Schedule 1 - Amendments to Pensions Appeal Tribunals Act 1943
Armed Forces
9:30 am
Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury, Conservative)
I am grateful, as is my hon. Friend the Member for Aldershot, to the Royal British Legion for the briefing that it provided, setting out some of its concerns in this area.
The Minister used the word ''context'' two or three times during his explanation of the previous amendment. During consideration of these amendments, it is important that the Committee bears in mind what the context often is: an injured or sick former member of the armed forces—a man or woman with no trade union to which they can refer, and whose medical records are all controlled by their employer, and somebody who has very few friends apart from in the voluntary sector. That sector survives on the contributions raised from the public. As my hon. Friend said a moment ago, I doubt whether many people who buy poppies realise how much of their money is used to assist people to put appeal cases together.
In the light of these amendments, it is worth considering the figures in respect of what the legion is handling. Representatives told us that they represent 93 per cent. of appellants, whether legion members or not, and they do so for free—not, of course, free for the legion, but free for the appellant. They are concerned that the process will be enveloped by the general pension system. They confirm that 40 per cent. of their case load represents entitlement appeals; 33 per cent. are assessment appeals; and 16 per cent. are appeals made by widows of those who served in the second world war, even after all these years. They have a
budget of £500,000, two thirds of which is spent on free representation for those wishing to take RBL cases to tribunal. Their representative, Tom House, wrote in an e-mail:
''The proposal to add yet another tier for arbitration, that of commissioners''—
that is what we are debating in respect of the first two amendments—
''would put further onus on us to provide a service that does not exist now. We the Legion represent currently 93 per cent. of represented cases at tribunal inclusive of Northern Ireland. Unless some step is taken to support War Pensioners etc before the SSC, the scene might be left more or less to the MoD.''
One need hardly add that that would not be good for the appellants.
We shall return to the legal aid issue, which affects a much larger number of cases, when we get to amendment No. 21 shortly. When we debated the previous amendment, the Minister rightly said that a relatively small number of people are involved. Our concern here is particularly with amendments Nos. 16 and 17. The legion confirms that the new scheme proposes not one, but two, further tiers of litigation. The first is the internal dispute resolution process, which has two tiers: the first stage gives the member the right to complain about a decision made by the scheme's administrators. The decision on complaints will be made by the assistant director of pensions casework of the Armed Forces Personnel Administration Agency. That decision, called the notice of decision, should be made within two months of the receipt of the complaint.
The notice of complaint will include an explanation of the decision, advice that the appellant has the right to refer the decision to the two-star panel within six weeks—these are all tight time limits and people may not be well, for example—and further advice that the Occupational Pensions Advisory Service is available.
The second stage provides the appellant with the right of appeal to a higher level against the decision made at the first stage. Such an appeal must be made in writing within six months of the notice of decision. It is my experience of casework, incidentally, that letters often get lost at the various stages. In such an appeal application, information given at the first stage must be repeated along with reasons why the appellant believes that the first stage decision must be reconsidered. A decision on the second stage is usually issued within two months of the original receipt of the complaint. Ironically, the House of Commons Library brief tells us not only that there is a lack of detail about pension appeals in the Government proposals, but that in the Government's March 2001 document, ''Joint Compensation Review'', the following remarks appear:
''We attach importance to ensuring that those who are in any way dissatisfied with decisions taken by the administrators of the scheme, have access to a fair and independent system of appeals. This is central to Human Rights and Fairness at Work. Both the WPS and AFPS have dedicated appeals systems. The former''—
we are dealing with its equivalent here—
''provides for an independent Pensions Appeals Tribunal (PAT), which is the responsibility of the Lord Chancellor's Department, with a right of appeal in certain circumstances to the High Court''.
I apologise to the Committee because this is very complicated. However, one of the legion's main concerns is indeed that the matter is so complicated. The document goes on to state:
''As the new scheme would not be a part of the Armed Forces Pension Scheme, it would not be appropriate for appeals to be resolved through IDRP''.
Yet the Government propose that appeals should be resolved through two stages of IDRP. Therefore, before appeals can even reach the PAT, they must go through those two IDRP stages. Our amendments Nos. 16 and 17 propose that people could go straight to the PAT, which appears to be the Government's own recommendation from 2001. In a way, we drafted those amendments to help the Government by reminding them of what their position appears to have been.
When making more general remarks in an earlier debate, I tried to paint pictures of two cases involving my constituents, who are men who bravely served in the armed forces. I looked at the case of Major Allen, who was severely wounded in Burma. Frankly, after reading his modern medical reports, I consider it a miracle that he is still alive. The other case involved a sergeant-major who had mental health problems after long and extended service in a number of theatres. They had enough of a battle going through the existing system, so can we imagine what it would be like if they also had to go through all this nonsense? There would be two extra tiers of the independent dispute resolution procedure, with sharp cut-off dates at every point and a requirement to keep on repeating information from the first to the second stage. That seems to be a very shabby way to treat our armed forces.
Sometimes there is a temptation in Committee to bang on and on about a point, but it seems to me that the case here is so overwhelming that nothing could be added by my going on and on producing examples. The fact is that the Government are making the appeal process hugely more lengthy and complex for people to use.
Before moving on briefly to the last amendment in the group, I will add one further thought. The Government cannot completely close the bar on people going to court, which is recognised as a fact. We are developing a litigation culture, about which I know many Committee members are unhappy. Next Friday when I speak to my private Member's Bill, I hope to take some money away from litigation lawyers—if the talks with colleagues of Labour Members continue—and to give some protection to voluntary organisations against being unreasonably sued.
The fact is that by introducing this long, complicated internal process we are simply encouraging members of the armed forces not to talk to the British Legion or go through the tried and tested system, but simply to say, ''We've had enough. We're going off to a human rights lawyer and we're going to court.'' I suspect, in the long run, that the legislation will end up costing the Government more money and acting as a cancer within the bonds of comradeship
that hold the armed forces together. Every time that such a case is fought, it has a negative effect on morale in the armed forces.
I will briefly discuss amendment No. 19, which is the last amendment in the group. It raises a complicated point, and I am grateful to the British Legion for digging it out. The word ''rejected'', which appears in the legislation, does not appear to offer enough scope for appeal. That is why the amendment would ensure that there is scope to appeal even where a claim has been accepted. That ties into debates elsewhere on issues such as tariffs. The Royal British Legion has pointed out that a claim over a back injury could be treated at several different levels to which different tariffs apply, so the Secretary of State could accept a claim within the meaning of the legislation, but offer far too low a rate because the claim had been accepted at a different level from that involving the medical evidence. Therefore, there could be a nonsensical dispute about the label under which a claim had been accepted, because of the different tariffs. The amendment would restore the right to appeal in circumstances in which a claim had been accepted in theory, but at a derisory level.
The Government are replacing a relatively simple system with an extremely complicated one. For reasons that the Opposition have endlessly presented to the Committee, even under the current, simple system, it is difficult for former members of the armed forces and their voluntary advisers, where they have them, to pursue cases. Adding all these extra tiers, without any opportunity for a short cut, is surely letting down people who have served their country well. I urge the Committee to support the amendments.