Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 6 March 2023 to Question 154053 on Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence Payment, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of safeguards to prevent vulnerable claimants’ claims falling out of payment.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Some claimants may not be able to engage effectively with the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claims process due to vulnerability – for example, they may not understand the consequences of not returning a claim or review form and not have a personal acting body (PAB) to help them. Claimants identified as requiring additional support (AS) during the gathering of initial claim information, or at a later date in the claimant journey, can have an AS marker added to their claim. Elements of the PIP claims process have been adapted to provide further support for this group, including not disallowing them for non-return of a form.
The PIP Assessment Guide is guidance for health professionals carrying out assessments and includes a section (1.12) on identifying claimants who require AS to engage with the PIP application process.
We regularly review the use of the AS marker to ensure it continues to protect those who find it difficult to engage with the PIP process.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 21 February 2023 to Question 142827 on Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence Payment, for what reasons his Department does not collect information on the causation of a failure to return the AR1 review forms.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
We do not collect information on the causation of a failure to return the AR1 review forms, which then results in a disallowance for Personal Independence Payment (PIP).
Claimants may decide not to return the AR1 form for many reasons, including that they no longer need PIP. Extensions to complete the AR1 are available if the need is there, and if requested. Only a small proportion of PIP claims are disallowed for non-return of the AR1 form, and safeguards are in place to prevent vulnerable claimants’ claims falling out of payment.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 21 February 2023 to Question 142827 on Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence Payment, whether his Department plans to collect information on the causation of a failure to return the AR1 review forms.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
We do not collect information on the causation of a failure to return the AR1 review forms, which then results in a disallowance for Personal Independence Payment (PIP).
Claimants may decide not to return the AR1 form for many reasons, including that they no longer need PIP. Extensions to complete the AR1 are available if the need is there, and if requested. Only a small proportion of PIP claims are disallowed for non-return of the AR1 form, and safeguards are in place to prevent vulnerable claimants’ claims falling out of payment.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications to the Access to Work Scheme were outstanding as of 26 January 2023 in (a) England, (b) Wales and (c) Scotland.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
There was a total of 24,565 applications to the Access to Work scheme outstanding as of 26 January 2023. We do not hold the information separately for (a) England, (b) Wales and (c) Scotland.
Access to Work has received a significant increase in applications over the last year and we have recruited new staff to meet the increased demand and reduce the time it takes to make decisions. Customers making new applications, where they are starting work within the next 4 weeks, or have a grant coming to an end that requires renewal, are prioritised to ensure that customers are able to enter and remain in the labour market. We are also transforming the Access to Work service through increased digitalisation, that will make the service more efficient, will make the application process easier, and improve the time taken from application through to decision.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) Personal Independence Payment and (b) Disability Living Allowance claimants are identified as needing additional support in the last month for which data is available.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
All Personal Independence Payment (PIP) customers with an Additional Support (AS) marker at registration are automatically referred to an assessment provider. The table below shows the number of PIP claimants who had a confirmed AS marker at the point of registration and the number who were referred to an assessment provider. The latest data is up to October 2022.
These figures do not include the claimants who were given an AS marker at later stages of the process, and not all these registrations would have necessarily gone on to be awarded.
Year | Claimants with a confirmed AS marker at registration | Claimants automatically progressed to an assessment provider |
Nov 2021 – Oct 2022 | 131,100 | 130,700 |
Nov 2020 – Oct 2021 | 187,800 | 187,800 |
Nov 2019 – Oct 2020 | 133,800 | 133,800 |
Nov 2018 – Oct 2019 | 50,900 | 50,900 |
Nov 2017 – Oct 2018 | 62,200 | 62,100 |
AS customers cannot be disallowed from PIP for failing to return their PIP2 form, so the difference in figures between registrations and referrals to an assessment provider, may be due to other circumstances such as the claimant pulling out of the process.
The number of current PIP recipients with an AS marker in October 2022 was 422,200. This will include claimants who received an AS marker after registration. The equivalent data is not available for recipients of Disability Living Allowance.
Source: PIP Atomic Data Store
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Personal Independence Payment claimants were identified as needing Additional Support and automatically progressed to the provider for an assessment in each of the last five years.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
All Personal Independence Payment (PIP) customers with an Additional Support (AS) marker at registration are automatically referred to an assessment provider. The table below shows the number of PIP claimants who had a confirmed AS marker at the point of registration and the number who were referred to an assessment provider. The latest data is up to October 2022.
These figures do not include the claimants who were given an AS marker at later stages of the process, and not all these registrations would have necessarily gone on to be awarded.
Year | Claimants with a confirmed AS marker at registration | Claimants automatically progressed to an assessment provider |
Nov 2021 – Oct 2022 | 131,100 | 130,700 |
Nov 2020 – Oct 2021 | 187,800 | 187,800 |
Nov 2019 – Oct 2020 | 133,800 | 133,800 |
Nov 2018 – Oct 2019 | 50,900 | 50,900 |
Nov 2017 – Oct 2018 | 62,200 | 62,100 |
AS customers cannot be disallowed from PIP for failing to return their PIP2 form, so the difference in figures between registrations and referrals to an assessment provider, may be due to other circumstances such as the claimant pulling out of the process.
The number of current PIP recipients with an AS marker in October 2022 was 422,200. This will include claimants who received an AS marker after registration. The equivalent data is not available for recipients of Disability Living Allowance.
Source: PIP Atomic Data Store
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 6 February 2023 to Question 135440 on Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence Payment, what assessment he has made of the reason for the increase in the number of Personal Independence Payment claims disallowed for non-return of the AR1 form between 2017 and 2021.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
No such assessment has been carried out as we do not collect information on the causation of a failure to return the AR1 review forms, which then result in a disallowance for Personal Independence Payment.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department takes to ensure it can correctly identify benefits claimants in need of additional support.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
All benefit lines have processes in place to identify claimants in need of additional support. For example, all DWP staff are required to undertake mandatory mental health awareness training to ensure they recognise, and respond to, the needs of claimants with mental health conditions. As processes are different across benefits, however, the exact approaches to additional support can vary.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Personal Independence Payment claimants were identified as needing Additional Support and automatically progressed to the provider for an assessment but (a) did not have an assessment or (b) had their claim disallowed after the assessment in each of the last five years.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Table (a) shows the number of claimants identified as needing Additional Support who were automatically progressed to the provider for assessment but were disallowed. Claimants who did not have an assessment after being progressed to the provider are those who failed to attend their assessment. Claimants who the case manager determines did not score enough points to be awarded the benefit are indicated in the table below as “Disallowed – failed assessment”. In more recent years, more claims have been made to Personal Independence Payment (PIP), and more claims have been identified as needing Additional Support.
Table (a) – Disallowances at assessment provider of claimants identified as needing Additional Support
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
Disallowed - Failed to Attend | 1600 | 2200 | 1500 | 900 | 2100 |
Disallowed - Failed Assessment | 1700 | 2300 | 2100 | 6500 | 18000 |
Source: PIP Atomic Data Store (ADS)
Notes:
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has guidance on additional measures to take when a recipient of (a) Personal Independence Payment and (b) Disability Living Allowance who his Department has identified as vulnerable does not return a re-assessment form.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Please find attached the following sections of our Operational Instructions: