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1718879

registered interest
date	16/05/2024
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Appeals
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department publishes statistics on response times for cases that have been sent to tribunals.
tabling member constituency	Midlothian
tabling member printed	Owen Thompson
uin	26704
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/05/2024 answer text <p>DWP does not publish statistics on departmental response times for tribunal cases.</p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 22/05/2024 16:14:37 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	4482 label Biography information for Owen Thompson

1673226

registered interest
date	27/11/2023
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Appeals
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	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.
tabling member constituency	Wakefield
tabling member printed	Simon Lightwood
uin	4018
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/12/2023 answer text <p>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.</p><p> </p><p>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.’</p><p> </p><p>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.</p><p> </p><p>Likewise, data on cases closed, reinstated, or remaining suspended, cannot be provided within reasonable costs.</p><p> </p><p>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.</p><p> </p><p>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:</p><p> </p><ul><li>Appealed to date - 1118</li><li>Outcome in claimant’s favour – 228</li></ul> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard grouped question UIN 4016 4017 question first answered 12/12/2023 11:57:50 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
tabling member	4943 label Biography information for Simon Lightwood

1661258

registered interest
date	18/09/2023
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Appeals
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	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.
tabling member constituency	Coventry North East
tabling member printed	Colleen Fletcher
uin	199993
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/10/2023 answer text <p>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.</p><p> </p><p>Median clearance times have been provided as the mean can be unduly affected by outlying cases.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Personal Independence Payment </strong></p><p> </p><p>The median clearance times for PIP Mandatory Reconsiderations, normal rules between August 2022 and July 2023, were:</p><p>a) 28 calendar days for Coventry</p><p>b) 28 calendar days for West Midlands</p><p>c) 28 calendar days for England</p><p> </p><p>Notes:</p><ol><li>Each PIP claim can have more than one reconsideration registered against it. The above includes all MR decisions (excluding withdrawn and cancelled).</li><li>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.</li><li>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.</li><li>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.</li></ol><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong>Universal Credit</strong></p><p> </p><p>The median clearance times for UC Mandatory Reconsiderations between August 2022 and July 2023 were:</p><p>a) 37 calendar days for Coventry</p><p>b) 35 calendar days for West Midlands</p><p>c) 36 calendar days for England</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Notes:</p><p> </p><ol><li>Each UC claim can have more than one reconsideration registered against it. The above includes all MR decisions (excluding withdrawn and cancelled).</li><li>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.</li><li>This data on UC MR clearance times is unpublished data. It should be used with caution and it may be subject to future revision.</li><li>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.</li></ol><ol><li>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.</li></ol><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong>Employment and Support Allowance</strong></p><p>ESA Work Capability Assessment MR clearance times are available on Stat-Xplore: <a href="https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/" target="_blank">https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/</a>. 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.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Corby answering member printed Tom Pursglove question first answered 16/10/2023 14:52:18 answering member 4369 label Biography information for Tom Pursglove
tabling member	4378 label Biography information for Colleen Fletcher

1624106

registered interest
date	26/04/2023
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Appeals
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	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.
tabling member constituency	Feltham and Heston
tabling member printed	Seema Malhotra
uin	182869
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/05/2023 answer text <p>The number of staff trained to provide evidence at first-tier tribunal appeals is 150 full time equivalents (FTE).</p><p> </p><p>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.</p><p> </p><p>Child Maintenance Service figures exclude Enforcement Court Presenting Officers.</p> answering member constituency Corby answering member printed Tom Pursglove question first answered 02/05/2023 10:16:36 answering member 4369 label Biography information for Tom Pursglove
tabling member	4253 label Biography information for Seema Malhotra

1606845

registered interest
date	23/03/2023
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Appeals
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	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.
tabling member constituency	Leicester South
tabling member printed	Jonathan Ashworth
uin	172413
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/03/2023 answer text <p>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.</p><p> </p><p>The Universal Credit breakdown is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.</p><p> </p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Assessment Type </strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Number Overturned</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Proportion Overturned</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Face-to-face</p></td><td><p>570</p></td><td><p>1.4%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Telephone</p></td><td><p>8,500</p></td><td><p>1.7%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Video Call</p></td><td><p>250</p></td><td><p>1.0%</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p /><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p><p>Please note:</p><p> </p><ul><li>Figures are rounded to the nearest 10 or 100 and percentages to 1 decimal place;</li><li>The DWP may also undertake paper-based reviews;</li><li>We have provided data for England and Wales (excluding Scotland) in line with the latest published figures on PIP;</li><li>Both normal and special rules for the terminally ill cases are included in these figures;</li><li>These figures include initial decisions following assessment for PIP (New Claims and Reassessments) between 1<sup>st</sup> October 2021 and 30<sup>th</sup> September 2022, the latest date for which published data is available; and</li><li>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.</li></ul> answering member constituency Corby answering member printed Tom Pursglove question first answered 29/03/2023 11:41:01 answering member 4369 label Biography information for Tom Pursglove
tabling member	4244 label Biography information for Jonathan Ashworth

1605653

registered interest
date	20/03/2023
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Appeals
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	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.
tabling member constituency	Edmonton
tabling member printed	Kate Osamor
uin	169365
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/03/2023 answer text <p>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.</p> answering member constituency Corby answering member printed Tom Pursglove question first answered 27/03/2023 12:15:50 answering member 4369 label Biography information for Tom Pursglove
tabling member	4515 label Biography information for Kate Osamor

1601325

registered interest
date	06/03/2023
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Appeals
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	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.
tabling member constituency	Edmonton
tabling member printed	Kate Osamor
uin	159021
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/03/2023 answer text <p>Personal Independence Payment has a target of 28 days for implementing a tribunal’s decision and is currently averaging around 10 days.</p><p> </p><p>Employment and Support Allowance and Universal Credit do not have an overarching target. Decisions are implemented as quickly as possible, with some exceptions.</p><p> </p><p>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.</p><p> </p><p>If a decision is not implemented timeously, there is guidance published by HMCTS and available on Gov.UK, entitled <em>‘How to appeal against a decision made by the Department for Work and Pensions’. </em></p><p> </p><p>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.</p> answering member constituency Corby answering member printed Tom Pursglove grouped question UIN 159023 159024 question first answered 13/03/2023 18:02:06 answering member 4369 label Biography information for Tom Pursglove
tabling member	4515 label Biography information for Kate Osamor

1601326

registered interest
date	06/03/2023
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Appeals
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	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.
tabling member constituency	Edmonton
tabling member printed	Kate Osamor
uin	159022
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/03/2023 answer text <p>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.</p> answering member constituency Corby answering member printed Tom Pursglove question first answered 13/03/2023 17:46:13 answering member 4369 label Biography information for Tom Pursglove
tabling member	4515 label Biography information for Kate Osamor

1601327

registered interest
date	06/03/2023
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Appeals
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	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.
tabling member constituency	Edmonton
tabling member printed	Kate Osamor
uin	159023
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/03/2023 answer text <p>Personal Independence Payment has a target of 28 days for implementing a tribunal’s decision and is currently averaging around 10 days.</p><p> </p><p>Employment and Support Allowance and Universal Credit do not have an overarching target. Decisions are implemented as quickly as possible, with some exceptions.</p><p> </p><p>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.</p><p> </p><p>If a decision is not implemented timeously, there is guidance published by HMCTS and available on Gov.UK, entitled <em>‘How to appeal against a decision made by the Department for Work and Pensions’. </em></p><p> </p><p>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.</p> answering member constituency Corby answering member printed Tom Pursglove grouped question UIN 159021 159024 question first answered 13/03/2023 18:02:06 answering member 4369 label Biography information for Tom Pursglove
tabling member	4515 label Biography information for Kate Osamor

1601328

registered interest
date	06/03/2023
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Appeals
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	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.
tabling member constituency	Edmonton
tabling member printed	Kate Osamor
uin	159024
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/03/2023 answer text <p>Personal Independence Payment has a target of 28 days for implementing a tribunal’s decision and is currently averaging around 10 days.</p><p> </p><p>Employment and Support Allowance and Universal Credit do not have an overarching target. Decisions are implemented as quickly as possible, with some exceptions.</p><p> </p><p>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.</p><p> </p><p>If a decision is not implemented timeously, there is guidance published by HMCTS and available on Gov.UK, entitled <em>‘How to appeal against a decision made by the Department for Work and Pensions’. </em></p><p> </p><p>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.</p> answering member constituency Corby answering member printed Tom Pursglove grouped question UIN 159021 159023 question first answered 13/03/2023 18:02:06 answering member 4369 label Biography information for Tom Pursglove
tabling member	4515 label Biography information for Kate Osamor