Tribunal User Groups

GMWRAG recently contacted Liverpool TS with regard to having a second set of Tribunal User Group meetings in the North West. Ours have been annually now for some years. At our last Manchester meeting in February 2013 this was raised and there was general agreement that a second meeting in 2013 would be a good thing because of the sheer scale of change for all concerned. I’m sure I don’t need to set out the many areas for obvious discussion!!! Needless to say, we have yet to receive any minutes from that meeting.

We have now been advised this won’t happen by the “Delivery Manager” due to “increased workloads, additional tribunal sessions and extra work involved”. We can of course contact them at any time with any issues and they would reconsider “... once the increase in workload subsides”

Breaking that down:

- it seems to me that admin. are saying there won’t be a second TUG and the judicial side may not have been consulted.

- the reasons given for not doing this are, of course, the very reasons why it really needs to happen for all concerned.

- the concept of an increase in workload subsiding suggests this is clearly all the admin. side. Would anyone care to predict how and when the TS workload in the North West (or indeed all over the UK) might subside given the scale of welfare reform and the likelihood that will only get worse regardless of the outcome of a general election?

So, some feedback please. How often do you have your TUG meetings and, if you’re in the North West, are you happy for GMWRAG to push on this issue?