• Time variables: Quarter
• Residential Geographies: Great Britain; Country; Region; County/Unitary Authority; Unitary/Local Authority; Middle Super Output Area; Lower Super Output Area; Census Output Area; Westminster Parliamentary Constituency; Scottish Parliamentary Constituency
• Claimant Sociodemographic Characteristics: Age (bands and single year); Duration of Current Claim; Ethnicity (detailed and summary); Gender; Grouped Amount of Benefit; IB Reassessment Indicator; Medical Condition; Partner Indicator; Payment Type; Phase of ESA Claim

Derived from a combination of data from the Decisions Making and Appeals System (DMAS) and the Labour Market System (LMS), contains the following fields:

• JobCentre Plus geographies (Great Britain, Country, JobCentre Plus Region, JobCentre Plus District, JobCentre Plus Office);
• Residential Geographies (2001 Census) (Great Britain, Country, Region, Local Authority, Westminster Parliamentary Constituency);
• Sociodemographic Characteristics (Gender, Age (in bands), Single Year of Age, Ethnic Group, Detailed Ethnicity, Disability)
• Sanction Decision Information (Month Decision Made, Pre and Post 3rd Dec 2012 Sanctions Regime, Decision Type, Decisions Outcome, Referral Reason)

ESA Claimants in N. Ireland, need to fill in form ESA1, which includes the following fields:

• Surname; Other names; National Insurance number; whether claimant is getting any special medical treatment;
• whether they are employed by an employer, even if they are not working at the moment; whether any of the employers have given them a form SSP1;
• date the benefit will start; whether income-related ESA is claimed;
• if they have a partner; details of claimant and partner (surname; address; mobile no; daytime phone no; nationality; if homeless; marital or civil partnership status; if expecting baby; if gave birth to baby up to 39 weeks before the date they are claiming; date the disability started; details of disability; name of doctor who signs medical statements; doctor’s address; doctor’s phone no; whether getting Statutory sick Pay; whether entitled to statutory sick pay; whether has been in hospital as in-patient in last 52 weeks and details; whether ever registered or certified as blind or severely sight impaired with local Health Trust);
• whether special rules apply to them; whether asked for a DS1500 Report for plain for Personal Independence Payment; for both claimant and partner (if they are working at the moment and info about it);
• whether they know when they will be well enough to work again; whether they are getting back to work; whether worked a night shift and whether they will be going back to this; information about other social security benefits they might be receiving, (such as Carers’ Allowance, Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payment etc.);
• whether worked or claimed benefit outside the UK in the last 5 years or been in the Armed Forces;
• whether exempt from paying UK income tax;
• whether getting any statutory payments (such as pensions payments, permanent health insurance payments) and information around it;
• whether they have received education, training or apprenticeship in the last 4 years; where they live; about children and qualifying young persons;
• information on bank and building society accounts, savings and property; information about other money coming in; info about other people who live with them; owning their home; living in a care home;
• info about any special circumstances; bank details of where the benefit will be paid in;
• other information supplied by claimant (free text); info if filling in the form for someone else

When a new customer applies for ESA they enter an assessment phase which normally lasts 13 weeks. While in the assessment phase, and if their claim is longer than seven days, claimants are required to supply up-to-date medical evidence. If their claim is for fewer than seven days, self-certification is accepted.

During the assessment phase, claimants will have their ability to work assessed to determine their entitlement – the process is called the Work Capability Assessment (WCA). During the assessment phase and if claimants satisfy the relevant national insurance contribution condition and/or income tests, claimants are paid at the 'assessment rate', which is based on the Jobseeker's Allowance personal allowance.

Whether applicants can claim ESA on a longer-term basis after the initial assessment phase, depends on the outcome of the WCA. Claimants might receive one of the following three outcomes:

1. Suitable for the ESA Work Related Activity Group (WRAG) (and are able to undertake and participate in work-related activity to help them move towards the labour market),
2. Suitable for the ESA Support Group (where claimants are not required to undertake any interviews or work related activity), or
3. Fit for work and therefore not entitled to ESA, although there is a right of appeal.

Until December 2012 in England, Scotland and Wales and May 2016 in N. Ireland , ESA claimants in the Work-Related Activity Group (WRAG) who failed to meet requirements were subject to an open-ended sanction which was lifted when they re-complied. The sanction amount was set to 50% of the work-related activity component, rising to 100% after 4 weeks.

New sanctions rules came into force from 3^rd December 2012 (E,S, W) and 23rd May 2016 (NI) for WRAG ESA claimants, as follows:

• claimants in the WRAG group who fail to comply with the conditions for receiving benefit receive an open-ended sanction, followed by a fixed period sanction when they recomply
• the sanctionable amount increased to 100% of the prescribed amount for a single claimant
• a hardship regime for ESA claimants was introduced

There is no information on the data that the Social Security & Child Support Tribunal hold for appeals, but we can get some indirect information from the types of forms and documentation that the appellants and respondents have to fill in:

• ESA Claimants in England, Scotland and Wales need to fill in form SSCS1, which includes the following fields: right to appeal; name of benefit appealing about; applicant details (title, name, surname, address, Date of Birth, National Insurance Number, Postcode, Full Address, Phone Number); details of person appealing on behalf of (same as above, applicable only when appealing on behalf of someone else); grounds for appeal (free text, open ended); is appeal in time (if not why); choice of attending a hearing or decision being on the papers; hearing needs and requirements (availability; special needs; signer/interpreter and language requirements; notice of hearing); signature and date of application.
• ESA claimants in N. Ireland, need to fill in form Enquiry Form Appeals form NOA1(SS), to appeal via the Appeals Service, which includes the following fields: about the decision being appealed against (received mandatory reconsideration; copy attached; write the date the mandatory reconsideration notice was sent; name of benefit appealing against); time limits for appealing (information about applying for an extension; reasons); grounds for appeal (why disagree with the decision); person information of claimant (title; first name; surname; address; Date of birth; phone no; postcode; email); information on the person acting on behalf of a child or another adult (if officially appointed to act on behalf of the person; title; first name; surname; address; date of birth; national insurance number; email; postcode); declaration
• Tribunals and gender recognition certificate statistics quarterly. These are issued by the Ministry of Justice Quarterly and include information on receipts (i.e., cases received by HMCTS), the outcome of cases by category (e.g., cases disposed of at hearing) and the caseload outstanding (snapshot of live cases at a specific point in time) for the 3 largest tribunals: Employment, Immigration and Asylum, and Social Security and Child Support. It also incorporates statistics on gender recognition certificates.
• Statistics on the use of language services in the courts and tribunals. The data presented in this series of bulletins are the face to face language services provided to HM Courts & Tribunals Services and National Offender Management Service (NOMS), covering requests for services made and completed.
• The Tribunal is normally recording the decision of the appeal, and issues a response, but we could not find an example to include in this report.

There is no metadata on the types of information that the Upper Tribunal holds on ESA appeals, but we can get some indirect information from the forms and supplementary documentation that the appellants have to fill in and the range of documentation that is submitted:

• ESA Claimants need to fill in form UT001 initially, to apply for permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal (UT). This is a .pdf form which contains the following information: about the decision appealing against (First-Tier tribunal reference, First-Tier Tribunal Decision Date); about the appellant (title, name, surname, national insurance number, Date of Birth, full address including postcode, phone number); details of the representative (if relevant, as above); reasons for any delay (if more than a month passed since First-Tier Tribunal decision); reasons for appeal (open ended question); preference of oral hearing and why; signature and date of submission; enclosed required documents
• DWP/DfC and other government departments, need to fill in form UT002 (Upper Tribunal Administrative Appeals Chamber, 2012) initially to apply for permission to appeal to the UT. This is a .pdf form and contains the following information: about the appellant (name of department, information about the representative (name, full address including postcode, phone number, reference no.); about the respondents – first, second and third respondent (surname, other names, full address including postcode); about the first-tier tribunal (location where decision was made, date of first-tier tribunal, tribunal decision number; written statement for reasons of tribunal’s decision, date of tribunal decision); reason for appealing (open ended question, up to 2 pages); permission to appeal from the first-tier tribunal (did the first-tier tribunal refuse to admit the application because they were late; if more than one months have passed since the tribunal; if the appellant requires an oral hearing); signature, declaration and date of submission of the form.
• For Statistics on the use of language services in the courts and tribunals (MoJ); Tribunals and gender recognition certificate statistics quarterly (MoJ), see above.
• The Tribunal is normally recording the decision of the appeal, and issues a response, but we could not find an example to include in this report.

There is no metadata on the types of information that the Court of Appeal holds on first- and second-tier appeals, but we can get some indirect information from the forms and supplementary documentation that the appellants have to fill in and the range of documentation that is submitted:

• N161 form: Appellant's notice (all appeals except small claims track appeals and appeals to the Family Division of the High Court)
• N244 form: Application notice
• N460 form: Reasons for allowing or refusing permission to appeal (including referral to the Court of Appeal (Civil Division)), and information concerning routes of appeal.
• N460HC form: Reasons for allowing or refusing permission to appeal and information concerning routes of appeal.
• previous decisions data; This is in the form of an online searchable data base of decisions, made available by the British and Irish Legal Information Institute. An example of a subset of the database focusing on decisions by the Court of Appeals for English and Wales cases is available via this link.

There is no metadata on the types of information that the UK Supreme Court holds on appeals, but we can get some indirect information from the forms and supplementary documentation that the appellants should fill in and the range of documentation that is submitted:

• CF1 - Notice of appeal Notice of appeal (or application for permission to appeal) Court form 1 (PDF)
• CF2 - Application form Court form 2 (PDF)
• CF3 - Notice of objection / Acknowledgment Court form 3 (PDF)
• CF5 - Bill of Costs Court form 5 (DOC)

If claimants disagree with a decision (either on the Work Capacity Assessment or the Sanctions imposed), claimants can raise this with the office they have been interacting in the first instance, who are expected to respond to the request immediately. Claimants can request a written statement of the reasons.

If claimants are not satisfied with the resolution or do not agree with the decision, they can ask the office to consider it again. This process is called mandatory reconsideration. To do that, claimants need to submit an explanation of why they think the decision is wrong and include evidence to support their claims. They need to do this within 1 month of the date of a decision.

If unhappy, they can appeal to an independent tribunal, the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal. They need to apply within a month of the mandatory reconsideration decision. Claimant can seek support from the Citizens’ Advice, who can support them with filling in forms or going to a hearing. Note that claimants cannot appeal to the tribunal if they haven’t asked for mandatory reconsideration. This requirement was introduced in October 2013 in England, Wales and Scotland and in May 2016 in N. Ireland.

Appeals can be withdrawn at any time before the hearing has started.

The HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) or the N. Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service (NI CTS) also known as The Appeals Service (TAS) will check the appeal to ensure it complies with all the legal requirements to be accepted as a valid appeal (HM Courts & Tribunals Service, 2015). They can then:

• if there are problems, they would return to the claimant with a letter, explaining what the problem is and how the issue can be resolved. The claimant would then need to address the issues and resubmit.
• if the claimant does not respond/address the issues, they can ‘strike out’ the appeal on grounds of receiving insufficient information. They can also decide to ‘waive’ that requirement – this is decided on a case-by-case basis
• accept the appeal as valid, and send an acknowledgement letter

HMCTS or NICTS sends the appeal to DWP or DfC and ask them to provide a response to the appeal – this is usually in the form of a report outlining how they came to their decision. HMCTS or NICTS will also create a casefile for the appeal and transfer it to the regional centres which deal with the claimant’s area of residence.

DWP or DfC can:

• Object to the appeal – on the grounds that the appeal is against a decision which does not carry a right of appeal; that it is late and the reasons for lateness are unreasonable; that it provides inadequate information to identify the decision or give grounds to appeal; on the grounds that it has no reasonable prospect of success. If that happens, HMCTS or NICTS will request that the case is reviewed by a Judge, who will decide if there is any merit in DWP or DfC’s arguments.
• Consider the appeal – DWP or DfC will look at their decision again in light of the information provided and change their decision. If this is to the advantage of the claimant, then the appeal will automatically lapse. The Claimant will be able to appeal that decision in the same way, but usually DWP or DfC would contact the claimant to discuss this and usually will only proceed if there is agreement. After a couple of weeks after the appeal submission, the claimant receives a copy of all the paperwork up to that point and a copy of DWP or DfC’s response to the appeal.

The claimant can then:

• Accept DWP or DfC’s response and withdraw the appeal. They need to notify HMCTS or NICTS by phone or in writing.
• Not accept the response and carry on with the hearing or tribunal appeal consideration on papers

After the tribunal is held, a notice setting out the decision of the tribunal is sent to both parties on the day of the hearing. Note that:

• The tribunal have no legal powers to enforce its decisions.
• DWP or DfC are entitled to suspend payment of any benefit awarded by the tribunal if they are appealing against the tribunal’s decision

The first-tier tribunal’s decision can be appealed further by either the claimant or DWP or DfC on the ground of ‘error of law’ to the Upper Tribunal. This is when it is thought that the tribunal applied the law incorrectly, conducted the proceedings in breach of the proper procedures or failed to make adequate findings or fact or to give adequate reasons for its decision. For this to happen:

• A statement of reasons for the tribunal’s decision needs to be requested from the judge, within one month of the date of issue of the tribunal decision
• A form (supplied on request)

The request will be considered by a Senior Tribunal Judge, who can:

• Grant permission, in which case the appeal can be forwarded to the Upper Tribunal
• Refuse permission, in which case the claimant or
• DWP or DfC can ask the Upper Tribunal directly for permission
• ‘set aside’ i.e. re-decide the case and have it heard by a fresh tribunal

If considered by an Upper Tribunal, they have the power to:

• ‘set aside’ the tribunal decision and refer the case to a fresh tribunal
• substitute their own decision

For DWP data, no information is currently available on the claimants’ data that the organisations hold, other than the number of complaints per year.

There is no data dictionary available as such, but appellants who would like to lodge a complaint are advised to use form EX343A (last updated October 2015), which suggests the following information is usually recorded:

• Date received
• Reference number
• Name and address of venue complaint is made about
• Name of appellant (surname and name)
• Address of appellant
• Daytime telephone of appellant
• Email of appellant (optional)
• Case/claim number
• Names of parties in the case
• The complaint (what the complaint is about; any facts and events relating to it; why the appellant thinks a mistake has been made; what loss if any the appellant has incurred as a result) – open ended can continue to another sheet.
• Appellant’s signature
• Date
• Appellant’s suggestions to improve the service they have received

Statistics data are available via the online statistics pages, for the years 2004 – 2013. Information included in the statistics cover: breakdown by venue; breakdown of complaints by category; breakdown of main categories of complaints received; complaints upheld; follow up action; how complaints were received; response time;

For complaints that have been escalated further, some statistics and results of decisions are available in the Annual Ombudsman Reports (NI) online, for the years 2012-2016. These are in a pdf format (not in a spreadsheet/tabular format) and some work might be required to use it for analysis.

**At any point during the process, if a claimant is not happy with the service received from DWP/DfC, they can lodge a complaint through the office that has been supporting them, this is usually the officer named in the most recent correspondence. If This is reviewed by a Complaint Resolution Manager and the complaint will be addressed and a response issued within 15 working days or contact the claimant when to expect a response if it will take longer.

Note that it is not possible to complaint against a decision on a benefit or a sanction – these are considered as “appeals” against a decision or sanction and are dealt with under the Appeals process.

If the claimant feels that the complaint has not been resolved, the complaint can be further escalated to a senior manager, who will be asking for an independent internal review of the complaint. They would contact the claimant within 15 working days to report on the outcome, or when they can expect a response if it will take longer.

If the claimant is not happy with how their complaint was addressed, they can escalate their complaint with the Independent Case Examiner (ICE). This will need to happen within 6 months of the final response from DWP/DfC. The Independent Case Examiner can’t look at matters of law or government policy. If they accept to consider the complaint, they will look into what happened and what should have been done and can ask DWP/DfC to put matters right. They are acting as an impartial referee and will not charge for their service.

If their complaint has not been addressed satisfactorily on this occasion, they need to approach an MP, who can escalate their complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. Note that claimants cannot apply directly to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

The full complaints policy of the Department for Work and Pensions is available from the gov.uk pages. The complaints procedure of the Department for Communities (NI) is outlined in their Complaints pages.

HMCTS’ Complaints Correspondence and Litigation Team (CCLT) handles all complaints relating to procedure and conduct within the first and upper tier tribunals, their procedure is published on their pages.

At any point during the process, if an appellant is not happy with the service received from a Tribunal, in particular (a) the way the case was handled by administrative staff and (b) the facilities at the venues, they can lodge a complaint through the office they have been interacting with.

Appellants can also complain using Resolver a platform that allows them to select the specific court or tribunal and the type of complaint that they would like to make. The service provides example emails and templates for the appellants to use. Note that it is not possible to complaint against a decision (they will need to appeal it to a higher court).

If the appellant feels that the complaint has not been resolved, the complaint can be further escalated to a senior manager, who will be asking for an independent internal review of the complaint. They would contact the appellant within 15 working days to report on the outcome, or when they can expect a response if it will take longer.

If their complaint has not been addressed satisfactorily on this occasion, they need to approach an MP, who can escalate their complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. Note that claimants cannot apply directly to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

Complaints can be submitted as soon as possible after the alleged incident for up to 6 months. Initially complaints can be resolved by the person dealing with the claimant, but can also be addressed to the Complaints Officer. If unsatisfied with the way the complaint was resolved, the complaint can be referred to the Head of Administration in the Appeals Service.

In all cases, the complaint will be acknowledged within 3 working days and replied to within 10 working days. If still unsatisfied the complainant can write to the Operations Business Manager or can ask their MPs to refer their complaint to the Assembly Ombudsman.

When ESA was initially introduced, it was announced that existing Incapacity Benefit claimants (including Income Support on the grounds of incapacity) would be reassessed to see if they are eligible for ESA. Reassessment started gradually from October 2010 (with a small pilot), with full national implementation from February 2011 onwards and is on-going. These claimants would then be subject to the standard conditions of an ESA claim, and be required to take part in a WCA.

The Medical Conditions recorded on the claim form do not themselves grant entitlement to benefit. It is the effects of the condition which matter, not the condition itself. So for example, a decision on entitlement for an individual claiming ESA on the basis of alcoholism would be based on their ability to carry out the range of activities assessed by the WCA. It is also important to note that where within a record there are more than one diagnosis or disabling condition, only the primary one is reported in the data.

For all the data and tabulation available online via the Stat-Xplore platform, statistical disclosure control has been applied. While this safeguards against the identification of an individual claimant and allows versions of the aggregate data to be available online to explore, tabulate and create graphs with, random errors have been introduced to the data available via the Stat-Xplore tool, resulting sometimes in reduced quality. The following are worth noting:

• introducing random error is a technique developed to randomly adjust cell values. Random adjustment of the data is considered a satisfactory technique for avoiding accidental release of identifiable data.
• it is not possible to determine which individual figures have been affected by random error adjustments, but the small variance which may be associated with derived totals can, for the most part, be ignored
• no reliance should be placed on small cells as they are impacted by random adjustment, respondent and processing errors.
• similarly, rather than aggregating data from small areas to obtain statistics about a larger standard geographic area, published data for the larger area should be used wherever possible.
• when calculating proportions, percentages or ratios from cross-classified or small area tables, the random error introduced can be ignored except when very small cells are involved, in which case the impact on percentages and ratios can be significant.

Also note that data currently available via the StatXplore tool is following a different methodology¹⁴ compared to the (previously available) DWP Tabulation Tool – and hence there might be small differences in the outputs displayed in comparison.

According to information available on Stat-Xplore, difficulties exist in the ability of the data to identify ESA claims of short duration. The frequency of the Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study (WPLS) scan for ESA, from which this data is gathered, stands at two weeks. As such any claim that both starts and ends within the two weeks when data extracts are taken, will not be picked up as part of the overall ESA data.

ESA Sanction Decisions statistics are derived from a combination of data from the Decisions Making and Appeals System (DMAS) and the Labour Market System (LMS). Recording and clerical errors can occur within both DMAS and LMS - for this reason, no reliance should be placed on very small numbers obtained through Stat-Xplore. Also, the quality of the variable ESA Lone Parents is reportedly very poor (see Stat-Xplore documentation on dataset).