Campaigners say new appeal process is simply a delaying tactic
A new appeals stage introduced by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for unsuccessful benefits claimants has been branded a sham after figures showed it has little effect on turning around decisions.
Disability campaigners have slammed the introduction of “mandatory reconsideration” in the appeals process as nothing more than a delaying tactic designed to reduce the number of disabled people receiving benefits.
Claimants of Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and other benefits who want to dispute a decision made on their claim have had to ask the DWP to reconsider the decision – a “mandatory reconsideration” (MR) – before they are allowed to lodge an appeal with the independent benefits tribunal system.
This has been in place since 2013 but official figures released this week show that only about 10% of ESA claimants who appeal through the MR process are successful.
This is in contrast to a 40% success rate when MR was first introduced. Now only 10% of cases are “revised and allowed” out of more than 10,000 MRs a month.
It’s their self-contained world and a mystery to everyone else - Pat Onions
Stef Benstead, a researcher and welfare rights activist called for a replacement for the “inaccurate, unreliable and invalid” work capability assessments. She said the latest overturn rates of about 10% – far lower than the more than 50% of independent tribunal appeals that succeed – suggest that the MR system is not working successfully.
She said: “This suggests that the MR is functioning mostly as an additional layer of bureaucracy, with little to no positive effect on the speed of correct decision-making.
“Given the fall in numbers being assessed as fit for work, an intermediate step like the MR seems no longer necessary as an attempt to speed up the overall appeal process.
“This may be a good time to scrap the MR and return to the old system, which allowed the DWP to revise decisions before they reached tribunal and forward the remainder on directly, thus streamlining the process for the claimants.”
Pat Onions, founder of Pat’s Petition, which calls for scrapping ESA for a fairer system, said: “The DWP are operating a system that runs under rules that they invented and that they interpret.
“The DWP are judge, jury and defendant in all these appeals for reconsideration.
“It’s their self-contained world and a mystery to everyone else. We would have to understand it to make constructive comment.
“The system bears little relationship to reality in the labour market and the real world. It’s time for a new system that means something real. Then we could comment.”
A DWP spokesman said the department would not be scrapping the MR process.
He said: “The fact that nearly 90% of decisions were not overturned last year shows that in the majority of cases decision-makers are getting it right first time.
“It is important to remember that mandatory reconsiderations were introduced to make the system as fair as possible for those going through it.”
