Employment and Support Allowance: Appeals
Justice
Duncan Hames (Chippenham, Liberal Democrat)
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what proportion of employment and support allowance appeals lodged in each quarter from the second quarter 2010-11 to date were determined (a) within six weeks, (b) between six and 12 weeks, (c) between 12 and 18 weeks, (d) between 18 and 26 weeks and (e) more than 26 weeks after submission.
Jonathan Djanogly (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (HM Courts Service and Legal Aid), Justice; Huntingdon, Conservative)
The following table shows the time taken from the date of a disputed Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) decision for employment and support allowance (ESA) being lodged with DWP to the date of clearance by Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS).
| Number of appeals (1) | |||||
| Fewer than 6 weeks | 6 to 12 weeks | 12 to 18 weeks | 18 to 26 weeks | More than 26 weeks | |
| 2010-11 | |||||
| Quarter 3 | 410 | 4,700 | 8,700 | 8,600 | 23,400 |
| Quarter 4 | 410 | 4,400 | 8,900 | 9,100 | 29,600 |
| 2011-12 | |||||
| Quarter 1 | 420 | 5,000 | 7,000 | 7,200 | 31,200 |
| Quarter 2 | 380 | 4,000 | 7,600 | 9,500 | 29,400 |
| (1 )This case data has been rounded to the nearest 10 or 100 unless the numbers are too low for this rounding protocol to apply. | |||||
ESA appeals take an average of 8.13 weeks from the date of lodgement with DWP to arrive at the tribunal, as at September 2011 (the latest period for which data is available).
The introduction of ESA, together with other changes in the welfare system, has led to significant increases in appeals. HMCTS has taken strong measures to increase capacity and 60% more social security and child support appeals were cleared in September 2011 compared to September 2009. In each of the 11 months to September 2011 more ESA and incapacity benefit appeals were disposed of than received.