UK: Text box tribunals to replace most PIP and ESA appeal hearings - Benefits & Work, 5 March 2019

[Sarah]

Text box tribunals to replace most PIP and ESA appeal hearings
Benefits & Work
5 March 2019

Most PIP and ESA claimants who appeal a decision will not have an oral hearing, according to plans unveiled by the tribunals service last month. Instead, completing a set of individualised text boxes will be mandatory for most people, with an oral hearing only being available if the claimant is unhappy with the resulting text box tribunal’s decision. Trials of the new system are set to get underway this year, leading to fears that success rates for claimants will plummet.

Continuous Online Resolution

The new system, Continuous Online Resolution (COR), was unveiled in a set of powerpoint charts released by the Tribunals Service following a meeting in Exeter in February.

Under COR, most PIP and ESA claimants who appeal a decision will have their appeal looked at by an online tribunal panel, unless for some reason the case is not considered suitable.

This panel will be made up of the same people who would be present at an oral hearing: usually a judge and a medical member for an ESA appeal with the addition of disability specialist for a PIP appeal.

In order to use this system, the claimant has to create an online account with the Tribunals Service.

The panel will review all the documents relating to the appeal and will then ask the appellant any further questions they think may be relevant.

Guidance: HMCTS tribunal reform event 26 February 2019
Held at Exeter Combined Court on 26 February 2019, this event discussed the future of the tribunals system.

[PDF] Tribunal event slides 26 February 2019

 

[Arnie Pye]

This sounds like a way of dehumanising the patients and the courts and removing the patients from the whole process of appeals so that the court is not swayed by real sick and suffering people.

 

[John Mac]

Yet another obstacle placed in the way to stop sick people getting what they deserve.

 

[longtermcase]

Having fought the DWP over PIP for more than a year and having failed at the Tribunal stage this month, I can speak about this subject from experience. The fact is that the court system is extremely biased against claimants who cannot appear in court - most appeals fail when you can't attend. I couldn't attend. I couldn't travel so far from home and would have been unconscious in the court from fatigue/pain and brain fog. So the judge only heard the DWP's side and went against me, because I wasn't there. So therefore if there was a way for very sick people to have a fair trial from a distance I support it 100% and if it's true they could still have an oral hearing if they wanted it, then that would be ideal.