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, if she will clarify whether an appellant will lose their entitlement to that allowance pending appeal if the appellant's GP stops signing fit notes.
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 14 February 2018 to Question 127010, on employment and support allowance, how many ESA65B letters her Department has sent to doctors.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The ESA65B letter is issued to GPs in every case where an Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) claimant has been found ‘fit for work’. This process was built into the IT system as part of the introduction of ESA in October 2008.
Following a Ministerial requirement by the Cabinet Secretary, which was endorsed by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the content of the ESA65B letter has been improved in order to explain to GPs the type of support customers can expect to receive from their local Jobcentre, and to ask GPs to encourage customers in their efforts to return to work. As part of this work officials engaged with the British Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners to ensure that the revised wording was fit for purpose.
The Department does not hold information on the number of ESA65B letters sent to GPs.
I will place a copy of the ESA65B in the House Library.
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 14 February 2018 to Question 127010, on employment and support allowance, when her Department started sending ESA65B letters to GPs; and whether that policy was authorised by Ministers.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The ESA65B letter is issued to GPs in every case where an Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) claimant has been found ‘fit for work’. This process was built into the IT system as part of the introduction of ESA in October 2008.
Following a Ministerial requirement by the Cabinet Secretary, which was endorsed by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the content of the ESA65B letter has been improved in order to explain to GPs the type of support customers can expect to receive from their local Jobcentre, and to ask GPs to encourage customers in their efforts to return to work. As part of this work officials engaged with the British Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners to ensure that the revised wording was fit for purpose.
The Department does not hold information on the number of ESA65B letters sent to GPs.
I will place a copy of the ESA65B in the House Library.
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 14 February 2018 to Question 127010, on employment and support allowance, if she will place a copy of the ESA65B letter that her Department sends to GPs in the Library.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The ESA65B letter is issued to GPs in every case where an Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) claimant has been found ‘fit for work’. This process was built into the IT system as part of the introduction of ESA in October 2008.
Following a Ministerial requirement by the Cabinet Secretary, which was endorsed by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the content of the ESA65B letter has been improved in order to explain to GPs the type of support customers can expect to receive from their local Jobcentre, and to ask GPs to encourage customers in their efforts to return to work. As part of this work officials engaged with the British Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners to ensure that the revised wording was fit for purpose.
The Department does not hold information on the number of ESA65B letters sent to GPs.
I will place a copy of the ESA65B in the House Library.
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, if she will instruct her officials to copy employment and support allowance claimants into all correspondence that they address to those claimants' doctors.
Answered by Sarah Newton
To send claimants a copy of all correspondence would incur unnecessary duplication. When making a claim, customers give their consent for the Department to contact their doctor or other healthcare professionals for further medical information if required and to inform them of the outcome of their assessment. To send claimants a copy of these would incur unnecessary duplication.
The Department is continually reviewing and amending claimant communications, in consultation with support organisations and the assessment provider, to ensure they are clear and informative and meet claimants’ needs
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 her Department has written to the doctors of claimants who have been refused employment and support allowance to advise those doctors that they should stop supplying claimants with fit notes and encourage them to return to work.
Answered by Sarah Newton
We send doctors a letter called an ESA65B, after a customer has been found fit for work, stating that they no longer need to provide further notes for the purposes of Employment and Support Allowance. This letter also states what support customers can expect to receive from their local Jobcentre and asks doctors to encourage customers in their efforts to return to work.