President of Appeal Tribunal Report on Standards of Decision Making by the Department 2015/16

The total number of appeals registered during the year to which this report relates was 14,247. This represents an increase of over 2,600 from the period covered by my previous report.The report reveals that overall levels of incorrectness in the initial decision ranges from 0% in Bereavement Benefit, Child Maintenance, Incapacity Benefit, Maternity Allowance and State Pension to 8.3% in Compensation Recovery appeals. The most common reason for incorrectness was that the decision appealed against was based on a misinterpretation/misunderstanding of the evidence available to the officer.