I received the following letter from William Craig, Area Manager Scotland, Tribunals Service.

Dear Sirs,

After the introduction of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act in Nivember 2008, changes were introduced to the way in which the Social Security and Child Support Agency processed their appeals.
Prior to the TCE Act, DWP had responsibility for issuing the Pre-hearing enquiry form and from November 2008 the Tribunals Service took over the responsibilityforissuing this form.

Since the changes were introduced it would appear that nationally only 66% of enquiry forms are being retiurned by uor customers at the first time of asking. Of those we remind, 50% do not reply. Some of those non respond cases do however end upat hearing following Judicial Direction and some are successful.

I am keen to establish and understand the reasons for this and would be really grateful if you could take the time to give me your virews and observations as to why some customers fail to respond to the enquiry form and reminder.

Some reasons....(in no particular order)

1) the response/ submission itself can be very daunting to anyone not familiar with such types of documentation & bundles. To some, that in itself may be enough to think "I can't cope with this" and just not pursue it any further.

2) most appellants are not familiar with the law and I think it's fair to say many may think "If the DWP / LA have gone to this much trouble, I don't stand a chance". If only they knew the stats...

3) it is increasingly difficult to get ANY representation; let alone good representation.

4) some appellants are appallingly advised - anything from DWP/ LA ("..you won't win...") to CAB to solicitors.

5) er, the DWP / LA is actually correct and the appellant knows it.

6) instructions from TTS are themselves, at times, confusing.

Luckily, I kept this short.... Next?

"Luckily, I kept this short.... " to quote kevin

and that's the other thing ... if it's more than a couple of lines or so, people don't read it, and if it goes into the next page....

and none of this stuff is written in plain english in a logically coherent manner .. if we struggle, then of course clients are going to...

"...and none of this stuff is written in plain english in a logically coherent manner ..."

Agreed.

It's overly official looking, unfriendly and far too imposing upon a person who thought that they had paid into/supported a system that was there to protect and help in times of crisis.

Maybe if TTS produced the previous years stats that maybe of help?

A sort of did you know leaflet?

It could indicate that they were impartial by numbers alone?

I have had a few people who misread the form and thought the hearing would be at TTS 's Cardiff offices not Truro or Plymouth and couldn't face the journey. To be fair to the Tribunal Service it is pretty clear on the letters etc that that is where the hearing will be but when there are literacy or comprehension issues some appellants seem to get hold of the wrong end of the stick. Perhaps another box on the Enquiry form(under the one saying 'issuing office'?) saying 'The hearing will be held in.......... ,we will tell you the date later'

Another reason is that TTS are not following their own rules. TTS routinely only issue enquiry form to appellant, and not to the representative. F-t Tribunal rule 11(6) details that any document must be provided to the representative and need not be provided to the appellant. Rule 11(5) details that a representative can do anything that the appellant can do (except sign a witness statement for appellant).

If TTS would get their act together and send the form to the reps, then they would receive many more replies.