Page 95 - Reforming Benefits Decision-Making -(updated - August 2021)

assessment where the appellant is already in receipt of another benefit. The
Working Party thinks that if tribunal caseworkers were to review bundles and
direct parties to provide missing documents and information then this could
reduce the number of postponements and adjournments.

3.43 We were told that in some cases the tribunal caseworkers already inform
appellants that they should obtain further medical evidence. However, this is
reactive and only happens where the caseworker has some other reason for
looking at the file, for example, a postponement has already been requested. It
would be more helpful if tribunal caseworkers were to systematically review
all case files to identify missing information. The volume of appeals makes
this currently prohibitive. In 2019/20 160,423 appeals were lodged in the FTT
262
(SSCS). In order for tribunal caseworkers to systematically review every
bundle, there would have to be a very large increase in their number.

3.44 We recommend that HMCTS introduce a small-scale pilot with the aim of
reducing adjournments. The pilot should involve caseworkers reviewing
bundles and where appropriate directing parties to provide additional
medical evidence and missing documents. Data from the pilot should be
collected and evaluated to see if improvements are achieved. One of the
aims of the pilot would be to understand how much tribunal caseworker
resource is required to review the bundles and how this compares to the
judicial and tribunal time and resources wasted in postponed and adjourned
appeals. The pilot would also seek to determine whether particular types of
appeals are more likely to be missing evidence and documents than others,
and whether, as the chamber digitises, technology could be used to flag these
cases to tribunal caseworkers.
263

262 By comparison the next largest jurisdiction is the Immigration and Asylum Chamber in which
41,895 appeals were lodged in 2019/20.
263 The Appeals Service Northern Ireland currently has no tribunal caseworkers. The introduction of
tribunal caseworkers could also be piloted here with the aims of relieving judges of the tasks of
handling routine matters and reducing adjournments.

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