Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Answer from Kevin Sadler to question 147 from the Work and Pensions Committee on 7 May 2014, what the cost is of (a) employment and support allowance appeals, (b) such appeals borne by the Department for Work and Pensions and (c) such appeals borne by HM Treasury in each year since 2008-09.

The First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support), administered by HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS), hears appeals against Department for Work and Pensions' (DWP) decisions on a range of benefits, including Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).

(1) (a) In 2008 the DWP estimated that there would be an extra 21,000 appeals annually as a result of the introduction of ESA. An extra £4m funding from DWP was initially agreed to cover these costs in the period 2009/10. HMCTS does not hold the information on other funding sources for ESA alone.

(2) The following table shows the estimated cost of ESA appeals to HMCTS in each year since 2008/09 until 2012/13 (the latest period for which data has been published). 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. The Tribunal receives funding from the Ministry of Justice through HMCTS, the DWP and the National Insurance Fund from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, as set out in the table below. However, the figures are for funding for the SSCS Tribunal overall as it is not possible to separate specific funding for each benefit type.

Appeal costs and funding

*Note: Tribunals Service until April 2011.

¹ Figures have been rounded to the nearest million except where numbers are lower than £0.1m, where the number to the nearest £10,000 has been quoted.