Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants of Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) received less than two months notice of the closure of SMI.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Data on the number of claimants who will have less than 2 months’ notice of the introduction of SMI on 6 April 2018 is not available. A managed information provision process began in July 2017 to inform all existing recipients of SMI benefit of the new scheme. The regulations contain provision for all claimants to be given at least 6 weeks from the loan offer to make a decision whether to accept or decline an SMI loan before their SMI benefit payments cease. This 6 week period may run beyond 6 April 2018.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
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 effect of the ending of Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) on (a) homeowners who are recipients of SMI and (b) mortgage lenders if claimants do not take up the Government loan scheme.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) is not ending. The scheme will continue to provide financial support owner-occupiers in times of need in exactly the same way as it does now. Claimants and mortgage lenders will not see any difference in the payments they receive. The only difference is that we will require repayment of the loan once the property is sold, subject to there being sufficient equity available. Mortgage lenders will be notified when a claimant's SMI benefit payments cease. Lenders are required under Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulations to engage with borrowers to discuss how they will meet their loan commitments.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints have been made to his Department about Capita assessments for personal independence payments in each of the last five years.
Answered by Sarah Newton
When the Department receives a complaint regarding a Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment these are passed directly to Capita to provide a response. DWP do not collect data on these cases. Capita advise that they have received the following complaints regarding PIP: 2013 - 16.5% of caseload; 2014 - 3.8% caseload; 2015 – 1.1% caseload; 2016 – 1.5% caseload and 2017 (to October) - 1.6% caseload. These are inclusive of those cases received by DWP and forwarded on to Capita.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people who previously qualified for disability living allowance have not been awarded personal independence payments following assessments by Capita.
Answered by Sarah Newton
DWP case managers make decisions on all claims based on the PIP2 questionnaire completed by the claimant, any additional evidence they have submitted, the report from the assessment provider and any additional information the assessment provider has requested, for example information from the claimant’s GP.
The table below shows the number of claimants who have undergone a Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) reassessment with our assessment providers, IAS and Capita. We previously answered this question for IAS under PQ 109416.
Table 1: Outcomes of DLA to PIP reassessments after assessment by Assessment Provider to 31st July 2017
Disallowed After Assessment | Awarded | Total | Disallowance Rate | |
IAS (Atos) | 125,680 | 523,800 | 649,480 | 19% |
Capita | 64,280 | 198,220 | 262,500 | 24% |
Total | 189,960 | 722,020 | 911,980 | 21% |
The figures are the outcome of the first DWP decision on each DLA to PIP reassessment claim assessed under Normal Rules only, prior to any reconsideration, appeal action and award review, after the claimant underwent an assessment by IAS or Capita. Figures include decisions made between 8th April 2013 and 31st July 2017 as recorded on Department systems. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10 and are for Great Britain only.
The Department is committed to ensuring PIP claimants receive a high quality functional assessment. We continue to work closely to ensure a consistent approach is being taken across the country.
We closely monitor assessment providers to make sure that the quality of the service, that the nurses, physiotherapists and other health professionals who carry out the assessments provide, is as high as it should be. We are continually working with the assessment providers to further improve the quality of assessments, including clinical coaching, feedback and support available to each assessor. The Department has put in place an independent audit of assessments to ensure that the advice provided to the Department's decision makers is of suitable quality, fully explained and justified. In addition, there are other safeguards in place to ensure correct decisions are made, such as DWP decision makers being able to ask the provider for clarification or advice or returning the report to the provider if they believe that it does not provide sufficient information for them to make a decision.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of any difference between the proportion of personal independence payment claims that are unsuccessful following assessment by Atos and Capita.
Answered by Sarah Newton
DWP case managers make decisions on all claims based on the PIP2 questionnaire completed by the claimant, any additional evidence they have submitted, the report from the assessment provider and any additional information the assessment provider has requested, for example information from the claimant’s GP.
The table below shows the number of claimants who have undergone a Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) reassessment with our assessment providers, IAS and Capita. We previously answered this question for IAS under PQ 109416.
Table 1: Outcomes of DLA to PIP reassessments after assessment by Assessment Provider to 31st July 2017
Disallowed After Assessment | Awarded | Total | Disallowance Rate | |
IAS (Atos) | 125,680 | 523,800 | 649,480 | 19% |
Capita | 64,280 | 198,220 | 262,500 | 24% |
Total | 189,960 | 722,020 | 911,980 | 21% |
The figures are the outcome of the first DWP decision on each DLA to PIP reassessment claim assessed under Normal Rules only, prior to any reconsideration, appeal action and award review, after the claimant underwent an assessment by IAS or Capita. Figures include decisions made between 8th April 2013 and 31st July 2017 as recorded on Department systems. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10 and are for Great Britain only.
The Department is committed to ensuring PIP claimants receive a high quality functional assessment. We continue to work closely to ensure a consistent approach is being taken across the country.
We closely monitor assessment providers to make sure that the quality of the service, that the nurses, physiotherapists and other health professionals who carry out the assessments provide, is as high as it should be. We are continually working with the assessment providers to further improve the quality of assessments, including clinical coaching, feedback and support available to each assessor. The Department has put in place an independent audit of assessments to ensure that the advice provided to the Department's decision makers is of suitable quality, fully explained and justified. In addition, there are other safeguards in place to ensure correct decisions are made, such as DWP decision makers being able to ask the provider for clarification or advice or returning the report to the provider if they believe that it does not provide sufficient information for them to make a decision.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of employment and support allowance claimants were also residents of supported housing in the last 12 months.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department does not collect administrative data on the proportion of employment and support allowance claimants who were also residents in supported housing in the last 12 months.
The Government recently announced plans for a new flexible funding approach for supported housing. As part of this it has launched two consultations seeking views on the details of the models.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-for-supported-housing
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of residents of supported housing claim Employment and Support Allowance.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department does not collect administrative data on the number and proportion of supported housing residents that also claim Employment and Support Allowance.
The Government recently announced plans for a new flexible funding approach for supported housing. As part of this it has launched two consultations seeking views on the details of the models.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-for-supported-housing
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people who previously qualified for disability living allowance have not been awarded personal independence payments following assessments by Atos.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
DWP case managers make decisions on all claims based on the PIP2 questionnaire completed by the claimant, any additional evidence they have submitted, the report from the assessment provider and any additional information the assessment provider has requested, for example information from the claimant’s GP.
Up to 31st July 2017, 649,480 claimants underwent a Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) reassessment with Independent Assessment Services (IAS), previously known as Atos. Of these claimants, 125,680 were disallowed PIP and 523,800 were awarded PIP by the department.
Source: PIP Computer System claimant records.
Notes:
The figures are the outcome of the first DWP decision on each DLA to PIP reassessment claim assessed under Normal Rules only, prior to any reconsideration, appeal action and award review, after the claimant underwent an assessment by IAS. Figures include decisions made between 8th April 2013 and 31st July 2017 as recorded on Department systems. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10 and are for Great Britain only.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints have been made regarding Atos assessments for personal independence payments in each of the last five years.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
From April 2013 to date, the Independent Assessment Services (formally Atos Healthcare) completed 2.3 million PIP assessments. The total number of complaints equates to less than 1% of the total number of assessments completed, as set out in the table below.
Year | Number of Complaints Received |
2013 | 558 |
2014 | 3554 |
2015 | 3442 |
2016 | 5834 |
2017 (to 30 Sept) | 4040 |
Total | 17428 |
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many decisions on personal independence payments claims were subsequently overturned by HM Courts and Tribunals Service in each of the last five years.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
The latest available data on volumes of appeals, volumes overturned and volumes upheld can be found in quarterly published statistics from the Ministry of Justice in tables SSCS.1 and SSCS.3 of: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics#history