Page 89 - Reforming Benefits Decision-Making

instance decision-making leading to a reduction in the number of decisions
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that need to be challenged.
3.30 We appreciate that the clearance times for appeals are significantly longer
than those for mandatory reconsideration. However, we believe that this
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recommendation still enables disputes to be resolved as early as possible due
to the automatic internal review which we propose would continue to take
place. This means that disputes that would have been resolved at the
mandatory reconsideration stage should still be resolved without having to
wait for a Tribunal hearing. However, crucially, it has the advantage that
claimants will not be deterred from seeking redress by having to make a
second application for an appeal. It will allow the Tribunal to actively case
manage and therefore reduce delays in internal reviews taking place. It will
also circumvent the current barriers that claimants are facing when requesting
a mandatory reconsideration as it will be a step required by the Tribunal.

Appeals

Making an appeal

Time limits

3.31 Claimants have one month in which to appeal a mandatory reconsideration
decision, however if there is a good reason for missing the one-month
deadline the Tribunal can still accept an appeal for up to 13 months after the
decision. Mandatory reconsideration notices currently state that claimants
need to appeal within one month of the date of the letter. We were told by a
number of advisers that, as a result, claimants are unaware of the 13 month
‘longstop’ and wrongly assume that if they have missed the one-month

244 We note that prior to the introduction of mandatory reconsideration, the FTT (SSCS) dealt with a
much higher volume of appeals than it currently does. In 2012/13 the volume of appeals peaked at
500,000, compared to around 160,000 in 2019/20. We appreciate that the volume of appeals was one of
the reasons that mandatory reconsideration was introduced, however, it has resulted in significant
difficulties for claimants seeking to challenge incorrect decisions.
245 The median clearance time for SSCS appeals in 2020/21 was 26 weeks. See Ministry of Justice,
‘Tribunal Statistics Quarterly’ (see n. 33 above) Main Tables, Table T_1.

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