Ms Joan Gordon:

There seems to be a degree of confusion here. The 21 days to which the Chairman referred relates to the appeal period. As set out in the relevant statutory instrument, a person who receives a negative decision on an application for payment has a 21-day period in which to appeal. Once the appeal is registered in our office, we are obliged under the same regulations to ask the Department to review the appeal contentions and, if necessary, revise the decision based on those contentions. In the case of the medical-based schemes, there is sometimes new, additional medical evidence which allows the Department to review and revise the initial decision. Up to the end of October 2017, some 40% of the appeal decisions that had a favourable outcome were attributable to deciding officers revising their original decision on review.