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Access to Justice

A review of the Social Security and Child Support Commissioners

Thu, 19 February 2004

Mr Trevor Buck and Mr David Bonner, of the Faculty of Law, University of Leicester, and Dr Roy Sainsbury, of the Social Policy Research Unit, University of York, have recently completed a comprehensive review, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, of the role and function of the Social Security and Child Support Commissioners, charting their development from 1975 to 2004.

Mr Trevor Buck and Mr David Bonner, of the Faculty of Law, University of Leicester, and Dr Roy Sainsbury, of the Social Policy Research Unit, University of York, have recently completed a comprehensive review, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, of the role and function of the Social Security and Child Support Commissioners, charting their development from 1975 to 2004.

The Commissioners were established in 1948 and have played a central role in social security adjudication in the UK. There has been no comprehensive appraisal of their role and function since 1976. However, the context of their operation has changed substantially in the last twenty-eight years. There have also been concerns about delay in processing appeals, their costs and the difficulties in producing a suitable system to make available the reported decisions of the Comissioners.

The project involved some original historical research to review the origins and development of the Commissioners’ jurisdictions. All 23 full-time Commissioners in the UK were interviewed, 120 files of appellants’ cases were examined and 33 appellants were interviewed about their experiences. The researchers were given observer status over a two-year period to the Commissioners’ quarterly meetings where a small group of Commissioners, chaired by the Chief Commissioner, decide which decisions can be ‘reported’ and therefore have the legal status of a ‘precedent’.

The researchers found that, during the period of the research, the Commissioner’s Office significantly improved clearance of cases and that there were improvements, too, in making decisions more easily available. They have, however made a number of detailed findings in relation to the role and function of the Commissioners and in relation to the users’ experience.

The researchers have published several articles in the Journal of Social Security Law and are planning a monograph entitled Making Social Security Law: The Role and Work of the Social Security and Child Support Commissioners. Information about the research can be obtained from Mr Trevor Buck, Department of Law, University of Leicester.

Last Updated Wed, 7 April 2004