mandatory reconsideration

Mandatory reconsideration: Inadequate by design

Posted by M Doyle ⋅ November 20, 2017 ⋅ 5 Comments

By Robert Thomas and Joe Tomlinson In September 2017, the Work and Pensions Committee launched an inquiry into how the assessment processes for Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and Personal Independence Payments (PIP) are handled by Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) contractors ATOS, Capita and Maximus, and how the application, assessment and appeals processes for … Continue reading →

When things go very wrong with decision-making by public bodies (and their private contractors)

Posted by M Doyle ⋅ February 6, 2017 ⋅ 3 Comments

Today we learned that the cases of 23,000 claimants who did not appeal a decision on their tax credits will have their cases reviewed (see here). These are decisions made by Concentrix, the private contractor hired by HMRC in May 2014 to help cut alleged fraud in the tax credit system. The contract with Concentrix … Continue reading →

Tribunal Statistics, April to June 2016

Posted by M Doyle ⋅ September 23, 2016 ⋅ 2 Comments

By Robert Thomas The Ministry of Justice recently released the tribunal statistics for April-June 2016. This note highlights some of the principal points of interest from the statistics. Social security There are two points to highlight from the statistics on social security appeals. First, there is the high success rates of appeals concerning two of … Continue reading →

Report shines a spotlight on initial decision-making and Mandatory Reconsideration

Posted by M Doyle ⋅ August 3, 2016 ⋅ 1 Comment

Every year the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) makes 12 million decisions on social security benefits. As the Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) notes in a recent report, with such volumes it’s not surprising if mistakes are made. Only a small proportion of these decisions are challenged by claimants, but the processes for review … Continue reading →