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Income Support Appeals

Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many income support appeals were heard by social security appeal tribunals in each of the last four quarters for which information is available; how many and what percentage were decided in the appellant's favour where the appellant (a) attended the hearing but was not represented, (b) was represented but did not attend, (c) attended and was represented and (d) did not attend and was not represented. [4801]

Mr. Roger Evans [pursuant to his reply, 19 November 1996, c. 523-26.]: The information that I gave regarding the figure and percentage of heard and decided appeals for the December 1995 quarter was incorrect. The information is set out in the table. The correct information is as follows:

18 Dec 1996 : Column: 769

Income Support Appeals		March 1995	June 1995	September 1995	December 1995
Total number heard and decided		11,674	9,583	10,720	8,620
Total number decided in appellants favour and percentage		6,033	3,777	3,841	3,057
		(51 per cent.)	(39 per cent.)	(35 per cent.)	(35 per cent.)
Decision in appellants favour:	Number decided	1,159	1,328	1,424	1,170
appellant only attended	Percentage success	43	45	43	43
Decision in appellants favour:	Number decided	1,983	480	257	209
representative only attended	Percentage success	78	66	49	48
Decision in appellants favour:	Number decided	1,456	1,473	1,533	1,156
appellant and representative attended	Percentage success	68	65	65	63
Decision in appellants favour:	Number decided	1,435	496	627	522
no attendance	Percentage success	32	12	13	14

Source: "Quarterly Social Scurity Appeal Tribunal Statistics" published by Analytical Services Division.

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