Benefit Appeal Numbers Down 80%

The 2014/15 annual report from HM Courts & Tribunals Service relates to appeals to the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal- 'This has been a year in which there has been significant volatility in workloads coming into the tribunal, with appeals falling by 80% following the government's welfare reforms... At the end of June 2013 the tribunal had 221,601 outstanding cases which reduced by over 80% to 40,734 at the end of December 2014, with the tribunal disposing of 114% more appeals than we received during 2014. This is the lowest caseload since statistics were first published in 2007/08... However, by the end of 2014, new appeals were being listed for hearing in less than 16 weeks.'