Move south if you want to win your ESA appeal

Had a brief look at the appeals stats flagged up in the News section story dated 13.9.2013. If you look at the regional ESA figures, it seems that you have a 47% chance of overturning a DWP decision in the South East, but only a 31% chance in the North West. I think that means a 51% increased chance of success in the South East. Why should that be? Are more cases represented in the South East? Is the decision making better in the North West? I am not sure that this can be accounted for by natural data variance - the average percentage rate is 38% across all regions. Even on that basis the increased chance of success in the South East is nearly 24% above the national average. I dimly remember from college days that there is a way of assessing whether variations are likely to be by chance.

Historically, when liberal capitalism destroyed jobs in the old industries of manufacture, mining and shipping it suited governments to ‘push’ former workers onto sickness benefits to keep unemployment figures down, or so it has been said.  If this is true then it would also apply in other areas such as the north east and parts of south Wales, amongst others.  It maybe with the tightening up of the tests for incapacity many of those people would fail the new assessments.  This might partially account for the difference in the figures although, admittedly, I’ve not seen any evidence to support this.

For this is the land of lost content
I see it shining plain
The happy dockyards where I went
And cannot go again
(Thanks to A E Houseman)

is the south east not a more wealthy area?

if so I would put it down to a combination of wealthier groups being better educated and more articulate witnesses in a tribunal setting and a percentage of good old bias from tribunals.

we have all been in situations I am sure where a more articulate and “respectable” client has got a decision with a weaker case when a client with a stronger case but less able to articulate themselves has lost.

don’t get me wrong sometimes you can put yourself in the tribunals shoes and see why they didn’t award a client based on their answers on the day but I am also sure that certain groups of clients get the benefit of the doubt more than others.

I am pretty sure this type of thing is replicated in Scottish results as well.

Scotland’s overturn rate is 40% - would not have thought Scotland is a wealthier area than North West, but could be wrong. I was wondering if tribunal training is controlled regionally - I wonder if there is variable competence in that respect?

stevejohnsontrainer - 17 September 2013 11:16 AM

Scotland’s overturn rate is 40% - would not have thought Scotland is a wealthier area than North West, but could be wrong. I was wondering if tribunal training is controlled regionally - I wonder if there is variable competence in that respect?

sorry I meant in terms of regional variations within Scotland i.e Glasgow would be a more difficult venue than Edinburgh for example.

that being said I could be wrong on that I would need to look up the figures and double check I wasn’t imagining that to be the case.

Could another factor be that even with all the funding cuts there are still more advice agencies for clients to potentially access in the South & East than in the North & West? Just a thought.

Hi Tony,

The 38% average I referred to in the original post was I think for ESA alone - ‘Outcomes of initial functional assessments and appeals on Fit for Work by region’, heads up the table of data in the report I was referring to. Maybe you have the advantage of more up to data info, or are looking at another table - no matter. Steve

Until recently, I was representing clients in the NW region with an ESA appeal success rate of 85%

I think this proves the value of having good representation

Not according to the Ministry of Justice, in the lead up to the abolition of legal aid for benefits…

“While we recognise that the class of individuals bringing these cases is more likely to report being ill or disabled in comparison with the civil legal aid client base as a whole, we have also taken into account the fact that the accessible, inquisitorial, and user- friendly nature of the tribunal means that appellants can generally present their case without assistance…”

Steve_h - 18 September 2013 07:30 AM

Until recently, I was representing clients in the NW region with an ESA appeal success rate of 85%

I think this proves the value of having good representation

I wonder if the figures indicate something about the availability of reps?