APPENDIX
Archy Kirkwood MP
Chairman
Social Security Committee
House of Commons
7 Millbank
London SW1P 3JA
15 July 2000
SOCIAL SECURITY COMMITTEE:
INQUIRY INTO THE ROLE AND PERFORMANCE
OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY AND CHILD SUPPORT COMMISSIONERS - GOVERNMENT
RESPONSE
The Social Security Committee's inquiry and subsequent
report, highlighted a number of areas of concern in delivering
the end to end process for Social Security and Child Support appeals.
The Government's response to the conclusions and
recommendations of the Committee are attached.
Right Honourable The Lord Irvine of Lairg
REPLY BY THE GOVERNMENT TO
THE FOURTH REPORT OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY
COMMITTEE SESSION 1999/2000 ON THE SOCIAL SECURITY AND CHILD SUPPORT
COMMISSIONERS (HC 263)
A. Paragraph 19
We do not accept the DSS view on the appointment
of additional Commissioners and recommend that the Lord Chancellor's
Department immediately recruits the additional deputy Commissioner
for which funding is available and considers what further appointments
are necessary, to achieve real improvements in the service and
to reduce the backlog as quickly as possible. If an increased
Commissioners' establishment does result in an increased workload
for the DSS a commensurate increase in DSS staff should be approved
provided the increased workload is quantifiable and directly attributable
to that reason.
Response
One new Commissioner has already been appointed and
took up office in June. A further Commissioner will be appointed
in Scotland in July and a further appointment for London is imminent.
Deputies will continue to be used extensively to assist in reducing
the backlogs, and since February 2000 we have sat a total of 298
deputy days, disposing of 716 applications and appeals.
The DSS will monitor the impact on its workflows
and OSSC and the Commissioners Appeals Unit are liasing to ensure
that trends are picked up early and action taken to respond to
fluctuations in intake.
B. Paragraph 20
We recommend the re-introduction of the practice
of legal officers being allocated to a particular case throughout
its process.
Response
The current practice provides the necessary flexibility
for the management of a large workload. Currently Legal Officers
take charge throughout for the preparatory, advisory and interlocutory
legal work in cases, which are difficult or demanding, and in
most child support cases. Additionally where a legal officer raises
a substantive point the case will go back to that legal officer.
The practice for other cases is for work to be allocated to legal
officers in turn. The committee's recommendation would result
in a loss of flexibility and would impede our ability to speed
up the end to end process and throughput in the more straightforward
cases.
C. Paragraph 20
We welcome the intention to increase the number
of legal officers to 15 by the end of Financial Year 2002-03.
Response
There is a planned programme to increase the number
of Legal Officers over the next three years. The recruitment of
additional legal officers is at an advanced stage.
D. Paragraph 21
We recommend that consideration should be given
to the availability of legal aid in complex cases.
Response
The design of the welfare appeals system recognises
that the majority of appellants do not have a detailed knowledge
of the legislation. Proceedings before appeal tribunals and Commissioners
are, therefore, inquisitorial in nature, rather than adversarial.
Appeal tribunals and Commissioners do not rely solely on the evidence
presented by the parties to the appeal, nor do they expect the
appellant to point to the law in support of their appeal. Legally
qualified panel members and Commissioners provide the necessary
legal input.
DSS officers, including lawyers, who attend proceedings
before tribunals and Commissioners, adopt a role of amicus curiae.
They inform the tribunal or Commissioners of any evidence, which
is relevant to a decision irrespective of, whether the evidence
assists the appellant or the DSS. They do not assume a defensive
role. A number of welfare organisations, such as the Citizen's
Advice Bureaux, provide free advice and representation to appellants.
These groups are supported by central funding.
It is within the Lord Chancellor's power to fund
legal representation for an appellant through the legal aid scheme
in England and Wales where he considers it appropriate to do so
in exceptional cases.
E. Paragraph 22
We believe that whilst some test cases might slip
through the net, greater effort can and should be made to identify
test cases at as early a stage as possible and we so recommend.
Response
A forum has been established to seek to identify
particular trends and campaigns at an early stage so that test
cases can be identified and determined quickly by the Appeal Service
and, where appropriate, the Commissioner. The intention is that
other dependent cases will be held at the lowest possible level
pending final determination of the test cases. However most test
cases proceed beyond the Commissioners to the superior courts
and sometimes the ECJ and therefore can take some years to be
resolved.
F. Paragraph 25
We believe all those concerned including the DSS,
Lord Chancellor's Department, the Appeals Service and the Chief
Commissioners Office could and should do better. We set out below
our proposed timetable which once agreed should be made widely
available to those intending to take their case to the Commissioners
and to those who represent them.
and
G. Paragraph 25
We recognise the need to reduce the backlog of
cases, as a matter of urgency, and believe these timescales can
become realistic both as targets in helping to reduce the backlog,
and as the norm, once reductions have occurred.
and
H. Paragraph 27
Some cases will take a maximum of six months,
but we hope that most cases would be completed from Tribunal decision
to announcement of Commissioner's decision in five months.
Response
Decision-making and appeals (DMA) changes introduced
last year were an important first step in addressing delays and
improving levels of customer service. We believe the Committee's
enquiry will add impetus to help us deliver the necessary improvements.
Work is already in hand on performance targets, improved management
information, publication of Commissioners' Decisions and a range
of other changes. We are aiming to deliver a better - and in time
different - service to all our customers. Since the Committee's
recommendations, the time taken to deal with commissioner appeals
has reduced from 55 weeks to 48 weeks. We are determined to reduce
this further. We are aiming for a target of 26 weeks (from receipt
of the claimant's appeal by OSSCSC) by April 2002.
I. Paragraph 28
We recommend that extensions to time limits should
be the exception rather than the rule,
and should only be granted in exceptional circumstances.
and
J. Paragraph 30
We recommend that stringent and regularly published
performance indicators are put in place as a matter of urgency.
In particular, we believe that the DSS should be expected to return
95% of submissions to the Commissioners within the one month statutory
limit and precise statistics of any extensions granted should
be maintained. The other possible sanctions including the payment
of benefit throughout the appeal stage and the use of interest
should be options available to the Commissioners in the worst
cases of non-compliance with time limits. The Committee will wish
to see in the response a clear indication of whether it is intended
to apply any of these sanctions and if not, why not?
Response
The Commissioners' procedure regulations provide
a judicial discretion to extend time. There are cases where it
is entirely appropriate to allow a party extra time to make observations.
We agree that extensions to time limits should be
the exception rather than the rule and that extensions should
only be granted in exceptional circumstances. Those circumstances
should depend upon whether it is in the claimant's best interest
to grant the extension.
The various Government departments and offices involved
in the Commissioners appeals process, are in the process of drawing
up a service level agreements. It is intended that the agreement
will include performance indicators and be published. Each individual
office is also reviewing processes to ensure that appeals are
dealt with as efficiently as possible. Mechanisms are already
in place to record and monitor precise statistics on requests
for extensions.
The DSS wish to aim to clear 95% of submissions and
directions within the statutory timescale and are looking urgently
as to how to achieve this. It will involve a radical review of
the whole process and both Departments are involved in the discussions.
The Committee asked the Government to consider the
use of two other sanctions: The first was payment of interest.
Claimants can already be paid interest where payment of benefit
is not made because of maladministration, including delay. The
second suggestion was payment of benefit throughout the appeal
period. This would mean that payment would be made without legal
entitlement having been established. The Government has an obligation
to ensure that the correct amount of benefit is paid to the appropriate
person at the right time.
K. Paragraph 37
We trust that in the response to this report,
we will receive assurances from the Lord Chancellor's Department
and the DSS that the first supplement of Commissioners' decisions
has been published and that arrangements are in place for quarterly
supplements in the future.
Response
The DSS and the Lord Chancellor's Department are
working together on the question of publishing Commissioners'
decisions. The specialist publications team within the Commissioners
Appeals Unit will publish those decisions identified by OSSCSC
as appropriate for reporting and a timetable for publication has
been agreed.
Arrangements are now in place for the Commissioners'
reported decisions to be published in September 2000 in loose-leaf
binder format. It will include the 53 decisions designated as
suitable for reporting between January 1999 and July 2000. An
agreed timetable is in place to ensure that future publications
take place at quarterly intervals thereafter. We have also set
up plans for the backlog of 130 reported decisions that were made
prior to 1999, that are suitable for reporting, to be published
at the very latest by March 2001.
L. Paragraph 38
We recommend that starred decisions should also
be published in the series of quarterly supplements proposed.
Response
Arrangements are now in place for all future starred
decisions to be available on the Court Service website at quarterly
intervals. Those starred decisions that ultimately become reported
decisions will be published in any event. OSSCSC will continue
to provide hard copies of decisions to its subscribers and the
public who wish to have them.
M. Paragraph 39
We expect assurances that the Lord Chancellor's
Department has taken steps to provide the resources necessary
to ensure that the identification of decisions for publication
and preparation of head notes is carried out by the Commissioners
and legal officers to fit with the agreed publication cycle of
decisions by the DSS publishers.
Response
Arrangements are in place to identify decisions for
publication. Arrangements that fit in with the agreed DSS publication
cycle are in place for the Commissioners and Legal Officers to
prepare the headnotes.
N. Paragraph 40
We recommend that the LCD and DSS together promote
the new quarterly service of published Commissioners' decisions
to all main public libraries and law libraries at a realistically
affordable price.
Response
Commissioner's decisions are available at £1
by post and £2 by fax. The Publications team constantly reviews
its publication costs to ensure competitive prices are obtained.
The new quarterly service will be promoted to all
potential customers both by the printing contractors and by the
DSS and details of the publication will be put on the Department's
website. The decisions, when published, will be available on the
DSS website in line with DSS policy and work is underway to ensure
effective links are in place between the DSS website and the Court
Service website to enable easy access.
O. Paragraph 41
We recommend that the Court Service take steps
to put starred and reported Commissioners' decisions dating back
to at least 1990 on its website.
Response
Arrangements are in place to make all relevant starred
decisions, made since 1990, available on the Court Service website
and we are on target to achieve this by September 2000. Since
February 2000, 160 starred decisions have been posted on the Court
Service website. This covered all 1998 and 1999 starred decisions.
DSS are committed to have all the quarterly publication
of reported decisions posted on their website. We feel that it
would be better to include an index entry based on the key words
used in the report and to include an appropriate hypertext link
on the Court Service website to the relevant page on the DMA site.
This will avoid confusion and save considerable time.
P. Paragraph 42
We believe that the present relationship between
the Commissioners and the DSS is too cozy and recommend a more
even-handed method of prioritising cases based on claimant hardship
and/or the potential importance of the case; that the Chief Commissioner
should regularly meet with the major organisations which represent
claimants before the Commissioners; and that he should consult
more widely, including with claimant organisations, on the reporting
of decisions.
Response
A degree of contact between the Chief Commissioner
and the DSS is necessary to deal with operational matters, particularly
now, when the Decision Making and Appeals changes have an impact
on proceedings before the Commissioners. We will prioritise claimant's
appeals on grounds of hardship and/or the potential importance
of the case. The Chief Commissioner held an initial meeting with
representatives from Child Poverty Action Group and National Association
of Citizen's Advice Bureaus on 11 July. These representatives
also met the management team at OSSCSC on the same day. Other
meetings will be arranged with Welfare Rights organisations and
DSS representatives will be invited to attend.
Q. Paragraph 42
In the cause of more openness, the minutes of
the meetings with [the Chief Commissioner and] the Department
should be available to interested parties.
Response
We accept that there is a need for minutes of meetings
attended by the Chief Commissioner, to be made available to interested
parties. These will be available as appropriate.
R. Paragraph 43
We recommend that the length of time at each stage
from the dates with reasons and leave to appeal are sought to
the date the notification of determination by the Commissioners
is given to the claimant should be recorded and monitored. We
will be watching the trends and will expect the Departments to
keep comprehensive statistics so that full answers can be given
to our enquiries or to Parliamentary Questions.
Response
OSSCSC plan to have new management information systems
in place from October 2000, to l produce better management and
statistical information to monitor and record the length of time
at each stage. We have already taken steps to collate the additional
statistics and information recommended by the Committee, this
includes performance data for all stages of the appeal process,
receipt of tribunal papers from Appeals Service regional offices,
number of extensions received and granted success rates and representation
at oral hearings.
S. Paragraph 44
We believe that the proposals we make above should
be implemented without delay so that their effect combined with
that of the Social Security Act 1998 can be looked at together.
We therefore suggest that a thorough review as suggested by the
Chief Commissioner should be undertaken in a year's time. That
review should include an examination of the merits of giving the
Commissioners "Woolf-style" case management powers,
favoured in oral evidence by, the Chief Commissioner and should
take an "end to end" approach to the whole appeals process,
not just the Commissioners' responsibilities.
Response
We propose to conduct a review, and will consider
its scope and timing.
| 
