Hi,

Does anyone know if there are any figures available for the number of appeals lodged year on year? I can get figs for the number of appeals heard from the appeals service but this won't include those revised without going to hearing.

Also, and I suspect that this is a long shot, are there any figures for the number of decisions made by decision makers year on year and how many of them are positive for the claimant?

I'm gonna go rooting round DWP site etc but if anyone actually knows where I can find some/all of the above will save me a lot of time.

TVM in advance

Andy

Had already put a post on this on a earlier thread on rightsnet.. yes official stats are available at:

http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=106&topic_id=682&mode=full

however, stats by number of appeal made successful by DM's are not available, as an appeal an be an original dispute letter, not just a decision or referal to a SSAT, so I have no idea where you whould source those from, (a request under Freedom of Info by DWP per chance?)!

Aghhhhhhhh..... the DWP being their usual DWP type selves have amened the link (so that you can't easily monitor what they are up to?), it can nw be found at

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/qat.asp

use the download in excel format to view... the rest of the links are either broken or just $~#!*

i had a lot of trouble on the site too - if it was the same one.

whilst trying (in vain) to find the stats i wanted, i noticed - but didn't have time to read - reference to some sort of internal?consultation on stats had taken place, and yes, i confess, i immediately felt suspicious.

records of superseded appeals used to be kept by all district offices, and were part of the Management Information Statistics (MIS)which were returned every month. they went to Regional Offices, and were collated into Regional MIS and as far as i know these were collated nationally. if figures for superseded appeals are no longer kept - i can't think of a good reason for it. any reason why MIS stats should be exempt from FOI? no good one i can think of.


jj

JJ, we still keep stats for superseded or lapsed appeals and these are still included in the MIS returns done monthly.We also keep stats. for withdrawn appeals. Once an appeal goes to TAS it is,literally,'out of our hands',and they would have the stats. for Tribunal results.Locally, depending upon the database kept for recording appeals,it could be possible for us to have the info. on Trib. results.

As a point of interest, we have an appreciable number of appeals withdrawn or struck out after the appellant has received their set of papers, because all they wanted was for someone to explain the decision to them.Do you find that? I thought DMA was supposed to solve that problem!

hi judith

thanks - i would have been surprised if the superseded appeals figures were no longer collected.

i don't know whether you might know the answer to this - i'm assuming that 'off-line' allowances and disallowances are still recorded by decision-makers, but do disallowances that are made by the computer system show up in any stats reports?

i'm interested in finding the ratio of appeals to disallowances, and also whether this has changed since DMA - interesting you should mention it. : ) i'm wondering what monitoring of DMA has taken place since its introduction...does anyone know?

i think you are right about people having difficulty in obtaining an explanation they can understand, and i can only see this worsening as remote processing increases. it will be increasingly difficult for people to get to speak to the person who gave the decision (which was once regarded as a 'best practice' objective, but ... ).

i remember the DMA 'consultation'. the problem of people appealing in order to get an explanation was never one which necessitated a change in the adjudication system. it was always a good practice issue.

DLA appeals in particular appear not to take on board the cost to the tax payer of unnecessary appeals going to the tribunal. i have some real grouses about DLA appeals submissions, - but that's another thread...

i expect that another reason for withdrawal/striking out is that the appeal papers can appear very daunting, and many unrepresented claimants understandably get cold feet when faced with them.

jj

Small point but in my experience appeals that are abandoned or withdrawn are probably to do with more than just getting an explanation. When you get the papers it is usually the first time you've seen the evidence used. Its only then that you have a proper oportunity to assess what you can do.

Back in the good old days when ther was a 3 month time limit for appeals we had time to make more of an investigation into the merits of the appeal but now things are a bit of a rush.