Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to improve the (a) quality, (b) validity and (c) reliability of the (i) work capability and (ii) personal independence payment assessments.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department is committed to ensuring individuals receive high quality, objective and accurate assessments. We continue to work extensively with providers to make improvements to guidance; training and supplier audit procedures in order to ensure the quality of the services is continuously improved.
All elements of the providers performance are monitored including the requirements for the quality of assessments, which are assessed through independent audit, with feedback provided to the provider.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the oral contribution of the hon. Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth, Official Report column 969, how she plans to merge the personal independence payment and work capability assessment processes; who will take part in that merger; whether there will be (a) a pilot and (b) an independent evaluation of that merger; and who will provide that assessment service.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Health Transformation Programme within DWP has been established to transform the currently separate Work Capability Assessment service for Employment Support Allowance and Universal Credit, and the Personal Independence Payment assessment service, into a single integrated service from 2021.
As with any major change, this will take time to design, and it will be rolled out carefully – learning as we go. We need to take time to get this right and we will be seeking input from a wide range of stakeholders to ensure that the new service is one that works for our customers and that we safely transition to the new arrangements. We will continue to keep the most appropriate method of delivery under review and we believe assessment providers will continue to play an important role. For any elements that are outsourced, we will run a procurement process compliant with the Public Contracts Regulations.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the effect of measures related to universal credit announced in Budget 2018 on disabled people who are (a) in work and (b) out of work.
Answered by Sarah Newton
We will spend over £50 billion in 2018/19 on benefits to support disabled people and people with health conditions.
In the budget we have announced that work allowance rates will be increased by £1000 from April 2019 and uprated in line with inflation thereafter. Raising the current work allowances will direct additional funding to working disabled people by allowing them to keep more of their earnings before the earnings taper is applied. By increasing the work allowances many disabled families on UC will be £630 better off, in a package worth £1.7bn in 2023/24.
It has also been announced that income related legacy benefits, Income Support (IS), Income Related Employment and Support Allowance and Income Based Jobseeker’s Allowance will continue for two weeks after a claim for Universal Credit has been made. This change will particularly support vulnerable claimants who may have been on benefits for some time, have little or no savings to fall back on and currently rely on regular payments at shorter intervals.
We have also previously announced that transitional payments for former recipients of Severe Disability Premium (SDP) and protection for those who are receiving SDP as part of their existing benefit entitlement. These claimants will now only move to UC with transitional protection. Those who have already moved to UC will be considered for a lump sum payment that will be back-dated to the start of their UC claim, and will receive ongoing monthly payments.
These regulations provide transitional support to recipients of the SDP while removing the complexity of dealing with different rules for seven different disability additions. 500,000 vulnerable people receive the SDP alongside their benefit awards. All of these people will ultimately move to UC and benefit from this enhanced support.
Not replicating the Severe Disability Premium in UC means the government can target additional support to a wider group. UC provides a higher level of support for the most severely disabled people than the benefit it replaces, worth up to £328.32 per month.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she had made of the levels of spending on social security for disabled people as a result of the provisions of Budget 2018.
Answered by Sarah Newton
We will spend over £50 billion in 2018/19 on benefits to support disabled people and people with health conditions.
In the budget we have announced that work allowance rates will be increased by £1000 from April 2019 and uprated in line with inflation thereafter. Raising the current work allowances will direct additional funding to working disabled people by allowing them to keep more of their earnings before the earnings taper is applied. By increasing the work allowances many disabled families on UC will be £630 better off, in a package worth £1.7bn in 2023/24.
It has also been announced that income related legacy benefits, Income Support (IS), Income Related Employment and Support Allowance and Income Based Jobseeker’s Allowance will continue for two weeks after a claim for Universal Credit has been made. This change will particularly support vulnerable claimants who may have been on benefits for some time, have little or no savings to fall back on and currently rely on regular payments at shorter intervals.
We have also previously announced that transitional payments for former recipients of Severe Disability Premium (SDP) and protection for those who are receiving SDP as part of their existing benefit entitlement. These claimants will now only move to UC with transitional protection. Those who have already moved to UC will be considered for a lump sum payment that will be back-dated to the start of their UC claim, and will receive ongoing monthly payments.
These regulations provide transitional support to recipients of the SDP while removing the complexity of dealing with different rules for seven different disability additions. 500,000 vulnerable people receive the SDP alongside their benefit awards. All of these people will ultimately move to UC and benefit from this enhanced support.
Not replicating the Severe Disability Premium in UC means the government can target additional support to a wider group. UC provides a higher level of support for the most severely disabled people than the benefit it replaces, worth up to £328.32 per month.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of changes to universal credit announced in Budget 2018 on self-employed people.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The legacy system serves to prop up unsustainable enterprises indefinitely and trap claimants in welfare dependency. We want to support people to be self-employed when it is the right thing for them to do to be financially self-sufficient. Key to this is continuing to support people in, or considering, self-employment to progress to a level of sustained financial self-sufficiency.
We recognise that it takes time for new businesses to grow and that even established businesses can experience difficulties. Last month’s Autumn Budget announced a 12-month exemption period from the Universal Credit Minimum Income Floor (MIF) for all new gainfully self-employed claimants, and an extension of the New Enterprise Allowance programme for a further two years beyond its current expiry date of March 2019.
We already provide a 12-month start-up period where the MIF is not applied for newly created businesses. The new 12-month exemption period will include new claims, such as from those running a long-standing business and those moving from legacy benefits to Universal Credit, whether following a change of circumstances or moved by DWP. This also includes those existing Universal Credit claimants who become gainfully self-employed.
These changes will provide all gainfully self-employed claimants with an equal chance, and support from specially trained work coaches, to grow their earnings, prepare and adjust for the application of the MIF. Currently, we forecast that, in 2023/24 130,000 self-employed people will have the space to grow a successful business when moving on to Universal Credit
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many calls to the universal credit helpline were (a) received and (b) abandoned in each month from November 2017 to date .
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The table below shows the total number of calls received each month to the Universal Credit helplines and the total number of calls abandoned by the caller in each month.
| Calls Received | Calls Abandoned |
Nov-17 | - | - |
Dec-17 | 802,752 | 101,460 |
Jan-18 | 1,093,644 | 106,273 |
Feb-18 | 988,243 | 120,511 |
Mar-18 | 1,056,778 | 133,124 |
Apr-18 | 1,028,343 | 122,402 |
May-18 | 1,065,983 | 153,988 |
Jun-18 | 1,128,677 | 214,973 |
Jul-18 | 1,230,751 | 249,513 |
Aug-18 | 1,230,985 | 256,914 |
Sep-18 | 1,171,124 | 209,140 |
Notes:
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with a primary disability of deafness or hearing impairment aged between 16 to 25 applied for personal independence payment in the last 12 months.
Answered by Sarah Newton
In the application process, claimants’ main disabling condition is only recorded for collation by the Department at assessment. It is not recorded at the point of application. The Department does not therefore hold data on the number of applicants to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) with a primary disability of deafness or hearing impairment.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications her Department has received from deaf people aged 16 to 25 for personal independence payments in the last 12 months; and (a) what the outcome of each claim was and (b) how many of those applicants have requested a mandatory reconsideration or appealed to the social security tribunal.
Answered by Sarah Newton
In the application process, claimants’ main disabling condition is only recorded for collation by the Department at assessment. It is not recorded at the point of application. The Department does not therefore hold data on the number of all applicants or outcome of all applications to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) for people with a primary disability of deafness or hearing impairment.
For those who have undergone a PIP assessment, information on the number of initial decisions in 2017/18, and mandatory reconsiderations and appeals, for people aged 16 to 25 with a main disabling condition of a hearing disorder are shown in the table below.
Initial decisions, mandatory reconsiderations and appeals
| Number |
Initial Decisions |
|
Total | 1,450 |
Awarded | 620 |
Disallowed | 830 |
Withdrawn | # |
|
|
Mandatory Reconsiderations |
|
Registrations | 410 |
|
|
Clearances | 400 |
New Decision - Award Changed | 60 |
New Decision - Award Unchanged | 340 |
Decision Not Revised | 0 |
Withdrawn/ | # |
|
|
Appeals |
|
Receipts | 160 |
|
|
Clearances | 60 |
Decision overturned | 40 |
Decision maintained | 20 |
Data has been rounded to the nearest 10. Components may not sum to totals due to rounding.
'#' fewer than 5 decisions in this category.
The data relates to initial PIP decisions in 2017/18 and any MRs and appeals relating to those initial decisions recorded up to June 2018 (the latest published data on appeals). Claimants who have received benefit decisions more recently may not yet have had time to complete the claimant journey and progress to appeal.
PIP data includes normal rules and special rules for the terminally ill claimants, and is for both new claims and DLA reassessment claims.
Data is based on primary disabling condition as recorded on the PIP computer system. Claimants may often have multiple disabling conditions upon which the decision is based but only the primary condition is shown in these statistics.
Appeals data is taken from the DWP PIP computer system’s management information. Therefore this appeals data may differ from that held by Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service for various reasons such as delays in data recording and other methodological differences in collating and preparing statistics.
Some decisions which are changed at mandatory reconsideration, and where the claimant continues to appeal for a higher PIP award, are then changed again at tribunal appeal. Therefore the number of people who had a decision changed at mandatory reconsideration and the number of people who had a decision changed at tribunal appeal cannot be added together.
Decisions overturned at appeal may include a number of appeals that have been lapsed (which is where DWP changed the decision after an appeal was lodged but before it was heard at Tribunal).
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has published new guidance on the 10 yearly light touch review for personal independence payment claimants with severe conditions.
Answered by Sarah Newton
In August 2018, we introduced updated guidance for case managers which will ensure that those who receive the highest level of support under Personal Independence Payment, and where their needs are unlikely to change or may get worse, will now receive an ongoing award with a light touch review at the ten year point. A copy of the award period guidance will be placed in the Library.
The light touch review process and guidance itself has not yet been developed, but we aim to do so well in advance of the first such reviews taking place. We intend to consult with stakeholders as part of that process.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Written Statement of 19 January 2018 on Welfare, HCWS414, how many of the 1.6 million personal independence payment cases have been reviewed by her Department to date.
Answered by Sarah Newton
As outlined in the Written Statement of 25 June 2018 (HCWS793), my Department is carrying out an administrative exercise to identify anyone who may be entitled to more support under Personal Independence Payment (PIP) as a result of the MH and RJ judgments.
As additionally outlined in the Written Statement of 25 June 2018, I am committed to updating the House regularly and a statement on progress of this exercise will be tabled in the autumn.
The administrative cost of the exercise will depend on a number of factors, including the number of cases identified.