Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of appeals to the Tribunals Service for (a) personal independence payment, (b) employment and support allowance, (c) income support, (d) jobseekers allowance and (e) tax credits were successful in (i) Glasgow South West constituency, (ii) Glasgow, (iii) Scotland and (iv) Great Britain in (A) 2021-22 and (B) 2022-23.

Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

Information about appeals to the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) (SSCS) is published at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.

SSCS appeals are listed into the hearing venue nearest to the appellant’s home address. Glasgow Tribunal Centre is the only SSCS venue serving the Glasgow South West constituency. The published data (which can be viewed at the link above) provide information about the outcomes of (a) Personal Independence Payment (PIP), and (b) Employment Support Allowance (ESA), for (i) Glasgow South West constituency (this is covered by the Glasgow data), (ii) Glasgow, (iii) Scotland and (iv) Great Britain in (A) 2021-22 and (B) 2022-23.

The tables below contain the requested information for Glasgow and Scotland for (c) Income Support, (d) Job Seekers Allowance and (e) Tax Credits for 2021 – 22; and 2022-23:

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of claimants who were given a negative decision following the suspension of their claim by the Risk Review Team or Enhanced Review Team (a) appealed that decision and (b) had a tribunal allow their appeal in each of the last five years.

Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Risk Review Team (RRT) has now been incorporated in to a broader and wide-ranging Enhanced Review Team (ERT), aimed at identifying and stopping fraud early.

As the NAO have reported in the Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23. ‘The majority of 2022-23 savings (£650 million) came from the Enhanced Review Team (ERT), which provides a rapid response service for detailed checking of high-risk Universal Credit claims before they go into payment. These estimates also suggest that preventative actions have a much higher level of return than investigating fraud and error after it has occurred.’

Data on how many and what proportion of cases handled by ERT have resulted in suspension is not available to this level for ERT and to produce it would incur disproportionate costs. This is due to large volumes of data being held across different clerical platforms, which would need to be forensically examined.

Likewise, data on cases closed, reinstated, or remaining suspended, cannot be provided within reasonable costs.

We are unable to provide the number of claimants who have appealed decisions on cases closed following RRT/ERT action and the number who have been successful in their appeals over the last five years because ERT only started completing reviews in April 2020.

We are unable to give per year figures since the formation of ERT due to the lengthy dispute process and are also unable to identify which appeals would have previously been suspended, due to this data not being held. However, the cumulative total of cases for RRT and ERT that have been through the dispute process are:

• Appealed to date - 1118
• Outcome in claimant’s favour – 228

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate he has made of the average waiting time for mandatory reconsideration of benefit decisions in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure that mandatory reconsiderations are conducted (i) quickly and (ii) effectively.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The median mandatory reconsideration (MR) clearance times have been provided for Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Universal Credit (UC) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) benefit decisions. To provide information across all other DWP administered benefits would incur disproportionate cost.

Median clearance times have been provided as the mean can be unduly affected by outlying cases.

Personal Independence Payment

The median clearance times for PIP Mandatory Reconsiderations, normal rules between August 2022 and July 2023, were:

a) 28 calendar days for Coventry

b) 28 calendar days for West Midlands

c) 28 calendar days for England

Notes:

1. Each PIP claim can have more than one reconsideration registered against it. The above includes all MR decisions (excluding withdrawn and cancelled).
2. The PIP MR clearance times are based on the clearance times from the date the MR was registered to the date the MR was cleared.
3. DWP offers particular support for those coming to the end of their life, known as the Special Rules for End of Life (SREL). This was formerly called Special Rules for Terminal Illness (SRTI). Cases which are not processed under SREL are referred to as ‘normal rules’ claims. The status of claims as 'normal rules' or 'SREL' is shown as at the point of registration.
4. Definition of median: The median time is the middle value if you were to order all the times within the distribution from lowest value to highest value.

Universal Credit

The median clearance times for UC Mandatory Reconsiderations between August 2022 and July 2023 were:

a) 37 calendar days for Coventry

b) 35 calendar days for West Midlands

c) 36 calendar days for England

Notes:

1. Each UC claim can have more than one reconsideration registered against it. The above includes all MR decisions (excluding withdrawn and cancelled).
2. The UC MR clearance times are based on the clearance times from the date the MR was registered to the date the MR was cleared.
3. This data on UC MR clearance times is unpublished data. It should be used with caution and it may be subject to future revision.
4. For a small number of UC claims with an MR (1%) it was not possible to determine the geography information, so these have not been included in the figures.

1. Definition of median: The median time is the middle value if you were to order all the times within the distribution from lowest value to highest value.

Employment and Support Allowance

ESA Work Capability Assessment MR clearance times are available on Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/. It can be found by going through “ESA Work Capability Assessments”, “Mandatory Reconsideration – Clearances” “Table 4 – Median Clearance Times by Date of Decision”. It is then possible to restrict to Coventry, West Midlands and England.

In law there is no time limit within which a Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) decision must be made. This reflects the overarching policy that the focus should be on making the right decision and not the speed of clearance. Of course, decisions will be made without delay but if the decision maker considers that more time is needed to gather or consider evidence, then they will give themselves that time to ensure they are confident that the decision ultimately made is correct.

We constantly review our processes to ensure we are providing the best possible customer service to customers requesting a mandatory reconsideration, both in terms of speed of dealing with the request and quality of decision making. For example, we have improved the system functionality in UC to allow some customers to directly upload evidence to inform a decision to improve the customer experience. We have also recruited circa 400 additional colleagues into the Dispute Resolution Service over the summer to increase capacity and reduce waiting times.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff in his Department are trained to provide evidence at First-tier Tribunal appeals.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The number of staff trained to provide evidence at first-tier tribunal appeals is 150 full time equivalents (FTE).

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 (March 2023) of how many people were identified as undertaking specified activities as assigned by line managers.

Child Maintenance Service figures exclude Enforcement Court Presenting Officers.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of (a) Personal Independence Payment and (b) Universal Credit decisions were overturned at tribunal when the initial assessment was conducted (i) face-to-face, (ii) by telephone and (iii) by video call in the last 12 months.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The table below provides the requested information for Personal Independence Payment. Namely the volume and proportion of initial decisions overturned at appeal, for initial decisions between October 2021 and September 2022.

The Universal Credit breakdown is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Please note:

• Figures are rounded to the nearest 10 or 100 and percentages to 1 decimal place;
• The DWP may also undertake paper-based reviews;
• We have provided data for England and Wales (excluding Scotland) in line with the latest published figures on PIP;
• Both normal and special rules for the terminally ill cases are included in these figures;
• These figures include initial decisions following assessment for PIP (New Claims and Reassessments) between 1^st October 2021 and 30^th September 2022, the latest date for which published data is available; and
• These figures include appeal outcomes up to 31st December 2022, the latest date for which published data is available. Note that more appeals could be made and completed after December 2022, so numbers may change as it can take some time for an appeal to be lodged and then cleared after the initial decision.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 13 March 2023 to Question 159021 on Social Security Benefits: Appeals, for what reason there is a target for implementing tribunal decisions on Personal Independent Payments but not on (a) Employment and Support Allowance and (b) Universal Credit.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Universal Credit (UC) tribunal decisions are processed in a different team to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) tribunal decisions. Although there is no target for implementing ESA and UC tribunal decisions, the department’s overarching objective is, and always has been, to do so without delay.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of appeals to the tribunals service in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England relating to (i) personal independence payments, (ii) employment and support allowance, (iii) jobseeker's allowance and (iv) universal credit were successful in (A) the most recent period for which figures are available and (B) each of the last three years.

Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

Information about the outcomes of appeals in the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) (SSCS) is published at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.

SSCS appeals are listed into the hearing venue nearest to the appellant’s home address. The published data (which can be viewed at the link above) provide information about the outcomes of (i) Personal Independence Payment (PIP), (ii) Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and (iv) Universal Credit (UC) appeals for hearing venues covering (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England for the period requested.

The table below contains the requested information for (iii)Job Seekers Allowance (JSA):

Notes:

SSCS data is normally 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 numbers of cases that were dealt with at one of our Regional centres or heard at a specific venue.

The proportion of successful appeals is based on the number of cases found in favour of the appellant at a tribunal hearing as a percentage of the cases heard at a tribunal hearing.

Data up to December 2022 in line with latest published statistics.

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

These data may differ slightly to that of the published statistics as these data were run on a different date.

1. West Midlands includes the venues: Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Coventry, Nuneaton, Stoke, Telford and Worcester

2. Excludes SSCS Scotland Region and Wales Region.

~ Suppressed in line with official published stats

P Provisional, in line with published data.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of claimants who were given a negative decision following the suspension of their claim by the risk review team (a) appealed that decision and (b) had a tribunal allow their appeal.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

212 out of 188,119 claimants who have had their cases suspended by the Risk Review Team have appealed the decision (0.11%) with 42 claimants having their appeal allowed, which is 0.02% of the total number of claims suspended.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many secondary appeals were lodged following an initial lapsed appeal due to the Secretary of State revising the decision before the initial appeal could be decided in each of the last five years.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The information requested is not available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will publish guidance on the steps a claimant should take when his Department fails to reinstate a claim following a successful appeal.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

Personal Independence Payment has a target of 28 days for implementing a tribunal’s decision and is currently averaging around 10 days.

Employment and Support Allowance and Universal Credit do not have an overarching target. Decisions are implemented as quickly as possible, with some exceptions.

For all three benefits, information on the average time to reinstate payments for the period requested is not collated centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

If a decision is not implemented timeously, there is guidance published by HMCTS and available on Gov.UK, entitled ‘How to appeal against a decision made by the Department for Work and Pensions’.

The main reason that a tribunal’s decision might not be implemented timeously, is if the Secretary of State considers that the decision may contain an error of law and suspends payment of the tribunal’s award whilst that is considered. In such a case the claimant must be notified that this is being done. If the claimant is not notified of a reason for the decision not being implemented, then they can contact the department: this can be done by using the telephone numbers on Gov.UK, on the decision letter they received, or by attending a Jobcentre; if it is a UC appeal they can use their journal.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has a target timescale for reinstating claims for (a) Universal Credit, (b) Personal Independence Payment and (c) Employment and Support Allowance after an appeal has been allowed.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

Personal Independence Payment has a target of 28 days for implementing a tribunal’s decision and is currently averaging around 10 days.

Employment and Support Allowance and Universal Credit do not have an overarching target. Decisions are implemented as quickly as possible, with some exceptions.

For all three benefits, information on the average time to reinstate payments for the period requested is not collated centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

If a decision is not implemented timeously, there is guidance published by HMCTS and available on Gov.UK, entitled ‘How to appeal against a decision made by the Department for Work and Pensions’.

The main reason that a tribunal’s decision might not be implemented timeously, is if the Secretary of State considers that the decision may contain an error of law and suspends payment of the tribunal’s award whilst that is considered. In such a case the claimant must be notified that this is being done. If the claimant is not notified of a reason for the decision not being implemented, then they can contact the department: this can be done by using the telephone numbers on Gov.UK, on the decision letter they received, or by attending a Jobcentre; if it is a UC appeal they can use their journal.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time was for his Department to reinstate payments for (a) Employment and Support Allowance, (b) Universal Credit and (c) Personal Independence Payment following a tribunal allowing an appeal in each month between January 2020 and March 2023.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

Personal Independence Payment has a target of 28 days for implementing a tribunal’s decision and is currently averaging around 10 days.

Employment and Support Allowance and Universal Credit do not have an overarching target. Decisions are implemented as quickly as possible, with some exceptions.

For all three benefits, information on the average time to reinstate payments for the period requested is not collated centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

If a decision is not implemented timeously, there is guidance published by HMCTS and available on Gov.UK, entitled ‘How to appeal against a decision made by the Department for Work and Pensions’.

The main reason that a tribunal’s decision might not be implemented timeously, is if the Secretary of State considers that the decision may contain an error of law and suspends payment of the tribunal’s award whilst that is considered. In such a case the claimant must be notified that this is being done. If the claimant is not notified of a reason for the decision not being implemented, then they can contact the department: this can be done by using the telephone numbers on Gov.UK, on the decision letter they received, or by attending a Jobcentre; if it is a UC appeal they can use their journal.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will include in his Department's Annual Report for the 2022-23 financial year a performance measure on the number and proportion of appeals against decisions by his Department to refuse (a) Employment Support Allowance, (b) Universal Credit Limited Capability for Work and (c) Personal Independence Payment that (i) lapsed in advance of the hearing and (ii) were overturned by the First Tier Tribunal.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Department for Work and Pensions is committed to monitoring and reporting progress against the priority outcomes agreed for the department in the Spending Review 2021 settlement.

We will publish our Annual Report and Accounts for 2022/23 in Summer 2023, which will include performance statistics on key measures and metrics, including customer satisfaction levels, and support provided to those in receipt of disability benefits.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to include data on (a) the number of requests for a mandatory reconsideration of decision by his Department to refuse an application for (i) Employment Support Allowance, (ii) Universal Credit Limited Capability for Work and (iii) Personal Independence Payment and (b) the proportion of those reconsiderations that resulted in a change of award as measures of performance in his Department's Annual Report for the 2022-23 financial year.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Department for Work and Pensions is committed to monitoring and reporting progress against the priority outcomes agreed for the department in the Spending Review 2021 settlement.

We will publish our Annual Report and Accounts for 2022/23 in Summer 2023, which will include performance statistics on key measures and metrics, including customer satisfaction levels, and support provided to those in receipt of disability benefits.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 20 December 2022 to Question 110773 on Social Security Benefits: Appeals, if he will make an assessment of the causes of the rates of revision of decisions on Mandatory Reconsideration.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The department is committed to making the right decision as early as possible in the claims process. At mandatory reconsideration, decisions are reviewed, with the existing evidence considered together with any new evidence provided by the claimant. Decisions will be changed if the evidence supports this.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 20 December 2022 to Question 110773 on Social Security Benefits: Appeals, how many appeals were determined by the First Tier Tribunal; and how many determinations upheld his Department’s decision.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

Of the 175 RRT cases lodged under the appeals process quoted in PQ110773, 42 were determined by the First tier Tribunal. Of these, 19 upheld the department’s decision either partially (2) or fully (17).