Mr. John McKeon:

I can explain why a higher appeal rate is expected. The conditionality around disability or carer's allowance includes an extra layer of medical opinion. Most of the claims we reject are based on a medical assessment and the person's general practitioner or consultant might say, for example, that John McKeon is incapable or unfit to perform full-time work of any type for the rest of his life. Our medical assessor will look at the file and the condition and in some cases do an in-person examination before forming a different view. In nearly all cases the person might have a consultant and against this would be the medical assessor.