Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the quality of outcomes from the Disability Confident employment scheme.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
In 2021, we began a review of the Disability Confident scheme which was announced in the National Disability Strategy (NDS). The review was exploring ways the scheme could be strengthened, including the quality of outcomes for disabled people.
In January 2022, the High Court declared the NDS was unlawful because the UK Disability Survey, which informed it, was held to be a voluntary consultation that failed to comply with the legal requirements on public consultations. The Secretary of State wanted to minimise the risk of acting inconsistently with the Court’s declaration therefore, we paused a limited number of policies referred to in the strategy, including work directly related to the Disability Confident review. The Secretary of State has successfully obtained permission to appeal this decision. The Court of Appeal hearing is due to take place on 28 and 29 June 2023.
I am exploring what additional steps we can take, whilst respecting the Court’s decision and awaiting the outcome of the appeal.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce call waiting times on the benefit enquiry line.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP plans resourcing according to forecasted telephony demand in an effort to keep wait times down. Wait time performance and forecasted demand is frequently reviewed, and DWP is continually working to improve the service that it delivers. The Benefit Enquiry Line (0800 169 0310) freephone service which supports Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), Jobseekers Allowance and Income Support, is delivered by multiskilled colleagues, who are able to flex between lines to balance customer wait times. We are aware that the line is currently experiencing high wait times for ESA enquiries, although these can vary throughout the day, and we are working to improve this position.
The Department is investing in a new capability that aims to better route customers to the right offer at the right time. This will reduce the time callers spend listening to a menu of choices and instead invite customers to say why they are calling, at the start of the call.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions he has had with (a) Cabinet colleagues and (b) external stakeholders on accessing disabled young people's child trust funds.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Secretary of State has had no discussions with Cabinet colleagues or external stakeholders about accessing Child Trust Funds.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason his Department does not consider dentures to be an aid for carrying out daily living activity for Personal Independence Payment assessments.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
PIP provides a contribution towards the additional costs arising from a long-term health condition and/or disability. For somebody to be eligible for PIP, needs must have existed for 3 months and be likely to exist for at least another 9 (other than if a claimant is nearing the end of life). Eligibility to PIP is determined by a functional assessment of how the condition/disability impacts the individual’s ability to undertake a range of key daily living and mobility activities, and takes account of any help they need, which may include the use of aids and appliances.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to support business owners with chronic illnesses.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
A range of Government initiatives are supporting disabled people and people with long term health conditions (including business owners) to start, stay, and succeed in work. These include:
To tackle rising economic inactivity due to long-term sickness, we announced a wide-reaching package at the Spring Budget to support disabled people and people with health conditions to work. New investment broadens access to additional Work Coach support for disabled people and people with health conditions, introduces a new supported employment programme and focuses on providing faster access to joined-up work and health support, including for mental health and musculoskeletal conditions, the two leading causes of economic inactivity due to long term sickness
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department holds data on the number of business owners suffering with chronic illnesses.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
In 2021/22, there were a total of 660,000 self-employed working age (16-64) individuals in the UK who reported a long-term health condition that affected their day-to-day activities, therefore classifying them as disabled.*
*Source: The employment of disabled people 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk), table EMP003)
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has used artificial intelligence technologies to review Personal Independence Payment applications.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Artificial intelligence technologies have not been used in DWP to review Personal Independence Payment applications.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Personal Independence Payment tribunal hearings were attended by his Department in each of the last twelve months.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Personal Independence Payment tribunal hearings attended by a Department for Work and Pensions Presenting Officer
Date | Number of hearings |
Jan-22 | 980 |
Feb-22 | 1,130 |
Mar-22 | 890 |
Apr-22 | 750 |
May-22 | 810 |
Jun-22 | 700 |
Jul-22 | 760 |
Aug-22 | 830 |
Sep-22 | 1,360 |
Oct-22 | 1,900 |
Nov-22 | 2,000 |
Dec-22 | 1,480 |
Please note:
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff in his Department are trained to provide evidence at First-tier Tribunal appeals.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The number of staff trained to provide evidence at first-tier tribunal appeals is 150 full time equivalents (FTE).
Please note that the data supplied is from the departmental activity based models. This data is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal departmental use only, and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standards. It should therefore be treated with caution. The departmental activity based staffing models are a snapshot (March 2023) of how many people were identified as undertaking specified activities as assigned by line managers.
Child Maintenance Service figures exclude Enforcement Court Presenting Officers.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April to Question 176698 on Social Security Benefits: Disqualification, in what way the code used to process the data for Universal Credit sanction duration statistics was not performing as expected; and whether inaccurate data has been published as a result.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The department provides updates on the progress of the ongoing investigation on the main sanctions statistics page.