§ Mr. WareingTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many disabled people are awaiting appeals against reductions in their(a) incapacity benefit and (b) disabled living allowance; what is the average waiting time for their appeals to be heard; and what estimate she has made of the savings to public funds arising from the reductions in benefits during the waiting period. [29585]
§ Mr. DenhamThe operation of the appeals system is a matter for the Independent Tribunal Service (ITS).
The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available has been provided by the ITS and is as follows.
Appeals relating to Incapacity Benefit are heard by Social Security Appeal Tribunals (SSATs). Statistics do not differentiate between which appeals are against reduction in benefit and which are against some other aspect of entitlement, such as refusal. There was a total of 109,400 outstanding appeals to SSATs in July 1997, of which 51,624 concerned some aspect of entitlement to Incapacity Benefit.
In the quarter ended 30 September 1997, the average clearance time for SSATs as a whole was 28.9 weeks, whilst for Incapacity Benefit appeals it was 29.3 weeks.
Appeals relating to Disability Living Allowance are heard by Disability Appeal Tribunals (DATs). Again, statistics do not differentiate between appeals against reduction in benefit and those against other aspects of entitlement. Neither do they distinguish between appeals 765W to DATs concerning Disability Living Allowance and those concerning other benefits. In July 1997 there was an overall total of 29,566 outstanding appeals to DATs and an overall average clearance time of 30 weeks.
Where an appeal tribunal determines that entitlement exists for all or part of the period between the date of the decision appealed against and the date of the tribunal hearing, benefit is paid in accordance with that determination.