Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions,pursuant to the Answer of 25 February 2019 to Question 223219 on Personal Independence Payment: Epilepsy, how many people with epilepsy who were in receipt of disability living allowance but did not receive an award as a result of a reassessment for personal independence payment have chosen to appeal that decision through (a) mandatory reconsideration and (b) a tribunal.

The information requested for Disability Living Allowance (DLA) reassessments is shown in the table below.

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) initial decisions, Mandatory Reconsiderations (MRs) and appeals for claimants with a primary disabling condition of Epilepsy, April 2013 to September 2018, Great Britain

Under PIP, 27 per cent of working age claimants with epilepsy recorded as their primary disabling condition receive the highest level of support compared to 6 per cent under Disability Living Allowance when PIP was introduced.

Notes

Data is based on primary disabling condition as recorded on the PIP computer system. Claimants may often have multiple disabling conditions upon which the decision is based but only the primary condition is shown in these statistics. The disability subgroup of Epilepsy in the PIP Computer System includes Cataplexy, Generalised seizures (with status epilepticus in last 12 months), Generalised seizures (without status epilepticus in last 12 months), Narcolepsy, Partial seizures (with status epilepticus in last 12 months), Partial seizures (without status epilepticus in last 12 months) and Seizures - unclassified.

PIP data includes normal rules and special rules for the terminally ill claimants.

Data has been rounded to the nearest 10.

Appeals data taken from the DWP PIP computer system’s management information. Therefore this data may differ from that held by Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service for various reasons such as delays in data recording and other methodological differences in collating and preparing statistics.

An appeal can only be made against a decision which have gone through the Mandatory Reconsideration process. The number of people who registered an MR and the number of people who lodged a tribunal appeal cannot be added together.

Claimants who have received benefit decisions more recently may not yet have had time to complete the claimant journey and progress to appeal.