How long tribunal appeals are taking, April to June 2026
In April to June 2026, benefit appeals at the Social Security and Child Support tribunal took a mean of 37 weeks from the appeal being received to the case being cleared, and half were cleared within 30 weeks. These are the Ministry of Justice's own published figures for cases that finished in that quarter. They describe the queue as it was, not what will happen in any one appeal. The quarter is marked provisional in the publication, so the figures may be revised.
Benefit appeals by benefit type
| Benefit type | Mean | Median | Slowest quarter of cases |
|---|---|---|---|
| All benefit types | 37 weeks | 30 weeks or less | over 57 weeks |
| Personal Independence Payment | 36 weeks | 28 weeks or less | over 58 weeks |
| Employment and Support Allowance | 29 weeks | 20 weeks or less | over 44 weeks |
| Universal Credit | 35 weeks | 29 weeks or less | over 46 weeks |
| All other benefit types | 44 weeks | 37 weeks or less | over 59 weeks |
Table T_3 of the publication. The slowest quarter column is the published 75 per cent point read the other way round: a quarter of cases took longer than that.
Your benefit, with its own volumes and queue
- Personal Independence Payment appeals
Mean 36 weeks. 27,452 appeals received in the quarter, 76,377 still open at the end of it.
- Universal Credit appeals
Mean 35 weeks. 9,431 appeals received in the quarter, 24,896 still open at the end of it.
- Employment and Support Allowance appeals
Mean 29 weeks. 1,025 appeals received in the quarter, 2,218 still open at the end of it.
- Disability Living Allowance appeals
Mean 44 weeks for the grouped row that covers it. 4,881 appeals received in the quarter, 12,944 still open at the end of it.
- Attendance Allowance appeals
Mean 44 weeks for the grouped row that covers it. 214 appeals received in the quarter, 794 still open at the end of it.
- Child Support appeals
Mean 44 weeks for the grouped row that covers it. 2,029 appeals received in the quarter, 7,380 still open at the end of it.
- Carer's Allowance appeals
Mean 44 weeks for the grouped row that covers it. 101 appeals received in the quarter, 254 still open at the end of it.
Other tribunals in the same publication
- Social Security and Child Support: mean 37 weeks, median 30 weeks or less. Against April to June 2025, that is a 3 week increase.This is the tribunal that hears PIP, ESA, Universal Credit, DLA and Attendance Allowance appeals. The publication says these timeliness figures do not yet include Integrated List Assist disposals from the Cardiff region.
- Employment Tribunal, single claims on the Reform system: mean 40 weeks, median 35 weeks or less. Against April to June 2025, that is a 15 week increase.Single claims on the Reform case system only. The publication says these figures are not comparable with earlier versions of the table that included legacy cases.
- First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber): mean 65 weeks, median not published. Against April to June 2025, that is a 13 week increase.The publication has withdrawn the quartile measures for this chamber while its timeliness method is reviewed. Means are unaffected.
How many appeals, and how many still waiting
46,441 benefit appeals were received in April to June 2026 and 129,273 were still open at the end of it.
| Benefit | Received | Open at quarter end |
|---|---|---|
| Personal Independence Payment | 27,452 | 76,377 |
| Universal Credit | 9,431 | 24,896 |
| Disability Living Allowance | 4,881 | 12,944 |
| Child Support | 2,029 | 7,380 |
| Employment and Support Allowance | 1,025 | 2,218 |
| Housing Benefit and Council Tax | 235 | 1,490 |
| Child Benefit (lone parent) | 221 | 562 |
| Attendance Allowance | 214 | 794 |
| Tax-Free Childcare Scheme | 174 | 364 |
| Carer's Allowance | 101 | 254 |
| Pension Credit | 97 | 264 |
| Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit | 62 | 262 |
| Jobseeker's Allowance | 59 | 143 |
Tables SSCS_1 and SSCS_4. The publication notes that open caseload is a snapshot taken when the data was extracted, so it cannot be worked out by adding up receipts and disposals, and that a data quality issue identified in January 2026 may have over-reported open caseload by around 5,000 cases across the tribunal.
How this page is built
Source: Tribunal Statistics Quarterly: April to June 2026, Ministry of Justice and HM Courts and Tribunals Service, published 10 September 2026. Read from the accessible main tables on 29 September 2026. Timeliness is measured from receipt of the appeal to the case being cleared, and it covers cases cleared in the quarter rather than cases still waiting. Means and band wording are copied from tables T_2 and T_3 and are not recalculated here. The publication also notes that some cases listed through the tribunal's newer listing system are not yet included, and that revised data will follow.
Contains public sector information from the Ministry of Justice and HM Courts and Tribunals Service, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. The publication and the tables we read.
Scotland: Personal Independence Payment is being replaced by Adult Disability Payment, which the Scottish Government administers, and the publication says those appeals are not in these figures.
What actually happens at a benefit tribunal hearing and the deadline that applies to your own decision letter.
How to cite this
Finally Seen (2026). Benefit appeal tribunal waiting times, April to June 2026 edition. https://finallyseen.org.uk/tribunal-waiting-times
There is no DOI for this dataset yet, so the citation ends in the page URL. The figures are the Ministry of Justice's own, published under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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