There is a proposal in the Draft Deregulation Bill, which was presented to Parliament in July, to repeal the Senior President of Tribunals’ duty to prepare & publish;

‘an annual report on standards of decision-making in the making of certain decisions by the Secretary of State against which an appeal lies to the First-tier Tribunal.’

http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm86/8642/8642.pdf Section 35 (Page 32).

Draft Deregulation Bill Published July 2013

Administration of justice

35 Repeal of Senior President of Tribunals’ duty to report on standards In section 15A of the Social Security Act 1998 (functions of Senior President of Tribunals), omit subsections (2) and (3) (which require the preparation and publication of an annual report on standards of decision-making in the making of certain decisions of the Secretary of State against which an appeal lies to the First-tier Tribunal).

In the past the Senior President’s report has been highly critical of the DWP and Atos:

‘This deeply flawed medical assessment process was identified for a long time by His Honour Judge Robert Martin as President of the Appeal Tribunals. For over a decade Judge Martin’s consecutive annual reports constantly identified serious problems with the AH medical assessments (8). Indeed, Judge Martin was insistent that: “..the same problems and errors are repeated year after year, with no sign that anyone takes any notice of feedbacks from Tribunals” as confirmed in evidence to the Work and Pensions Select Committee.(9) The evidence confirmed that almost half of the Appeal Tribunals find in favour of the applicant (9) with 70% of claims being upheld for claimants who have representation at the Appeal Tribunal.(10) However, the stress and distress of the need to wait for several months to attend an appeal, in order to retain financial support to which these claimants are morally entitled, is totally ignored. If these were civil cases, generous compensation would be offered as an acknowledgement of the unnecessary distress and suffering caused to the many victims. However, all successful applicants can expect is a reluctant reinstatement of their disability payments, and a back dated award to when they were forced to accept Jobseekers Allowance instead of Incapacity Benefit or, more recently, the new Employment Support Allowance.(ESA) DWP letters to their many victims remain unnecessarily hostile and the enforced disability debt is an ever growing problem. These victims of this AH assessment system loose their disability funding instantly, when they fail to obtain the necessary points at assessment. Yet their DLA payments are already committed to fund their Motability car or to identify the need for essential home care as provided by local authorities. This is brutal, and these consequences appear to be dismissed by the government.

See: DWP/UNUM/ATOS SCANDAL ~ ‘WELFARE REFORM – REDRESS FOR DISABLED PEOPLE’ ~ Report by Mo Stewart WRAF (RTD) Posted on September 8, 2012

(8) HH Judge Robert Martin: President of Appeal Tribunals, Report 2007-08

http://appeals-service.gov.uk/Documents/SSCSA_PresRep07_08FINAL.pdf

Memorandum submitted by HH Judge Robert Martin

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmworpen/memo/decision/ucm2702.htm

Senior President of Tribunals’ Annual Report 2012:

http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/Reports/spt-annual-report-2012.pdf

Senior President of Tribunals’ Annual Report 2013:

http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/Reports/SPT%20Annual%20Report_2013.pdf

(9) Decision making and appeals in the benefit system. Second Report of Session 2009-1 – the House of Commons Work and Pensions Select committee:

www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmworpen/313/313.pdf

__________________________

There’s an invitation to submit evidence to the joint committee considering the Bill – see:

Black Triangle Campaign in union with DPAC and other campaigning groups and individuals will be expressing our concern that taking away this duty from the Senior President of Tribunals is utterly inappropriate at a time when such a large number of DWP decisions are being appealed and a high proportion of those appeals are successful.

We encourage all groups and individuals to do the same and for everyone to contact their local MPs to protest.

This again bears unmistakable parallels with the 1930’s where the Nazi régime moved to shut down all criticism, including judicial oversight, of its activities curtailing the fundamental human rights of its citizens.

Change to disability benefits appeals process could leave people penniless A double whammy of a revised appeals process and the abolition of legal aid threatens to deny benefits to vulnerable claimants The Guardian, Tuesday 2 April 2013

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