First figures on ESA mandatory reconsideration ‘show it is just a delaying tactic’ | DisabledGo News and Blog

Official figures suggest that a new appeal stage introduced for unsuccessful claimants has been little more than a delaying tactic aimed at reducing the number of disabled people claiming benefits, say campaigners. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has finally published statistics showing the impact of the process on claimants of the out-of-work disability benefit employment and support allowance (ESA). Since October 2013, claimants of ESA and other benefits who want to dispute a decision made on their claim have had to ask DWP to reconsider the decision – a “mandatory reconsideration” (MR) – before they are allowed to lodge an appeal with the independent benefits tribunal system. And now the first MR figures to be published by DWP show that only about 10 per cent of ESA claimants who appeal through the MR process are successful. When MR was first introduced, DWP civil servants were overturning more than 40 per cent of ESA decisions. But that figure has now fallen dramatically,

Source: First figures on ESA mandatory reconsideration ‘show it is just a delaying tactic’ | DisabledGo News and Blog