Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
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 introducing a maximum temperature in which working practices can take place.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to PQ119185, answered on 13th January 2023.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of changing the policy of the Child Maintenance Service to ensure that parents with historic unpaid child maintenance make repayments apportioned equally amongst cases rather than the current order of priority in use for the recovery of arrears.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Child Maintenance Services (CMS) main focus is to collect money owed to children who will benefit today, thereby preventing the build-up of arrears under CMS.
Therefore, the CMS continues to prioritise the collection of maintenance on cases that are still supporting a qualifying child.
When the ongoing maintenance on these cases has been satisfied, any remaining funds will be allocated, as per CMS payment allocation hierarchy, to cases with historic arrears on them.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans to publish the independent report on the Second State Pension age review.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
The independent report is currently being considered as part of a wide range of evidence that will inform the second Government Review of State Pension age. The Government Review will be published in early 2023, as announced at the Autumn Statement 2022. The independent report will be published alongside it.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has plans to revise the assessment process for Personal Independence Payment to make it more accessible for those who live with ME or CFS by ensuring assessors are specially trained to understand the condition.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
Assessment providers are required to ensure that all health professionals (HPs) carrying out Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments have training and knowledge of the clinical aspects and overall functional effects of a wide range of health conditions and impairments. The department does not believe that it is necessary for the provider to deploy HPs who are specialists in the specific conditions or impairments of the individuals they are assessing. Instead, the focus is on ensuring that HPs are experts in disability analysis, emphasising on the effects of health conditions and impairments on the claimant's daily life.
HPs can access a wide range of clinical resources to research any conditions presented. This includes evidence-based protocols, e-learning modules or case studies, as well as keeping knowledge up to date through Continuous Professional Development (CPD). Both PIP providers have a condition insight report on Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), and CPD modules for their HPs on the condition.
Claimants with ME/CFS are able to access PIP in the same way as other people with long-term health conditions or disabilities. DWP is committed to improving our services and works continuously with providers to improve the assessment process. The Shaping Future Support: The Health and Disability Green Paper, explored how the welfare system can better meet the needs of claimants now and in the future, by improving claimant experience of our services, enabling independent living, and improving employment outcomes. We are considering all the responses to the Green Paper proposals and are considering what future policy changes might look like. These will be set out in the White Paper later this year.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on what basis her Department made the decision to exclude people in the support group for new style Employment and Support Allowance from the £650 cost of living payment.
Answered by David Rutley
The Government is committed to managing the public finances in a responsible way bytargeting the £650 Cost of Living Payment support at the 8 million low income means-tested households where it is most needed. Contributory based Employment and Support Allowance is not a means-tested benefit.
In addition to the means-tested Cost of Living Payment, 6 million disabled people who receive an eligible non-means tested disability benefits, including Personal Independence Payments, will receive a one-off disability Cost of Living Payment of £150.
These payments are part of the government’s £15bn package of support and sits alongside
The guidance with the full list of support can be found at:
Overall government support for the cost of living: factsheet - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that staff conducting benefit assessments with people suffering from ME and long covid patients are aware of the harmful impact of inappropriate exercise, over-exertion and exposure to light, sound, touch and new environments on those people.
Answered by Chloe Smith
We have interpreted your question to mean what steps her department is taking to ensure that staff conducting health and disability benefit assessments with people suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) / Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) and Long Covid patients are aware of the harmful impact of inappropriate exercise, over-exertion and exposure to light, sound, touch and new environments on those people.
All Health Professionals (HPs) carrying out health and disability assessments are clinically qualified practitioners. They are subject to a rigorous recruitment process followed by a comprehensive training programme in disability assessment.
CFS / ME and Long Covid are medically recognised conditions associated with a range of disabling effects which depend upon the severity of the condition. HPs who undertake assessments on behalf of the department are trained to assess the disabling effects of these conditions, and have access to learning material on both Long Covid and CFS / ME. They do not advise on treatment or management of conditions.
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment provider, Capita, developed a Condition Insight Report on Long Covid, which was released to HPs on 17 May 2021, and is utilising Long Covid in scenarios embedded into various training programmes and modules as they are being updated.
PIP assessment provider, Independent Assessment Services (IAS), has a training module on coronaviruses and has also sent out a shortened clinical bulletin to their HPs in March 21.
All Centre for Health and Disability Assessments (CHDA) Healthcare Professionals (HCPs), who carry out the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) and assessments for Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB), were issued with a distance learning module on Long Covid in June 2021.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans her Department has to help ensure that women with autism and/or ADHD are consulted in order that their lived experience informs review processes for (a) personal independence payment, (b) universal credit, (c) employment support allowance and (d) severe disability premium.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Throughout the consultation period of ‘Shaping Future Support: The Health and Disability Green Paper’ we held events with disabled people, people with health conditions, and their representatives. Prior to the formal launch of the consultation, Members from both sides of the House hosted organisations and individuals from their own constituencies. The Department is currently reviewing responses to the Green Paper, which consider the full range of health and disability benefits, and we remain committed to responding with a White Paper next year.
In addition to this, both Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Assessment Providers have Health Condition Insight Reports that cover Autism specifically. These are completed by representative groups providing insights from real life examples to describe common issues faced by the people they support. One Provider has developed a podcast on ADHD available to all their Health Providers and both Providers are keen to continue their engagement with stakeholders on autism and ADHD.
We will continue to engage stakeholders regularly, particularly on future disability benefit reform.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average timescale is for a personal independence payment applicant to receive an assessment for (a) a new applications and (b) a renewal claim.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Data on clearance times for all PIP New Claims to January 2021 (the latest available data) is published in Table 2A of the PIP Statistics tables which can be found here:
This data does not distinguish between renewal claims and new applications. Column (iii) ‘Referral to AP to return from AP’ is measured as the average time between the date of referral to the Assessment Provider and the date of return of the Assessment Provider’s recommendation to DWP. This is a proxy for the length of time the claimant has waited for an assessment, because data on the dates that assessments took place is not held by DWP.