeals

(asked on 22nd February 2021) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many appellants are waiting for the Tribunals Service to list their First Tier Tribunal Social Security and Child Support appeal in relation to personal independence payment in (a) Coventry, (b) West Midlands and (c) England.


Answered by
Chris Philp Portrait
Chris Philp
Minister of State (Home Office)
This question was answered on 25th February 2021

The latest period for which data about the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) (SSCS) are available is January to March 2020. The most recent tribunal statistics publications covering the period April to September 2020 do not include SSCS data due to issues identified as the tribunal was being migrated to a new operational system. The data will be made available as soon as this is resolved and the data quality assured.

(1) Information about clearance times for appeals to SSCS is published at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics

Waiting times are calculated from receipt of an appeal to its final disposal. An appeal is not necessarily disposed of at its first hearing. The final disposal decision on the appeal may be reached after an earlier hearing had been adjourned (which may be directed by the judge for a variety of reasons, such as to seek further evidence), or after an earlier hearing date had been postponed (again, for a variety of reasons, often at the request of the appellant). An appeal may also have been decided at an earlier date by the First-tier Tribunal, only for the case to have gone on to the Upper Tribunal, to be returned once again to the First-tier, for its final disposal.

Throughout the pandemic, appeals have continued to be decided on the papers, or heard using telephone and other remote technology. Additionally, HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has introduced safety measures so that face to face hearings can be held for any cases which cannot be decided on the papers or heard remotely. The decision as to how a hearing is conducted is a matter for the judge, who will determine how best to uphold the interests of justice.

(2) As at March 2020, there were a total of 440 Personal Independence Payment (PIP) 1 appeals waiting to be listed in the Coventry venue; 2,466 in the West Midlands2; and 21,005 in England3.

SSCS data are usually registered to the venue nearest to the appellant’s home address. We cannot retrieve data based on the appellant’s actual address but can produce reports detailing the number of cases dealt with at one of our Regional centres or heard at a specific venue.

1. PIP (New Claim Appeals) which replaces Disability Living Allowance was introduced on 8 April 2013, also includes PIP Claims (Reassessments)

2. West Midlands includes the venues: Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Coventry, Nuneaton, Stoke, Shrewsbury, Hereford and Worcester.

3. Data exclude SSCS Scotland Region and Wales Region.

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