SOCIAL SECURITY APPEAL HEARINGS ARE PUBLIC

Following enquries made to the Social Security Department we have received the following important guidance regardings Appeal Hearings - they are OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
This also applies to Medical Appeal Hearings and follows on from efforts to let the public know when INQUESTS are being held and that they too are usually OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

Click on image of letter to enlarge.



Full details of how the States will let the public know when these most important hearings are taking place is not yet clear.
Inquest hearing dates are still only published on the "TV" screen within the lobby to the main States/Court building in the Royal Square. Of course, they should all be on-line and published in the "Gazette" in an ideal world but Jersey is only just waking up to the realities of its Human Rights obligations.

That there might be a list of previous decisions made of these various hearings is most important but of course, unless there is an index with details of the subject matters decided upon, they might not yet be of much use.
The same problem arises with Complaints Boards aka Review Board decisions. There is no proper archive or index of all cases heard to date but PRECEDENT is the very soul of a proper legal system and ADMINISTRATION by government departments should be fully transparent and accessible too to everybody.

THIS IS A START. If you contact any of these Departments seeking information about hearings from the past or in the future - please let us know how you get on.

We are also asking questions about the strange words and phrases used by the Social Security Department and whether they have any meaning in law and also about the supposed "time limits" for making appeals, the repayment of "overpayments" and the reimbursement of "underpayments" etc.

If you have any details from past experience - please contact us at SSTAG......


UPDATE and FURTHER INFORMATION on the Appeals process (8 August)
We have received a further response from Caroline Coleman at the Judicial Greffe on behalf of the Registrar (Mrs Cave) at the Jersey Employment Tribunal (which handles Social Security appeals).

She advises that there is no mailing list to advise the public of future hearings and there is no plan to start one. Anybody interested in attending a future hearing must contact the Registrar and enquire.

How they might be supposed to know how a hearing is imminent is not obvious! We have asked to be notified of any hearings due over the next 6 weeks.

She also advises that during the past 2 years or so there has not been an appeal where the Social Security Department's internal appeals procedure, their calculation methods or the meaning and interpretation of words has been challenged.

Obviously it is about time that such challenges took place but we have now asked about the authority of human rights arguments in the appeals process and how fairness might be achieved if details of previous appeals decisions are not adequately archived and indexed. We will keep you informed HERE.

Keep your queries coming in please - we don't publish any details that might identify you without your specific permission.