Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
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 - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (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.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
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 - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (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.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
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 - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (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.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
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 - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (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.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the eligibility National Insurance criteria for Employment and Support Allowance to people who have paid National Insurance contributions over two full tax years in their lives.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
New Style Employment and Support Allowance (NS ESA) is a benefit for individuals with a limited capability to work based on the individual’s recent National Insurance (NI) record.
Normally, to be entitled to NS ESA, a claimant has to satisfy two NI conditions: to have worked and paid enough NI contributions in one of the two tax years prior to claiming NS ESA for at least 26 weeks; and to have either paid, or been credited with, enough NI contributions in both of the two tax years prior to claiming NS ESA that is at least 50 times the minimum threshold.
Looking at the most recent tax years, ensures people have a recent record of paid contributions and therefore a close link with the labour market.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an estimate of how many people entitled to the Employment and Support Allowance did not claim it in (a) 2018, (b) 2019, (c) 2020 and (d) 2021.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Estimates for the number of entitled non-recipients and caseload take-up are available for income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Income Support (IS) up to financial year 2018/19. These can be found here. Figures for 2018/19 were affected by no new claims for income-related ESA and IS from December 2018 as a result of Universal Credit rollout. No figures have been published for ESA/IS since 2018/19 due to the roll out of Universal Credit.
No estimates of the volume of entitled non-recipients of New Style (contributory) ESA have been made.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to promote the Employment and Support Allowance.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions signposts to Employment and Support Allowance through GOV.UK, helplines, GP surgeries, local libraries, and other support services such as Citizens Advice. There are also benefit calculators on the GOV.UK website which is available for those who wish to find out what support may be available to them. In addition, the Department for Work and Pensions is constantly working to improve the way it communicates information about benefits and other services to the general public.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of reducing the volume of calls to the Personal Independence Payment helpline by extending to two months the time limit for returning Payment (a) application and (b) review forms.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Claimants are advised that should they require more time to complete the “How your disability affects you” questionnaire and award review forms they can ask for additional time to do so. The sooner these forms are completed the sooner the Department can reach a decision on their claim or award review.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an estimate of the proportion of people phoning the Personal Independence Payment helpline asking for an extension on the deadline to return their Payment form in each of the last six months..
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
No estimate has been made, as this information is not held.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming for a digital future: 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital and data, updated on 29 February 2024, what steps his Department has taken to mitigate the risks of red-rated legacy IT systems.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP has funded and resourced a dedicated Legacy Technical Debt Working Group within DWP. This group managed the population and ongoing accuracy of Legacy IT System Risk Score Cards. The information recorded includes plans for mitigating key risks which are assessed ahead of each fiscal planning round to bid for funds to implement mitigating measures.