Asked by: Emma Dent Coad (Labour - Kensington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints have been (a) received and (b) determined by the Independent Case Examiner in each year since 2010.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The table below details the number of complaints (a) received (including the number accepted for examination) and (b) determined by the Independent Case Examiner in each full reporting year since 2010.
Reporting Year | Received | Accepted for Examination | Resolved or Settled to the complainants satisfaction | Determined by the Independent Case Examiner |
2010/11 | 3371 | 1333 | 746 | 641 |
2011/12 | 2672 | 1178 | 555 | 771 |
2012/13 | 2949 | 1001 | 360 | 899 |
2013/14 | 3233 | 1126 | 377 | 786 |
2014/15 | 3268 | 1149 | 229 | 888 |
2015/16 | 2628 | 1101 | 171 | 586 |
2016/17 | 2940 | 1137 | 211 | 660 |
2017/18 | 5857 | 2784 | 224 | 698 |
Asked by: Emma Dent Coad (Labour - Kensington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on what date the Government’s Legal Service cleared the revised wording of the ESA65B letters to claimants’ doctors prior to the Cabinet Secretary’s decision to issue a Ministerial Requirement.
Answered by Sarah Newton
DWP’s Legal Service cleared the revised wording on 29 July 2016 and the then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions subsequently authorised the changes.
Asked by: Emma Dent Coad (Labour - Kensington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 30 May 2018 to Question 146987 on Employment and Support Allowance, who attened the meetings between officials in his Department and the (a) British Medical Association and (b) Royal College of General Practitioners on the revised wording of the ESA65B; and if she will place in the Library a copy of the minutes of those meetings.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The names of the participants representing the British Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners who attended the meetings referred to constitute their personal data and in accordance with data protection principles, they will not be disclosed without informed consent. DWP officials did not take minutes of these meetings.
Asked by: Emma Dent Coad (Labour - Kensington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 4 June 2018 to Question 146989 on Independent Case Examiner, whether his Department has performance measures for the time taken to conclude investigations into complaints escalated to the Independent Case Examiner (ICE); and what steps are being taken to reduce the time taken for the ICE to make a decision.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The performance measures for the Independent Case Examiner’s Office and their achievement against those measures are published on their Gov.UK webpage. In recognition of the demand-led nature of the service provided by the Office, there is no performance measure for the time complaints wait to be brought into investigation. The Office has been allocated additional resource for the 2018/19 reporting year which should improve overall waiting times.
Asked by: Emma Dent Coad (Labour - Kensington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant the Answer of 16 May 2018 to Question 142517, whether the change in wording to the ESA65B letter to claimants’ doctors was authorised by the Cabinet Secretary at the request of the then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Officials from this Department engaged with the Cabinet Office on the development of new wording of the ESA65B letter, but changes were authorised by the then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, who has responsibility.
Asked by: Emma Dent Coad (Labour - Kensington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time taken to reach a determination on a complaint escalated to the Independent Case Examiner was in 2017-18.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Independent Case Examiner’s Office provides a demand led service. Once a complaint has been accepted for examination it awaits allocation to an investigation case manager. The time complaints wait to be brought into investigation depends on the volume of referrals received, the complexity of the cases on hand and the available investigative resource. During the 2017/18 reporting year the average time taken to reach a determination on a complaint escalated to the Independent Case Examiner (from the point the complaint was accepted for examination to case closure) was 60.87 weeks, whilst the average time taken to conclude an investigation from the point it was allocated to an investigation case manager to case closure was 19 weeks (against a target of 20 weeks).
Asked by: Emma Dent Coad (Labour - Kensington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March 2018 to Question 132729, how the British Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners were engaged with on the wording of the ESA65B letters by officials of her Department; and if she will place copies of related written responses in the Library of the House.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Officials from this Department engaged with the British Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners on the development of the revised ESA65B letter via regular meetings that DWP holds with both organisations, during which their agreement on the final wording was obtained.
No other external stakeholders were consulted on the development of the revised ESA65B letter.
Asked by: Emma Dent Coad (Labour - Kensington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether any external bodies apart from the British Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners were engaged by her Department to determine whether the adequacy of the revised wording of the ESA65B letter to welfare claimants’ GPs.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Officials from this Department engaged with the British Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners on the development of the revised ESA65B letter via regular meetings that DWP holds with both organisations, during which their agreement on the final wording was obtained.
No other external stakeholders were consulted on the development of the revised ESA65B letter.
Asked by: Emma Dent Coad (Labour - Kensington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March 2018 to Question 132726 on employment and support allowance, on what date the Cabinet Secretary issued the ministerial requirement that the wording of the ESA65B letters be revised.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Cabinet Secretary first issued the requirement to revise the ESA65B letter in November 2014.
The wording of the ESA65B was changed to emphasise the benefits of work and to ask GPs to encourage their patients in their efforts to return to some form of work.
The wording of the revised version includes the following link to guidance for GPs on issuing fit notes: www.gov.uk/government/publications/fit-note-guidance-for-gps.
This includes a link to detailed guidance on the benefits system for GPs available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-short-guide-to-the-benefit-system-for-general-practitioners which includes guidance on when a claimant is appealing and where their condition worsens or they develop a new condition.
Claimants can be paid Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) whilst appealing a decision, the rate of which is equivalent to that of Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA). In order for someone to be paid ESA pending an appeal they need to provide the Department with fit notes in order to be treated as having Limited Capability for Work until the appeal is determined. However, this doesn’t apply where the claimant fails a second Work Capability Assessment. Where this is the case then ESA will not be paid pending the appeal and the claimant would need to claim JSA or Universal Credit (UC) (depending on where they lived).
If a claimant’s GP does not provide them with a fit note during the appeal period they cannot be paid ESA but are able to claim JSA or UC where eligible.
Asked by: Emma Dent Coad (Labour - Kensington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March 2018 to Question 132726 on employment and support allowance, for what reasons the revised ESA65B letter no longer notifies doctors that they should continue to provide fit notes for claimants if they are appealing a decision or their condition worsens.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Cabinet Secretary first issued the requirement to revise the ESA65B letter in November 2014.
The wording of the ESA65B was changed to emphasise the benefits of work and to ask GPs to encourage their patients in their efforts to return to some form of work.
The wording of the revised version includes the following link to guidance for GPs on issuing fit notes: www.gov.uk/government/publications/fit-note-guidance-for-gps.
This includes a link to detailed guidance on the benefits system for GPs available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-short-guide-to-the-benefit-system-for-general-practitioners which includes guidance on when a claimant is appealing and where their condition worsens or they develop a new condition.
Claimants can be paid Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) whilst appealing a decision, the rate of which is equivalent to that of Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA). In order for someone to be paid ESA pending an appeal they need to provide the Department with fit notes in order to be treated as having Limited Capability for Work until the appeal is determined. However, this doesn’t apply where the claimant fails a second Work Capability Assessment. Where this is the case then ESA will not be paid pending the appeal and the claimant would need to claim JSA or Universal Credit (UC) (depending on where they lived).
If a claimant’s GP does not provide them with a fit note during the appeal period they cannot be paid ESA but are able to claim JSA or UC where eligible.