Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer on 30 April 2019 to Question 245707, Personal Independence Payment: Terminal Illnesses, what criteria is used by Assessment Providers to determine whether a claimant does not satisfy the terminally ill definition.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The criteria used by Personal Independence Payment Assessment Providers dealing with claims under Special Rules for Terminal Illness (SRTI) are set out in legislation and are that the claimant: ‘is suffering from a progressive disease and death in consequence of that disease can reasonably be expected within 6 months’.
Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer on 18 March 2019 to Question 230077, Personal Independence Payment, for what reasons 100 claims made under special rules for the terminally ill were disallowed due to non-return of Part 2 within the time limit.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Some claims to Personal Independence Payment made under special rules for terminally ill people can be found not to satisfy the definition of terminal illness. When this occurs the claim is processed under the normal rules, which includes asking the claimant to complete a PIP2 questionnaire. A claim can be disallowed if the claimant fails to return the PIP2 questionnaire under the normal rules process, even though the claimant originally made their claim under special rules for terminally ill people.
Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
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 accessibility of the digital DS1500 service by GPs in the Welsh NHS who do not (a) have NHS smartcards and (b) use NHS.net email addresses.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
User research with clinicians to develop the Report that a patient may live less than 6 months (Digital DS1500) found that using the NHS smartcard authentication into the service was the preferred approach to ensure sensitive patient data was protected. Extending smartcard identity management into Wales would be a decision for NHS Wales and at present there are no active plans to pursue this.
Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 1 February 2019 to Question 209781, Personal Independence Payment: Terminal Illnesses, how many claimants who registered under special rules for terminal illness over a year after being disallowed at initial decision under normal rules died within (a) three months and (b) six months of their registration.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Between April 2013 and October 2018, 2,840 Personal Independence Payments (PIP) claims were registered under Special Rules for Terminally Ill people (SRTI) by claimants at least 12 months after they had previously been disallowed at initial decision under normal rules. To put this into context, over 4 million applications to PIP were made between April 2013 and 31st October 2018.
The table below shows the number of these PIP claimants who died within 3 months or within 6 months of their SRTI registration between April 2013 and 30th April 2019.
Table 1: Number of Claimants who died after their Special Rules for The Terminally Ill registration which took place at least 12 months after a Normal Rules initial disallowance
Time between Special Rules Registration and Death | Number of Claimants |
Less Than 3 Months | 440 |
Less Than 6 Months | 740 |
Source: PIP ADS and Customer Information System
Notes:
Under the Social Security (Notification of Deaths) Regulations 2012 and s125 of Social Security Administration Act 1992 date of death is provided to the Department for all registered deaths. Additionally, next of kin also provide information on the date of death of an individual and this information is used appropriately in the administration of Departmental benefits.
Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 1 February 2019 to Question 209781, Personal Independence Payment: Terminal Illnesses, how much it cost in administration to process claims from initially registering under normal rules to receiving an award under special rules for terminal illness.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many state pension forecasts have been revised down after people have raised discrepancies with their statements in each of the last five years.
Answered by Guy Opperman
State Pension Forecasts are based on the National Insurance record at the time the State Pension Forecast is produced. If the National Insurance record changes subsequently this will affect the forecast. The DWP does not hold data in relation to changes to State Pension Forecasts following discrepancies being raised by customers. Where discrepancies are identified the DWP refers to HMRC for investigation.
Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure the accuracy of state pension forecasts.
Answered by Guy Opperman
State Pension Forecasts are based on the National Insurance record at the time the State Pension Forecast is produced. If the National Insurance record changes subsequently this will affect the forecast. The DWP does not hold data in relation to changes to State Pension Forecasts following discrepancies being raised by customers. Where discrepancies are identified the DWP refers to HMRC for investigation.
Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 1 February 2019 to Question 209776 on Personal Independence Payment, how many of the 56,920 claimants of personal independence payments who died within six months of their claim being registered received a payment claimed under (a) the normal rules and (b) the special rules for terminal illness process.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Over 3.6 million applications to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) were made between April 2013 and 30th April 2018. 73,870 of these claimants died within 6 months of their claim being registered.
Under the Social Security (Notification of Deaths) Regulations 2012 and s125 of Social Security Administration Act 1992 date of death is provided to the Department for all registered deaths. Additionally, next of kin also provide information on the date of death of an individual and this information is used appropriately in the administration of Departmental benefits.
56,950* of the 73,870 claims have been credited with a payment. 16,520 and 40,430 of these claimants registered their PIP claim under Normal Rules and Special Rules for Terminal Illness respectively.
*This is a slight increase on the answer to Question 209776 (56,920) as payments continue to be credited.
There is no evidence in this data to suggest someone’s reason for claiming PIP was the cause of their death and it would be misleading to suggest otherwise. People claim PIP for various reasons, the majority of which are non-life threatening.
Notes:
Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 18 March 2019 to Question 230076 on Personal Independence Payment, how many claimants of personal independence payments over that period who applied under the special rules for terminal illness process and had their claim disallowed subsequently lived for longer than six months; what medical conditions those claimants had; and what reasons were given for their claims being disallowed.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Table 1A shows the main disabling conditions of personal independence payment (PIP) claimants who registered a claim under special rules for terminal illness (SRTI) and were disallowed but had not died within 6 months of their claim being registered. The claim may have been disallowed under normal rules or special rules for terminal illness as claims can transition between the two as the claim progresses. The Department only records a claimant’s disability at assessment so does not hold this information where a claimant was disallowed prior to attending an assessment.
Table 1A: Disability Category of claimants who registered a claim under SRTI and were disallowed and had not died within 6 months of registration. Registrations to 30th April 2018 and Clearances to 31st October 2018.
Disability | Number of Outcomes |
Autoimmune disease (connective tissue disorders) | 30 |
Cardiovascular disease | 250 |
Diseases of the immune system | - |
Diseases of the liver, gallbladder, biliary tract | 110 |
Endocrine disease | 110 |
Gastrointestinal disease | 110 |
Genitourinary disease | 140 |
Haematological Disease | 30 |
Hearing disorders | 30 |
Infectious disease | 90 |
Malignant disease | 1,070 |
Metabolic disease | - |
Musculoskeletal disease (general) | 290 |
Musculoskeletal disease (regional) | 420 |
Neurological disease | 350 |
Psychiatric disorders | 820 |
Respiratory disease | 280 |
Skin disease | 50 |
Unknown or missing | 2,610 |
Visual disease | 30 |
Total (ALL) | 6,830 |
*The Department only records a claimant’s disability at assessment so does not hold this information where a claimant was disallowed prior to attending an assessment.
Table 1B shows the first outcomes at the initial assessment of PIP claimants who had registered a claim under SRTI but were disallowed and had not died within 6 months of their claim being registered.
It is possible for a PIP claim made under special rules for terminal illness to be rejected as a special rules case by the Assessment Provider for not satisfying the terminally ill definition. When this occurs the claim is subsequently referred back to the Department for Work and Pensions and the claim process will proceed under normal rules. A claim can be disallowed for the claimant failing to return the PIP2 form or attend an assessment under the normal rules process, even though the claimant originally registered under special rules.
Table 1B: Outcome of claimants who had not died 6 months after registration: Registrations to 30th April 2018 and Clearances to 31st October 2018.
Outcome | Number of Outcomes |
Disallowed pre-referral to the AP | 440 |
Disallowed pre-referral to the AP - due to non return of Part 2 within the time limit | 1,450 |
Disallowed post-referral to the AP - Failed Assessment | 4,160 |
Disallowed post-referral to the AP - FTA | 780 |
Total | 6,830 |
Source: PIP ADS
Notes:
Under the Social Security (Notification of Deaths) Regulations 2012 and s125 of Social Security Administration Act 1992 date of death is provided to the Department for all registered deaths. Additionally, next of kin also provide information on the date of death of an individual and this information is used appropriately in the administration of Departmental benefits.
Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 18 March 2019 to Question 230077 on Personal Independence Payment, which team is responsible for making decisions to disallow claims under special rules for the terminally ill prior to a referral to the assessment provider.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Cases under Special Rules for the Terminally Ill are routinely referred to the Assessment Provider for a decision and not disallowed by DWP staff. The exception to this would only be when a claim is made by a customer outside of the age restrictions or where there is no recourse to public funds e.g. fails to meet nationality requirements.
Previous Question 230077 asked about claims made under special rules for terminal illness and reason for disallowance. It is possible for a PIP claim made under special rules for terminal illness to be rejected as a special rules case by the Assessment Provider for not satisfying the terminally ill definition. When this occurs the claim is subsequently referred back to the Department for Work and Pensions and the claim process will proceed under normal rules. A claim can be disallowed for the claimant failing to return the PIP2 form or failing to attend an assessment under the normal rules process, even though the claimant originally registered under special rules.