Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to enable adults with (a) learning disabilities and (b) autism living in in-patient units to live independently.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

We are taking action to support timely discharges of people with a learning disability and autistic people from mental health inpatient services, and to support them in leading ordinary lives in their communities. In January 2024, we published guidance which sets out key principles for how National Health Service bodies and local authorities should work together to support people to be discharged from mental health inpatient services.

To improve community support, in 2023/24 we invested an additional £121 million as part of the NHS Long Term Plan, including funding for children and young people’s keyworkers. The Building the Right Support Action Plan, published in July 2022, sets out cross-Government actions to strengthen community support and reduce reliance on mental health inpatient care for people with a learning disability and autistic people.

As set out in NHS England statutory guidance published on 9 May 2023, we expect integrated care boards to assign an executive lead role for learning disability and autism to a suitable board member. The named lead will support the board in planning to meet the needs of its local population of autistic people and people with a learning disability.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to provide housing for adults with (a) learning disabilities and (b) autism who are currently living in in-patient units so that they can live independently.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

On 26 January 2024, we published statutory guidance on discharge from mental health inpatient settings. This guidance sets out key principles for how National Health Service bodies and local authorities across adult and children’s services should work together to support people in being discharged from mental health inpatient services, including mental health inpatient services for people with a learning disability and for autistic people. This guidance states that strong links should be made with relevant community services prior to, and during, the person’s stay in hospital, and that this should include links in relation to meeting the person’s housing needs.

We continue to support the delivery of new supported housing by providing capital subsidies to providers, through the Care and Support Specialised Housing Fund and the Affordable Homes Programme in England.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is represented on the Building the Right Support Delivery Board. This cross-Government, cross-system board is responsible for driving progress on reducing the number of people with a learning disability and autistic people in mental health inpatient services.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether people in receipt of a letter notifying them of a postponed PIP reassessment are counted as awaiting a PIP (a) assessment and (b) reassessment.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

There are still some claimants in receipt of Adult DLA who are yet to be reassessed. These cases are classed as awaiting PIP ‘reassessment’. DLA payments will continue until they are invited to claim PIP, and we have not contacted anyone on DLA to inform them of any postponement.

There are claimants who have made a new claim to PIP but not yet received a decision. A proportion of these will be with the Assessment Provider and counted as awaiting ‘assessment’. No one in this category would receive a letter indicating their assessments is postponed, unless there are unusual circumstances, and the Provider needs to re-arrange a specific appointment for example.

There are claimants already in receipt of PIP whose award is due to end (or has ended). Some cases are yet to be reviewed and would be counted as awaiting ‘review’. Some cases have been referred to the Assessment Provider and would therefore be counted as awaiting ‘assessment’. Where appropriate, we write to claimants to let them know the process is ongoing and we are extending their award, but we do not inform claimants that their review or assessment is postponed.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Departments consultation outcome entitled Work Capability Assessment: activities and descriptors, published 5 September 2023, what the (a) grade and (b) job titles were of the staff who undertook the research exercise.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

In November 2023, we announced changes to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) criteria. The full response to the public consultation on these changes can be found here.

We do not know what “research exercise” the questions are referring to but have interpreted these questions to be about internal policy development undertaken before and during the consultation exercise on changes to the WCA. This work was undertaken by a variety of staff from a mix of grades and job titles, including Senior Civil Servants. We will publish an Impact Assessment in due course.

We undertook considerable engagement during the consultation period and received over 1300 written responses. We listened carefully to what people told us and took their views into account when deciding which changes to take forward. We took care to ensure the views of disabled people and people with health conditions, as well as the views of the charities, groups and organisations representing and supporting them, were considered. We also engaged directly with external clinical experts and employers.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Departments consultation outcome entitled Work Capability Assessment: activities and descriptors, published 5 September 2023, for what reason the results of the research exercise have not been published.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

In November 2023, we announced changes to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) criteria. The full response to the public consultation on these changes can be found here.

We do not know what “research exercise” the questions are referring to but have interpreted these questions to be about internal policy development undertaken before and during the consultation exercise on changes to the WCA. This work was undertaken by a variety of staff from a mix of grades and job titles, including Senior Civil Servants. We will publish an Impact Assessment in due course.

We undertook considerable engagement during the consultation period and received over 1300 written responses. We listened carefully to what people told us and took their views into account when deciding which changes to take forward. We took care to ensure the views of disabled people and people with health conditions, as well as the views of the charities, groups and organisations representing and supporting them, were considered. We also engaged directly with external clinical experts and employers.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Departments consultation outcome entitled Work Capability Assessment: activities and descriptors, published 5 September 2023, how many cases were reviewed as part of the research.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

In November 2023, we announced changes to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) criteria. The full response to the public consultation on these changes can be found here.

We do not know what “research exercise” the questions are referring to but have interpreted these questions to be about internal policy development undertaken before and during the consultation exercise on changes to the WCA. This work was undertaken by a variety of staff from a mix of grades and job titles, including Senior Civil Servants. We will publish an Impact Assessment in due course.

We undertook considerable engagement during the consultation period and received over 1300 written responses. We listened carefully to what people told us and took their views into account when deciding which changes to take forward. We took care to ensure the views of disabled people and people with health conditions, as well as the views of the charities, groups and organisations representing and supporting them, were considered. We also engaged directly with external clinical experts and employers.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Departments consultation outcome entitled Work Capability Assessment: activities and descriptors, published 5 September 2023, how his Department selected the cases to be reviewed.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

In November 2023, we announced changes to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) criteria. The full response to the public consultation on these changes can be found here.

We do not know what “research exercise” the questions are referring to but have interpreted these questions to be about internal policy development undertaken before and during the consultation exercise on changes to the WCA. This work was undertaken by a variety of staff from a mix of grades and job titles, including Senior Civil Servants. We will publish an Impact Assessment in due course.

We undertook considerable engagement during the consultation period and received over 1300 written responses. We listened carefully to what people told us and took their views into account when deciding which changes to take forward. We took care to ensure the views of disabled people and people with health conditions, as well as the views of the charities, groups and organisations representing and supporting them, were considered. We also engaged directly with external clinical experts and employers.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people were awaiting a decision on their Personal Independence Payment application on the first day of each month in 2022.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The table below gives the number of outstanding PIP cases on the first of each month from 2021 to 2023. Claims are considered outstanding when the claim has been registered but a decision has not yet been made by a Case Manager on whether to award PIP.

Notes:

- Source: PIP Atomic Data Store;

- Figures are rounded to the nearest 1,000;

- Figures are for England and Wales only;

- These figures include claims made under normal rules and special rules for terminal illness and include both new claims and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to PIP reassessment claims.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people were awaiting a decision on their Personal Independence Payment application on the first day of each month in 2021.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The table below gives the number of outstanding PIP cases on the first of each month from 2021 to 2023. Claims are considered outstanding when the claim has been registered but a decision has not yet been made by a Case Manager on whether to award PIP.

Notes:

- Source: PIP Atomic Data Store;

- Figures are rounded to the nearest 1,000;

- Figures are for England and Wales only;

- These figures include claims made under normal rules and special rules for terminal illness and include both new claims and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to PIP reassessment claims.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applicants for Personal Independence Payment had not received a decision on the first day of each month in 2023.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The table below gives the number of outstanding PIP cases on the first of each month from 2021 to 2023. Claims are considered outstanding when the claim has been registered but a decision has not yet been made by a Case Manager on whether to award PIP.

Notes:

- Source: PIP Atomic Data Store;

- Figures are rounded to the nearest 1,000;

- Figures are for England and Wales only;

- These figures include claims made under normal rules and special rules for terminal illness and include both new claims and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to PIP reassessment claims.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applicants for Access to Work support had not received a decision on (a) 1 January, (b) 1 February and (c) 1 March 2024.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The number of applications awaiting a decision for Access to Work on the requested dates were as follows. Figures have been steadily increasing due to the rise in the volume of application received.

As of 1^st January 2024 – 24,874

As of 1^st February 2024 – 26,812

As of 1^st March 2024 – 29,864

There were 25,292 Access to Work applications awaiting a decision as of 1^st December 2022.

Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applicants for Access to Work support had not received an assessment on 1 December 2022.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The number of applications awaiting a decision for Access to Work on the requested dates were as follows. Figures have been steadily increasing due to the rise in the volume of application received.

As of 1^st January 2024 – 24,874

As of 1^st February 2024 – 26,812

As of 1^st March 2024 – 29,864

There were 25,292 Access to Work applications awaiting a decision as of 1^st December 2022.

Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of awarding the full Carer's Allowance to unpaid carers that are in receipt of the state pension.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Although there is no upper age limit to claiming Carer’s Allowance, it cannot normally be paid with the State Pension. It has been a long held feature of the UK’s benefit system, under successive Governments, that where someone is entitled to two benefits for the same contingency, then whilst there may be entitlement to both benefits, only one will be paid to avoid duplication for the same need. Although entitlement to State Pension and Carer’s Allowance arise in different circumstances they are nevertheless designed for the same contingency – as an income replacement. Carer’s Allowance replaces income where the carer has given up the opportunity of full-time employment in order to care for a severely disabled person, while State Pension replaces income in retirement. For this reason, social security rules operate to prevent them being paid together, to avoid duplicate provision for the same need.

However, if a carer’s State Pension is less than Carer's Allowance, State Pension is paid and topped up with Carer's Allowance to the basic weekly rate of Carer's Allowance which is currently £81.90.

Where Carer’s Allowance cannot be paid, the person will keep underlying entitlement to the benefit. This gives access to the additional amount for carers in Pension Credit of £45.60 a week and potentially other means-tested support. Around 100,000 people are receiving the Carer Premium with their Pension Credit. And even if a pensioner’s income is above the limit for Pension Credit, they may still be able to receive Housing Benefit.

Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, how many enquiries the Equality Advisory and Support Service has responded to in each of the last five years.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

We do not routinely collect this information. The member may wish to ask EASS for it directly. However, it may be of interest for the Member to note that the EASS receives around 3,000 calls per month and has a stringent Key Performance Indicator that requires operators to answer 85% of all calls within 30 seconds. That target is routinely met. In a recent customer satisfaction survey nearly 90% of respondents were ‘Satisfied’ or higher with the service that they received.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the earnings threshold for Carer's Allowance in-line with the National Living Wage for financial year 2024-25.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The weekly earnings limit for Carer’s Allowance has just increased from £139 to £151 net earnings per week, in line with the increase Average Weekly Earnings of 8.5%. Successive Governments have taken the same approach to the Carer’s Allowance earnings limit and increased it when it is warranted and affordable. The earnings limit has increased by one half since 2010.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the Carer’s Allowance to £93 per week.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

This Government continues to protect the value of benefits paid to carers whilst also spending record amounts in real terms.

The level of Carer’s Allowance is protected by uprating it each April in line with inflation as measured by the CPI for the previous September. The purpose of benefit uprating is to ensure that the value of benefits stays in line with the general level of prices. From April 2024, the Carer’s Allowance payment was increased to £81.90. Since 2010, the rate of Carer’s Allowance has increased from £53.90 to £81.90 a week, providing an additional £1,500 a year for carers.

Real terms expenditure on Carer’s Allowance in 2024/25 is forecast to be £4.1 billion. Between 2024/25 and 2028/29 real terms expenditure on Carer’s Allowance is forecast to rise by 12% - around £500 million. By 2028/29, the Government is forecast to spend just over £4.5 billion a year on Carer’s Allowance.

As well as Carer’s Allowance, carers have access to the full range of social security benefits. For example, carers on Universal Credit can receive around an additional £2,400 a year through the Carer Element.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of awarding Carer’s Allowance to unpaid carers between the ages of 16-18 that are studying (a) 21 hours and (b) more than 21 hours per week.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

This Government recognises and appreciates the vital contribution made by all informal carers.

We think it is right that people in full-time education should be supported by the educational maintenance system, via its range of loans and grants, rather than the social security benefit system. That is why, as a general principle, full-time students are usually precluded from entitlement to income-related and income-maintenance benefits, including Carer’s Allowance. Part-time students may be able to claim Carer’s Allowance though. This reflects long-standing principles of the benefit system and we have no plans to change these rules.

Department for Work and Pensions officials work very closely with their Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care counterparts to ensure that young carers get the help and support they need.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of awarding Carer’s Allowance to unpaid carers that are studying (a) 21 hours and (b) more than 21 hours per week.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

This Government recognises and appreciates the vital contribution made by all informal carers.

We think it is right that people in full-time education should be supported by the educational maintenance system, via its range of loans and grants, rather than the social security benefit system. That is why, as a general principle, full-time students are usually precluded from entitlement to income-related and income-maintenance benefits, including Carer’s Allowance. Part-time students may be able to claim Carer’s Allowance though. This reflects long-standing principles of the benefit system and we have no plans to change these rules.

Department for Work and Pensions officials work very closely with their Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care counterparts to ensure that young carers get the help and support they need.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many new staff have been recruited to work on the Access to Work programme in each of the last six months for which data is available; and whether her Department plans to recruit more staff to work on this programme.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Please find figures for new staff that have been recruited to work on the Access to Work programme for the last 6 months.

An additional 95 staff will be redeployed to Access to Work in May/June 2024 and another 13 are expected through recruitment in May 2024.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the implications for his policies of the increase in Access to Work applications between September 2023 and March 2024.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

AtW is one of a suite of policies aimed at helping disabled people to enter and thrive in work. Access to Work (AtW) remains in high demand. We have increased the number of staff processing AtW claims and are prioritising renewal applications and those with a job start within four weeks. We are improving the service through increased digitisation to improve the time from application through to decision.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people were waiting for a decision on their Access to Work application on 1 April 2024.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

As of 1^st April 2024, there were 32,445 applications awaiting a decision.

Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution.  

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of Access to Work applicants were awaiting a decision on (a) 1 January, (b) 1 February and (c) 1 March in (i) 2007, (ii) 2008, (iii) 2009 and (iv) 2010.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The information requested on Access to Work applicants awaiting a decision on (a) 1 January, (b) 1 February and (c) 1 March in (i) 2007, (ii) 2008, (iii) 2009 and (iv) 2010 is not available.

However, the Access to Work statistics includes how many applications result in provision being approved from 2007/08 to 2021/22. Please see Table 3 of the Access to Work statistics.

The latest Access to Work statistics can be found here.

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