Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time taken is for an award of employment support allowance to be made to an applicant suffering from cancer.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of pension credit claimants in (a) Warrington, (b) Warrington North constituency and (c) the North West who have a partner of working age and will be affected by forthcoming changes to the rules on pension credit.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The changes the government announced on January 14 will ensure that the same work incentives will apply to the younger partner as apply to other people of the same age, and that taxpayer support is directed to where it is needed most.
The changes will not affect mixed age couples who are entitled to Pension Credit and/or pension age Housing Benefit immediately before 15 May, unless their entitlement to both those benefits subsequently ends.
The number of future mixed age couples that are estimated to be affected by forthcoming changes is not available.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many patients diagnosed with terminal brain tumours have been (a) placed in the work-related activity group and (b) required to attend interviews by DWP officers administering benefits.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
The honourable lady might be interested to know that people diagnosed with a terminal illness, where as a consequence of that disease their life expectancy is reasonably believed to be six months or less, will not need to have a face-to-face assessment. They will be treated as having limited capability for work-related activity and will be placed in the Employment and Support Allowance Support Group, or Universal Credit equivalent, where they are not required to take part in any work-related activity, including attending interviews with DWP officers.
Claims made under these rules have a decision made on their entitlement as quickly as possible.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance her Department issues to staff dealing with applications for benefit by people diagnosed with brain tumour; and if she will place a copy of that guidance in the Library.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Department does not issue condition-specific guidance to its benefit processing or decision making staff. Assessment of the impact of health conditions, including brain tumour, is carried out by trained, independent healthcare professionals, who are clinically qualified and have received comprehensive training in disability analysis and identifying the effects that health conditions and impairments can have on individuals.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
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 on the level of indebtedness of people in Warrington of waiting times for personal independence payment appeal hearings in local county courts.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is intended to act as a contribution towards the extra costs that arise as a result of a long-term health condition or disability. There are nine possible award outcomes and, where applicable, claimants continue to receive their award during the appeal process. Whilst it is acknowledged that waiting for an appeal to be heard can be stressful, equally it would be wrong to pay the benefit at a rate other than that which has already been determined within the law.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with a diagnosed mental illness have received benefit sanctions in Warrington North in the last 12 months for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Statistics are available on the number of individuals in receipt of Employment and Support Allowance with a primary disabling condition, in the category Mental or Behavioural Disorder, who received an adverse sanction decision. This information is available by constituency and is published on Stat-Xplore at: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.
Guidance on how to extract the relevant information can be found at:
https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
We engage at a personal and individual level with all of our claimants and are committed to tailoring the support that we give, and any conditionality requirements to the specific circumstances of the individuals.
We take a number of steps to make sure our decisions are fair. When considering whether a sanction is appropriate, a Decision Maker will take all the claimant’s individual circumstances, including any health conditions or disabilities and any evidence of good cause, into account before deciding whether a sanction is warranted. We have a well-established system of hardship payments, available as a safeguard if a claimant demonstrates that they cannot meet their immediate and most essential needs, including accommodation, heating, food and hygiene, as a result of their sanction.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of staff carrying out assessments for personal independence payments have received training in the assessment of mental health conditions and the effect of such conditions on applicants.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Health Care Professionals (HCPs) undertaking PIP assessments must have at least 2 years post full registration experience (this refers to either UK registration or equivalent overseas registration for non-UK HCPs) or less than 2 years post full registration experience by individual, prior, written agreement with the Department. Requests by providers to employ Health Care Professionals with less than 2 years post full registration experience are rare and exceptional.
All HCPs receive training on how to identify the impact of mental health conditions on claimants. This is followed by on-going professional training and support which continues for the duration of their employment in the role.
In addition, Mental Health Champions support HCPs by providing additional expertise about mental health, cognitive, developmental and learning disabilities and can be referred to at any time during the assessment process.
HCPs make every attempt to obtain the best evidence available to assist them in undertaking the assessment. This includes accessing evidence from Community Mental Health Teams, psychologists, psychiatrists and other medical professionals. Health Assessment Providers frequently engage with medical experts, charities and relevant stakeholders to strengthen, review and update training programmes for all their assessment staff.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what training in assessing mental health conditions is available to officials dealing with personal independence claims; and what proportion of such staff have received such training.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Training for Health Professionals on how to identify the impact of mental health conditions on a claimant’s ability to carry out the PIP assessment activities is a key feature of both Assessment Providers training programmes.
In addition, both Assessment Providers also have Mental Function Champions who are available to provide advice and support to Health Professionals at any point during the assessment process. These are specialist practitioners who have at least 2 years of post–registration clinical experience in a mental health or learning disability role.
All DWP Operational staff go through a programme of learning and development during their induction into the Department to equip them to support vulnerable people who access our services. They do not undertake specific training to assess mental health as this would need to be carried out by an appropriate medical expert.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of universal credit claimants in Warrington North constituency have an advance payment agreement.
Answered by Damian Hinds
I refer the Member to the answer given on 8 November 17 to question 110869
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average waiting time for payment of an award of universal credit is in (a) the North West and (b) Warrington.
Answered by Damian Hinds
There is no data broken down by area or region. However, data published on 15 September 2017 shows that, nationally, 81% of new full service claims received their first payment in full and on time. Across the whole of Universal Credit 92% of all households received full payment on time. The published data can be found here.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/universal-credit-payment-timeliness-january-to-june-2017