Asked by: Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress has been made on making statistics on mandatory reconsiderations for jobseeker's allowance and employment and support allowance publicly available.
Answered by Mark Harper - Secretary of State for Transport
DWP statisticians are currently working to collate and quality assure data on Mandatory Reconsideration for Employment and Support Allowance as a matter of urgency. The Department has committed to publishing the statistics when the Departmental statisticians judge that the data meet the standards set out in the UK Statistics Authority’s Codes of Practice.
Asked by: Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what mean length of time between a personal independence payment claim being registered and a decision being made was on (a) claims not made under special rules for terminally ill people and (b) claims made under special rules for terminally ill people where the decision was taken between April 2013 and March 2014.
Answered by Mark Harper - Secretary of State for Transport
Statistics on the time taken to clear cases are intended for future publication and the Department's analysts are currently considering what information will be included in the release.
Asked by: Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department has taken to deal with backlogs in personal independence payments.
Answered by Mike Penning
We are continuously looking at ways to increase the number of decisions made and to improve the claims process.
We are working closely with both assessment providers as part of our plans to speed up the end to end claimant journey. We have introduced improvements in communications to claimants about the type of evidence they can supply to speed up their claim and we are taking action to support the assessment providers in clearing backlogs of work.
Asked by: Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he expects personal independence payment backlogs to be cleared.
Answered by Mike Penning
By the Autumn, we expect no one to be waiting for an assessment for longer than 26 weeks and by the end of the year, we expect no one will be waiting longer than 16 weeks.
Asked by: Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will recruit additional staff to help clear personal independence payment backlogs.
Answered by Mike Penning
DWP Operations has a large number of employees at the decision maker grade (EO) and we are constantly reviewing our plans to ensure that we have the right number of people to deliver all of our services.
Asked by: Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what comparative assessment he has made of the methods used to assess personal independence payment claims with the methods used to assess disability living allowance claims.
Answered by Mike Penning
Personal independence payment (PIP) includes a more objective assessment process than for Disability living allowance (DLA), with a face-to-face consultation for most applicants, that enables a more accurate and consistent assessment of individual need. Unlike DLA, eligibility for PIP is not assessed on the type of health condition or impairment an individual may have.
Asked by: Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he last reviewed the level of income disregard threshold for employment and support allowance.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The occupational pension income threshold for Employment and Support Allowance was last reviewed as part of the 2014/15 annual uprating exercise. It was decided that no change would be made.
Asked by: Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the saving was to the public purse from the reduction of (a) employment and support allowance and (b) incapacity benefit for individuals in receipt of a pension income of more than £85 per week in 2013-14.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The information is not available as no such estimate has been undertaken.