Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps is she taking to speed up the approval process for (a) St Helens Chamber, which is already an approved provider for her Department and (b) other kickstarter gateways.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
All applications for funding from the Department for Work & Pensions’ Kickstart Scheme are assessed according to the same criteria and are subject to the same tests of due diligence. We anticipate applications to take 4 weeks although they can take longer. We anticipate that the time taken to process applications will reduce as the scheme is rolled out.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to abolish the minimum age of eligibility for the mobility component of disability living allowance.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Whilst there are no proposals to change the current age restrictions for the mobility component of Child Disability Living Allowance, the Department understands the difficulties that some families with severely disabled children under the age of three may face, particularly those whose reliance on bulky medical equipment makes transportation difficult.
After being introduced by the Department, the Motability charity and Family Fund have begun a pilot to support families with their mobility needs. While I am not yet in a position to provide full details of the scheme and how it will operate, I hope to be able to do so in the coming months.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the level of knowledge of the impact of sight impairment among personal independence payment assessors; and what steps her Department is taking to improve the knowledge of that condition among assessors.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The PIP assessment is not a medical assessment requiring the assessor to diagnose a condition and recommend treatment options. The focus is on ensuring that the Health Professionals are experts in disability analysis, focusing on the effects of health conditions and impairments on the individual’s daily life.
All Health Care Professionals receive training on a wide range of conditions including sight loss and visual impairments. They have access to a range of resources as well as experienced clinicians within their business, to support them in assessing claimants with these conditions.
In addition, Assessment Providers engage with medical experts, sight loss charities and relevant stakeholders to strengthen, review and update their training programmes.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2018 to Question 124897, and the Answer of 19 January 2018 to Question 122944, what plans she has to ensure that information for Employment Support Allowance is available in the same form as information for personal independence payments.
Answered by Sarah Newton
As policies, processes and monitoring systems may vary, it is not always possible to produce the same statistics for each benefit administered by the Department. DWP statisticians work to produce statistics that most appropriately reflect the processes being measured for each individual benefit but, in cases where there are similarities, will aim to make the statistics as comparable as possible.
The Department publishes quarterly statistics on Employment and Support Allowance (ESA): Outcomes of Work Capability Assessments (WCA) which include figures on mandatory reconsiderations and appeals of WCA decisions. These statistics are not currently available to parliamentary constituency level but DWP statisticians are investigating how to extend the geography information provided. The statistics can be found at the following link:
With reference to Question 122944, equivalent national figures for appeals on initial and repeat ESA WCAs are available in Table 17 of these statistics. This table covers experimental statistics on the number of initial and repeat ESA WCA assessment which result in a mandatory reconsideration or an appeal.
Official statistics on all appeals made with respect to ESA claims are published by Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) and can be found at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics
As these are not DWP statistics, responsibility for their format lies with HMCTS
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2018 to Question 125988, for what reasons personal independence payment claimants are not given the full list of descriptors against which they are assessed; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Claimants to Personal Independence Payment are not provided with a list of descriptors because the PIP2 questionnaire, “How your disability affects you”, was designed to allow claimants to tell us, in their own words, how their health condition or disability impacts them on a day-to-day basis. The questionnaire, which was co-produced with the assistance of disabled people, carers and organisations supporting them, is accompanied by a leaflet that helps claimants complete the form. The assessment activities and descriptors used in PIP can be found in part 2 of the PIP Assessment Guide available on www.gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/665635/pip-assessment-guide-part-2-assessment-criteria.pdf
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to provide personal independence payments (PIP) claimants with an accompanying list of functional descriptors used to assess PIP claims and the points each descriptor carries.
Answered by Sarah Newton
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to her previous Question UIN 123022.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 25 January 2018 to Question 123740 on social security benefits: disability, how many times decision makers or quality assurance managers have contacted an assessment provider for clarification, advice or to return reports for re-work as unacceptable in each of the last three years.
Answered by Sarah Newton
For benefits administered under the Health and Disability Assessment Services contract rework volumes are recorded but volumes of enquiries for advice and clarification are not. Rework volumes for these benefits in 2017, 2016 and 2015 can be found in the table below:
Year | Total Re-work |
2015 | 513 |
2016 | 632 |
2017 | 481 |
For Personal Independence Payments both rework and advice volumes are recorded, but clarification enquiry volumes are not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate costs. Rework and advice volumes for PIP in 2017, 2016 and 2015 can be found in the table below:
Year | Total Re-work | Total Advice Requests | Total number of PIP assessments |
2015 | 1,493 | 34,687 | 684,460 |
2016 | 1,967 | 58,436 | 970,139 |
2017 | 11,228 | 77,493 | 1,042,638 |
It should be noted that in June 2017 the Department clarified the criteria that Case Managers should apply for the identification of PIP rework.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what feedback mechanisms for reporting errors relating to personal independence payments assessments are in place between the courts and healthcare assessment providers.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The fact a tribunal comes to a different conclusion does not mean there has previously been an error. DWP decisions are most often overturned because of new written evidence that the claimant has not provided to DWP to consider previously or because of the claimant’s oral evidence.
Over the past year the department has recruited over 150 Presenting Officers. These are being used at PIP and ESA hearings and are now providing direct feedback to decision makers and the assessment providers. Where appeals progress to the Upper Tribunal and the courts, the decisions and judgments handed down are used, where appropriate, to review existing decision making guidance, including that relating to PIP assessments.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to collate and publish data relating to employment support allowance similar to that which is made available on personal independence payments.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The published Employment and Support Allowance, including Work Capability Assessment outcomes, and Personal Independence Payment statistics are very similar in coverage and include, for example: number of starts, number of claims in payment, characteristics of the claimants, and Mandatory Reconsiderations.
Quarterly statistics on Employment and Support Allowance, including Work Capability Assessment outcomes, and Personal Independence Payment are regularly published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/about/statistics
The Department recently published its response to a consultation on future changes to Employment and Support Allowance: Outcomes of Work Capability Assessments as part of a wider consultaiton on Universal Credit that can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-statistics-background-information
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the letter from the Financial Secretary to the Treasury to the hon. Member for St Helen's South and Whiston of 15 December 2017, whether a child in full-time education may claim disability benefit in their own right from the age of 16.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Young adults aged 16 and over can claim and receive Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in their own right regardless of whether they are in any form of education, training or work. An appointee can make a claim on the young adult’s behalf where they are unable to handle their own affairs.