Social Security tribunal hearings in relation to income support appeals (FOI)

​Request

Please supply the following:

A.

The number of Social Security Tribunal hearings in respect of income support appeals held during the years 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively (to the date when this request is answered);

B.

The number of Social Security Tribunal appeal decisions in respect of income support which resulted in the Social Security Department’s original decision being upheld, showing the separate breakdowns for 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively;

C.

The number of Social Security Tribunal appeal decisions in respect of income support which resulted in the Social Security Department’s original decision being overturned in favour of the appellant, showing the separate breakdowns for 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively;

D.

The number of Social Security Tribunal appeal decisions in respect of income support which resulted in the Social Security Department’s original decision being
varied (if any), showing the separate breakdowns for 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively.

Clarification of Request

My definition of the term "varied", being the past participle of the word "vary", is the same as described in paragraph 10 of article 13 ("Procedure of Tribunal") of the Social Security (Determination of Claims and Questions) (Jersey) Order 1974, as follows:
"On the appeal of any case under this Article, the Tribunal may confirm, reverse or vary the decision of the second determining officer and shall give its decision in public."
It therefore follows that my use of the word "upheld" in question 2 of my request was an alternative to the word "confirm" in paragraph 10 and my use of the word "overturned" in question 3 of my request was an alternative to the word "reverse" in paragraph 10. These are the 3 types of decisions that the Social Security Tribunal is able to reach according to law.

Response

The four sections of the request all ask for information about the “Social Security Tribunal” and “in respect of income support”. We have taken this to mean relating to any of the three Tribunals which may be constituted under the Social Security (Jersey) Law 1974 or the Income Support (Jersey) Law 2007.

These three tribunals are:
1. The Social Security Tribunal
2. The Social Security Medical Appeal Tribunal
3. The Income Support Medical Appeal Tribunal

We have presented data for each of the tribunals separately making up the totals for year or type of decision.

The data in response to your request is available below:-

 Download tribunal information (size 194kb)

 The data for parts B, C and D are presented in a single table with columns for each decision type: Confirmed, Reversed, Varied for appellant, Varied against appellant.