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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Decision making and appeals  →  Thread

timescale for tribunal hearings

geep
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Does anyone know how long it’s taking, roughly, to get a tribunal hearing for HB at the moment?

Daphne
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It will depend on your local HB department. For HB the appeal is still lodged with them first - not the direct lodgment with the tribunal service that other benefits have. So they can sit on it a long while before they send it to the tribunal service.

Once the tribunal service have it, it is likely to be listed reasonably quickly (within about three months) as the number of appeals is relatively low at the moment.

If the HB department are sitting on it unreasonably then you could contact the tribunal service and ask the judge for a direction for them to produce their submission within a time limit. They won’t have copies of any of the paperwork if HB haven’t sent it them though so you will need to show evidence that the appeal has been lodged and also details of the case/delay/hardship caused etc

geep
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Thanks, Daphne. I don’t think there’s an issue with the LA sitting on the appeal request in this case. Someone just asked me what the backlog was like for tribunal hearings at the moment and I wasn’t sure as I haven’t been to one recently.

Paul_Treloar_CPAG
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Call the HMCTS officer dealing with the appeal, they’ll be able to give you an estimate.

Waiting times often vary according to the subject of the appeal, as certain benefits e.g. ESA have a far larger volume of appeals and therefore hearings, whereas the less common ones can take a while to accrue sufficient numbers and therefore may take longer to arrange.

Gareth Morgan
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What about decisions?

I had a query from a colleague who had a hearing in October but has heard nothing about the decision.  On enquiring she was told the decision was adjourned until November as the judge wanted more information.  This was provided as requested but the judge still has not determined the outcome and according to the clerk, has until February.

Daphne
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was that just a First-tier Tribunal Gareth?

Gareth Morgan
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Yes Daphne, it’s from Dosh.

Daphne
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was the hearing adjourned for more information - is it going to be relisted? If not, has the appellant had an opportunity to comment on the new information if appropriate?

I can’t find anything about time limits for them to make a decision but I’ve never heard of a first-tier tribunal decision taking that long…

Gareth Morgan
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I don’t know.  I do know that it’s a case involving a large number of LD claimants and hundreds of thousands in rent arrears.  The landlords have been holding off awaiting the result.

Peter Turville
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Surely, if the hearing was adjourned for further information an adjournment notice should have been issued by the judge probably with directions about that information (to be provided by DWP/LA/appelant within X days) possibly to include a direction about providing a copy to the other parties for further submissions and about re-listing / referral to a judge for further directions (inc. if the direction for information not complied with etc).

If there are large number appelants who have appealled on the same issue has one case been identified as a ‘lead case’ and the others stayed or are they all being linked & listed together? I had an issue at FtT some years ago where the number of apppelants on the same issue reached 30+ (not all appeals were made at the same time) and HMCTS got their knickers in a right old twist trying to link & list them all together, ensure all the submissions, evidence etc was provided for every bundle!