Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he plans to take to ensure that the Government's Work and Health Programme will ensure that autistic people have access to specialist support.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Work and Health Programme will provide targeted support to disabled people, including individuals with long term health conditions. We expect providers will take a holistic approach when supporting this claimant group into work. By ensuring that wider barriers to employment are tackled, individuals have a better chance of finding, securing and retaining employment.
These barriers will include linking up with health, social care and other local and specialist services to meet health needs, including services supporting people with autism if this is one of the barriers to work, but the focus will be on overcoming the key barriers to employment not just health support.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many universal credit payments have been paid back to claimants in the Borough of Halton in the last 12 months.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The information requested on Universal Credit payments is not available.
Universal Credit official statistics can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/universal-credit-statistics
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications for personal independence payments (PIP) have been rejected since the introduction of PIP; how many applications for PIP have been rejected in (a) Halton constituency, (b) Cheshire and (c) Merseyside in that period; and how many people in each of those three areas whose PIP applications were rejected successfully appealed against that rejection in that same period.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The latest available data on personal independence payment (PIP) registrations and clearances split by geographical area (local authority and parliamentary constituency) and by type of clearance (i.e. whether the claim was awarded, disallowed or withdrawn) for both new claims and reassessed claims, can be found at https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here: https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html.
Information on the number of PIP appeals and their outcomes is published by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). A link to the latest national level statistics published on 6 June 2016 can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/528235/main-tables.xlsx See table 2.7. However, the data is not published at lower geographical levels.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications for personal independence payments (PIP) have been rejected since the introduction of PIP.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The latest available data on personal independence payment (PIP) registrations and clearances split by geographical area (local authority and parliamentary constituency) and by type of clearance (i.e. whether the claim was awarded, disallowed or withdrawn) for both new claims and reassessed claims, can be found at https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here: https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html.
Information on the number of PIP appeals and their outcomes is published by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). A link to the latest national level statistics published on 6 June 2016 can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/528235/main-tables.xlsx See table 2.7. However, the data is not published at lower geographical levels.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in Halton constituency waited more than (a) one month, (b) three and (c) six months for a decision on their personal independence payment claim in the last three years.
Answered by Mark Harper - Secretary of State for Transport
The available information on average (median) waiting times, at a national level, has been published and is available from the Personal Independence Payment statistics home page: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/personal-independence-payment-statistics. The requested level of disaggregation could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the number of people affected by the under-occupancy penalty in Halton Borough council area.
Answered by Mark Harper - Secretary of State for Transport
The information requested for people in Halton Unitary Authority affected by the under-occupancy penalty, is published and available at:
This information is also published at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Stat-Xplore_User_Guide.htm
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 7 July 2014, Official Report, column 110W, on personal independence payment, what the average clearance times were for claims from terminally ill people at (a) 31 January 2014 and (b) 30 June 2014.
Answered by Mike Penning
Statistics on clearance times are intended for future publication and the Department's analysts are currently considering what information will be included in the release.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people are currently waiting for an assessment for personal independence payment in the Halton local authority area; and what the average waiting time for an assessment is in that area.
Answered by Mike Penning
There are several reasons why a registered claim may not yet have a decision, for example the claimant has not yet returned their additional information form or is awaiting their assessment date, DWP have not yet made a decision on their claim, or the claimant has advised that they wish to withdraw their claim. At the end of March 2014, around 1300 people in the Halton Local Authority had registered a New Claim for PIP and around 400 decisions had been made.
Statistics on clearance times are intended for future publication and the Department's analysts are currently considering what information will be included in the release.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what forecast his Department has made of the length of time each part of the claims process for personal independence payment (PIP) up to provision of accurate and targeted assessments will take; and what guidance his Department uses for a reasonable amount of time for an individual to wait for an accurate targeted assessment for PIP.
Answered by Mike Penning
We keep the time taken to process claims under constant review and are absolutely committed to improving performance. We accept that the delays faced by some people are unacceptable, and we are committed to putting that right. By the Autumn, we expect no one to be waiting for an assessment for longer than 26 weeks and by the end of the year, we expect no one will be waiting longer than 16 weeks.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
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 better identify personal independence payment claimaints who could be assessed solely on the basis of written evidence and without the need for face-to-face assessments.
Answered by Mike Penning
I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave the hon. Member for Lewisham East (Heidi Alexander), on 2 July 2014, Official Report, column 641W.