THE GOVERNMENT minister responsible for benefits has said she accepts the government is losing most appeals that are taken to a tribunal.

Thérèse Coffey was on the general election campaign trail in Crickhowell, in support of Conservative candidate for Brecon and Radnorshire Fay Jones, when she was asked about figures revealed today that show most people who take a decision to deny them benefits to an appeal tribunal are successful.

According to the figures obtained by the BBC Shared Data Unit one in two people who appealed at the court hearing win their case.

Uncovered using Freedom of Information Act requests the figures show across the UK more than 550,000 people won an appeal over their benefits at a court tribunal between 2013 and 2018.

In Wales the percentage of successful appeals has increased every year since 2013.

In the 2013/14 financial year just under half of appeals at tribunal, 47%, were successful but that increased to 54% the following year.

In 2015/16 successful appeals were at 64% and increased to 72% in 2016/17 and by a further 2% the following year. The most recent figures, for April to December 2018, show 76% of such appeals in Wales were found in favour of the claimants.

Charities which were work those seeking benefits, that include Employment Support Allowance, Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence Payments, have said the figures show the government’s entitlement tests are best by "poor decision making" and "obvious inaccuracies".

Though Ms Coffey, who was appointed Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in September, said she accept the government was losing most cases at appeal she didn’t accept the system isn’t working.

Asked if she accepted the criticism from charities she replied: "No. Only about three percent of cases end up going on that appeal journey.

"What I am conscious about, since I’ve become Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, is building on something that started earlier this year where we are trying to improve aspects of the decision making, learning from those cases that are going to tribunal to how we factor in what is happening at tribunal and how we can actually hep people access the benefits to which they are entitled earlier on in that journey."

Benefits assessments are carried out on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) by the private contractors Capita, the Independent Assessment Services (formerly called Atos) and Maximus.

In 2018, the Commons Work and Pensions Committee said failings in disability benefits assessments had led to a "pervasive lack of trust" in the system. It said ministers should consider taking the process back in-house.

Ms Coffey said her department is trying to address the issues identified as the government has lost cases at tribunal.

She said: "There have been a number of different issues, for example people coming up with more evidence later on once they take it into the tribunal process, so now we have a situation where we are asking people for more evidence to help them support the case that they are making.

"So I want DWP to be a listening and learning organisation, we have started some of that journey, and I’m conscious that once it gets to tribunal we are losing the majority of cases, I fully accept that, but the the percentage is small, numbers are still rather high and I want to reduce that significantly."

Daphne Hall, of the National Association of Welfare Rights Advisers, said: "The reason for the high success rates [at tribunals] is because of the poor assessments carried out by health professionals.

"The DWP tend to base their decision purely on these assessments and disregard other evidence sent in by the claimant.

"However, tribunals will weigh up all the available evidence and talk to the claimant further, which enables them to make much more reasoned and balanced decisions."

During her visit to Crickhowell and Llangynidr Ms Coffey also defended the government’s election campaign and pushed the message it needed to win seats such as Brecon and Radnorshire to resolve Brexit in accordance with Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s withdrawal agreement.

Jane Dodds for the Liberal Democrats, Tom Davies for Labour and Lady Lily the Pink for the Monster Raving Loony Party are also standing in Brecon and Radnorshire.