ESA appeals drop by 80% following mandatory reconsideration.

rogerblack

In October 2013, changes to the appeals procedure for most benefits happened.
Before then, you could directly appeal the decision of your benefit to the independent tribunal.
In the case of ESA, after doing this, your payments would resume at the assessment rate.

After October, you have to go through several intermediate stages before lodging an appeal.

The first set of tribunal service statistics since then have been released.

In short - appeals for the period October-December for ESA have dropped by 60%.
This is however misleading.
The mandatory reconsideration changes happened on the 28th of October, so in fact, these statistics do not reflect three, but two months of change, and one month of the status quo.

Implying that the change since last year is not a 60% drop, but closer to 80%.

Jul-Sep 76000
Oct-Dec 32965

Assuming the figures are similar to the prior period, there would be 835 appeals a day.
This would add up to 23380 up until the change on the 28th, leaving 10000 for the rest of the period.
Or 161 a day.
From 835 to 161 is a drop of 80%.

The rate of successful appeals has remained the same.

Is it possible that the DWP has suddenly started making mostly right decisions - certainly.

But no published statistics have yet appeared to back this up. There have been no published statistics of mandatory reconsideration for ESA that would enable us to tell if it's a reduction in overall assessments plus better decisionmaking, plus better reconsideration at appeal drastically improving the service to claimants.
Or people being not properly informed of their appeal rights, and being forced onto JSA or into hardship.

GirlFromMars_2

rogerblack wrote: »

In October 2013, changes to the appeals procedure for most benefits happened.
Before then, you could directly appeal the decision of your benefit to the independent tribunal.
In the case of ESA, after doing this, your payments would resume at the assessment rate.

After October, you have to go through several intermediate stages before lodging an appeal.

The first set of tribunal service statistics since then have been released.

In short - appeals for the period October-December for ESA have dropped by 60%.
This is however misleading.
The mandatory reconsideration changes happened on the 28th of October, so in fact, these statistics do not reflect three, but two months of change, and one month of the status quo.

Implying that the change since last year is not a 60% drop, but closer to 80%.

Jul-Sep 76000
Oct-Dec 32965

Assuming the figures are similar to the prior period, there would be 835 appeals a day.
This would add up to 23380 up until the change on the 28th, leaving 10000 for the rest of the period.
Or 161 a day.
From 835 to 161 is a drop of 80%.

The rate of successful appeals has remained the same.

Is it possible that the DWP has suddenly started making mostly right decisions - certainly.

But no published statistics have yet appeared to back this up. There have been no published statistics of mandatory reconsideration for ESA that would enable us to tell if it's a reduction in overall assessments plus better decisionmaking, plus better reconsideration at appeal drastically improving the service to claimants.
Or people being not properly informed of their appeal rights, and being forced onto JSA or into hardship.

Err ... isn't it misleading for another reason?

... ie after October it takes a whole lot longer to reach the appeal stage ... so the Nov, Dec appeals numbers will be lower simply because people are suddenly caught in the mandatory reconsideration stage, pushing their appeals back ...

... things should have levelled out now, but for the first few months the tribunal service would absolutely see a drop in appeals as the appeal process was delayed by mandatory consideration.

I mean, I absolutely hope that the DWP are making more correct decisions in the first place, as an appeal takes forever ... but a drop would be entirely consistent with the switchover to the new system, even if the numbers ultimately remain exactly the same!

rogerblack

longtomboy wrote: »

As for the DWP actually getting the right answer first time round, from experience they can't do any worse than what they have been doing for the last few years. Any improvement will be a massive result even if it is only a 1% increase.

The average success rate for ESA claimants in 2012-13 was 43%.
In Oct-Dec 2013 it was 45%.

This doesn't imply decisions are getting markedly better.
Many of these will have been decisions without MR.