Fall in appeal success rates for PIP, DLA, UC and ESA

Details: Published: 19 June 2023

There have been falls in the success rates for all of the benefits covered by this site in the most recent quarterly figures released by HMCTS.

The statistics cover the period from January to March 2023.

The number of appeals increased by 13% compared to last year, with a rise of 5% in PIP appeals and 65% in UC appeals.

PIP appeals accounted for 62% of all appeals lodged between January and March 2023 and UC 23%.

Overall, the success rate for social security appeals was 62%, down from 64% in the same period last year. No explanation for this across the board fall has been offered. However, it is worth noting that the number of ‘disposals’ – cases dealt with – increased by 60% compared to last year and it is possible that the speed with which cases are being dealt with has increased, to the detriment of claimants.

The success rates for different benefits were:

PIP 68%, down 4% on last year

DLA 59%, down 4% on last year

ESA 50%, down 12% on last year

UC 53%, down 2% on last year

There were 68,000 cases waiting to be heard at the end of March 2023, an increase of 48% compared to last year. The average time for a case to be heard remains unchanged at 26 weeks.

You can read the full appeals statistics here.

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CB · 29 days ago
I'm wating for mine to be heard. I'm on dialysis 3 days a week for tenal failure I feel worn out and stressed from treatment and this is asking me more unwell.
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So angry · 5 months ago
I have been waiting for my tribunal since march 2023 I’m so confused
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annoyed · 5 months ago
I agree with Tracey below. I am currently waiting for my appeal and honestly I just feel like I want to cancel it. I have never felt so discriminated against in my life. This is the first time I have ever had to claim for anything and I have worked since the day I left school. Yet now because I have health issues I feel like they think I lying. They talk about me in the paper is if everything is fine I wish they could spend one day in my life. This is downright bullying tactics to ensure nobody ever applies for anything. This country just takes, takes, takes from the honest people.
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  Aryhian · 5 months ago
  
  @annoyed These are their tactics and what they rely on to wear you down and make you give up. Don’t keep giving them your evidence and persevere through to Tribunal stage if you have to.
  
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Frost8 · 5 months ago
have a life long condition which affect me physically and may be the cause of all mental health symptoms. I was refused PIP at first then DWP phoned after I submitted appeal which took me almost a year to do, and offered me an award less than I had expected and when I pointed this out, I was advised to accept and request a reassessment, long story shot, my PIP has now stopped even though the original award was for 5yrs, my condition and symptoms persists and getting worse with age. My earning potential has dropped because of it because I can no longer manage usual work routine so I’ve had to make so much adjustment and and lifestyle changes to be able to continue to do self employment which is the only way I’m able to manage and balance my health and work. PIP has stopped because I can do self employment work remotely!
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Tracey · 5 months ago
This is all adding to everyone’s worries. I am finding this process the most dehumanising, most difficult, most frustrating, discriminatory, ignorant and painful process to have to go through. Like each and everyone who is lied about and ignored and disregarded. Mental health is being threatened and worsened due to the stress. What’s the point. It makes you feel invalidated and like you’re begging. I feel for everyone in their dealings with the DWP, the so called healthcare assessment process and indeed the tribunal process.
I had a tribunal booked for 2nd November but on the 1st Nov was contacted by the court stating it needed to be rearranged due to unforeseen circumstances. My initial reaction was relief. Relief that I didn’t have to go through the ordeal the next day. Then it’s hit home that actually the torture (only word I can think of to describe it) continues.
No wonder I’ve never applied before. I’ve struggled for years but ‘managed’ to a certain degree in so much pain. Due to getting covid then going on to develop long covid, which has worsened previous affects of symptoms that I was dealing with, to such a level that I simply can’t push anymore and introducing more health conditions into the mix I am not living. I’m hardly existing and this process is compounding everything.
The anxieties around other peoples perceptions of people who need help doesn’t help either. It all helps making the worthlessness and feelings of sheer despair even worse. I honestly can’t cope with it.
Now reading the ESA has also changed, I’m due an assessment this month sometime although haven’t heard from them as yet. This adds yet another layer of concern. Isn’t it a pity that those decision makers, those in government and those who are paid to support the DWP can’t live our lives, even temporarily.
It’s all so degrading and I can wholeheartedly understand why people can’t fight it, and even worse can’t continue living.
My heart goes out to go all it really does.
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Lin · 6 months ago
I work for citizens advice and in the past year this has happened to four of my clients: 1) a very detailed MR fails 2) we submit the SSCS1 with promise of a full submission after receipt of the bundle 3) DWP contact client and offer them higher rates - often the rates we were hoping for in the first place. I don't remember this happening in the past and my suspicion has been that the DWP are trying to improve the statistics of losing so many appeals. When they see that they are likely to lose at tribunal they are settling before the claim gets there.
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  M · 5 months ago
  
  @Cate Hi Kate.
  1. SSCS1 is a request sent to the First Tier Tribunal for an appeal of the benefit decision. The "promise of a full submission after receipt of the bundle" means that this form does not give reasons for the appeal but promises to provide such reasons after reading DWP response to the appeal, which is often referred to as "a bundle".
  2. I do not know about Cate's experience but my clients get this call usually after a 3-4 weeks from the date the appeal request was submitted (it is not always an offer of higher rates, just more generous the the decision under appeal).
  
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  Cate · 5 months ago
  
  @Lin thanks for sharing this
  1- what you mean by 'we submit the SSCS1 with promise of a full submission after receipt of the bundle'
  2- how long after you submit the SSCS1 did your clients get a call offering the higher rates please?
  
  Thank you - I sent in a lot of evidence for MR, including an autism diagnosis that detailed my difficulties with communication/socialising, yet the MR gave me zero points in the communications and socialising tasks!
  
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me · 8 months ago
My pip was successful but 50% down, and they scored me like 8 points less, For long-term health problems they only gave my pip for 4 years, same time GOV is saying long-term health problems should be 10 years, going with all complaints
I sent my Mandatory Consideration on 16th August 2023, If they refuse next step will be tribunals..
2018 I got refused Pip and ESA after 2
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Enigma2771 · 10 months ago
Are these figures to do with appeals through tribunals? If so, that seems very different from the usual message that most people going through a trinunal get their MR reversed. Well now i'm depressed - my water tight case (so i thought) to be put in the LCWRA group for UC and support group for cbESA came back "ok to do some kind of work", as did the MR. I had felt hopeful about going through a tribunal, but i'm wondering if i'm wasting my time asking for one now. Apparently, verdict from my dual UC / cbESA WCA was that even though my end stage double hip arthritis prevents me walking more than a few yards, or sitting without being reclined with feet up (to keep my body as straight as possible), i could still do work as "Your hands work and you could push a telephone button or pick up a £1 coin". So what's required now to be considered unable to work? Total paralysis? This is absolutely scandalous.
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  me · 8 months ago
  
  @Enigma2771 done give up, 2018 They refused my ESA for the same thing, I went to tribunals and Won
  
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  Rosie · 10 months ago
  
  @Enigma2771 APPEAL, APPEAL, APPEAL!!! The Mandatory Consideration step is just a cruel way of convincing claimants that they won't win an appeal. Don't give up, tempting though it may be.
  
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  Claire · 10 months ago
  
  @Enigma2771 You should go to tribunal.Do you take prescription painkillers,side effects of these will be considered.Needing to medicate every few hours and lie down because of pain.No concentration because of drugs and pain.I could go on but this is how you fight back.I’ve been there and won at appeal.
  
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Bunty123 · 10 months ago
I’m a bit puzzled by the DLA appeal success rate figures being included in the report.
I thought that everyone already receiving DLA were being migrated onto PIP, so there wouldn’t be anymore DLA renewals. And as PIP is replacing it, that also means there are no new DLA claims being made. Please can someone explain why DLA appeals are still taking place? Thank you.
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  Claire · 10 months ago
  
  @Bunty123 This benefit is for children up to the age of 16,when the pip transfer happens.
  
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welshval · 10 months ago
Call me paranoid, but appeals success rate being down may also indicate that the thinking has already hardened in society ahead of the planned changes as part of the drive to make virtually everyone economically active since both main parties have similar ideas and will present them as necessary evils for the good of the country. Also this may be coupled with another drive to push the pension age even further down the line.
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Rosie · 10 months ago
These numbers are a damning indictment of the system. In EVERY SINGLE CASE the claim has gone through the laughable Mandatory Reconsideration stage, been rejected again and finally been accepted on appeal. At a time when the DWP obviously has limited resources, how on earth can anyone justify the MR?
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  hil · 9 months ago
  
  @Rosie hi. Please can you advise? I lost my job from heelth issues exacerbated by ny bully boss in 2004 and claimed DLA. In 2015 I was on high for both and had to apply to PIP. I had a face to face assessment which was unfair as the health assessors conputer wasnt working so my form and medical evidence were not seen. I got stanard daily living. Did man reconsideration and no change. Appealed. Took from 2016 to 2018 to get a hearing. Was warned by judge to withdraw or prob get no pip at all due to my mum in.2016 dying and being told i should apply for carers allowance. I did and got underlying entitlement July to dec 2016. The date of the pip decision was October 2015.
  Sorry im rubbush at short explains. In 2019 i submitted more evidence and was awarded Enhanced both. Eventually both parts were backdated to the date an annual review form was returned , December 2017. However I have the underpaid period from Feb 2016 to December 2017. Dwp agred to look at it and I am waiting since March but apart from speaking on phone to their worker for flagged vulnerable claimants I have no documentation of my request for the backdate and backpay. I am scared as I was on indefinite DLA but Pip is 5 years since last year's review. I received the letters about my case being looked at again due to changes in pip law, over a year ago, but they didnt backdate my award then. Unfortunately I wasnt given the opportunity to explain that I had more conditions which did fit the criteria for the LEAP backdating. I understand they just considered the main disabling condition.
  Sorry this is long and complicated. I wish it was easier to explain. Lastly, I had a Support worker after mum died who helped me with an ESA appeal 4 months before the pip appeal hearing. We successfully got me back to Support Group as a DWP representative attended hearing and decided with judges panel I was unsafe to go to work related activity group. However this was possibly not communicated to the pip tribunal. I will try to tell dwp.
  
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