Sudden drop in ESA appeals?

In an interview on Radio Devon today (11/01), Chris Grayling, stated that since the changes were introduced to the WCA “almost no appeals have taken place”.

You can hear it on the link below, by moving the time bar to 1hr 05 mins. The interview lasts about 3 minutes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00mlhx6

Hello???????

Stupid man….

I have not listened to this but what he might mean is that very few appeal against decisons under the new rules have got to a tribunal yet (because of the huge backlog of appeals with TS).

I’ve just checked my records.  I’ve done 51 heard and have 8 outstanding ESA appeals since September 2009.  Replicate this across the country and it’s hardly a few.  Let alone those without representation.  The man’s obviously an…….*

*insert your own word.

I think I did about 35-40 ESA appeals in 2011.  The word nevip is looking for is ‘politician’

Does he mean since the Amendment Regulations 2011 changing the Activity/Descriptors since 28th March 2011?

Think he means post Harrington Part 1 implementations & Amendment Regs too!

I dont think he means any of the above . He is just a lying Politician who is trying to “big up” his own department and discredit the countless ESA problems being encountered.

Rather out of touch contribution on the state of ESA. Here on a LSC schedule for a unremarkable part of UK over 50% of schedule are ESA appeals and almost all go to appeal. This has increased with the move over of those on IS and IB. Unlike the Dept TS we cannot divert extra resoures to deal with increase.

Too right. We have well over 150 ongoing ESA appeals and we’ve picked up a further 6 so far this year. Most are pre-Harrington but that’s due solely to the TS delays.

Maybe it also raises a question of who is briefing him in the first place…

Am I the only one who is concerned about the post-Harrington changes which involved a DWP officer phoning the claimant to “explain” the decision?

I can think of four or five cases where the phone call seemed to do little more than try and deter people from appealing by telling them the decision was right and listing all the options open if ESA stopped, but not mentioning appeal.  People in the UK are very (too) trusting of officialdom, so if a DWP officer insists they’ve got right, most people will accept this.

I’m sure this was not Harrington’s intention and doubtless he would be concerned to get this feedback, but it feels like there’s some deliberate deterrence going on.

neilbateman - 16 January 2012 11:29 PM

Am I the only one who is concerned about the post-Harrington changes which involved a DWP officer phoning the claimant to “explain” the decision?

I can think of four or five cases where the phone call seemed to do little more than try and deter people from appealing by telling them the decision was right and listing all the options open if ESA stopped, but not mentioning appeal. People in the UK are very (too) trusting of officialdom, so if a DWP officer insists they’ve got right, most people will accept this.

I’m sure this was not Harrington’s intention and doubtless he would be concerned to get this feedback, but it feels like there’s some deliberate deterrence going on.

I agree that these calls are inappropriate.  People report being asked immediately if they want to make a claim for JSA . Given than the call is the first inkling a client gets that he/she is not entitiled to ESA, it is often difficult to absorb what is being said. I have also had a client who reported that, when she supplied supporting evidence from a consultant about the severity of her condition, she was told that the decision could not be changed because she had scored no points in the assessment, confirming the suspicion that DMs think assessors are infallible!

The work of our appeals co-ordinator has shot up with people being moved over to ESA from INCAP..  During the last quarter she attended 54 appeals with 32 granted, 8 not granted and 14 adjourned.

Appeals in the Swansea area have increased to the extent that they have opened new venues in Neath & Port Talbot, resulting in more travelling time for us, but surely of more concern is the increased costs to the Tribunal Service in training new board members and the rental of the venues.  Savings on benefits being spent elsewhere = no savings off the deficit.

John Davies - 24 January 2012 12:43 PM

The work of our appeals co-ordinator has shot up with people being moved over to ESA from INCAP..  During the last quarter she attended 54 appeals with 32 granted, 8 not granted and 14 adjourned.

In DWP speak, doesn’t this mean that only 8 were “real appeals” (yup, the 8 not granted) and the 14 adjourned are just awaiting “finalisation” in favour of the DWP?  The others were just administrative blips…

{added}  Forgot to mention…  Successful ESA clmt chases arrears 2 weeks after FtTD.  DWP response?  It’s been passed to a DM “for a final decision”.  So there you have it, a FtTD isn’t “final”; it has to be ok’d by the DWP.

I rather think not….........

We have around 150 cases ongoing at the moment and as soon as we deal with one another two appear to take their place…..

The challenge is in getting DWP to revise the decisions prior to the hearings…......sometimes it works…...other times not so easy..