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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Covid-19 issues  →  Thread

FTT telephone hearings

Tameside MBC Welfare Rights
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Mental Health WR & Debt Advice Service, Tameside MBC

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Total Posts: 43

Joined: 17 June 2010

Due to the coronavirus we are no longer attending FTT hearings in person and wondered if anyone has experience of how telephone hearings operate? Will HMCTS arrange for a conference call between the client, the rep and the tribunal panel? The only experience I have of these is sitting next to a client with a phone on loudspeaker which isn’t going to be appropriate in the current circumstances.

Benny Fitzpatrick
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Welfare Rights Officer, Southway Housing Trust, Manchester

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My experience is the same as yours. Sitting in the appellant’s house with a mobile on speakerphone. Not ideal.

Mike Hughes
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Senior welfare rights officer - Salford City Council Welfare Rights Service

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In reality I think it’s just a matter of time before hearings cease completely for a period just from the practical perspective of people on all sides of the equation being too ill to participate. The HMCTS mantra of business as usual is unlikely to survive to the end of this or next week without radical revision.