Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
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 (a) physical and (b) mental ability of people to work (i) until and (ii) beyond the state pension age.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department provides information to support people to make informed decisions such as Midlife MOT sessions in Jobcentres, and the digital Midlife MOT offer available to everyone online which offers financial, health and career guidance. There is no requirement for people to work beyond the State Pension age, however some people may choose to.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the (a) shortest, (b) median and (c) longest waiting times for a child maintenance service liability order were in each of the last five years.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) continues to take rigorous action to collect maintenance, combining robust negotiation activity with the highly effective use of its extensive range of Enforcement Powers. This approach is driven by the Payment Compliance strategy, increasing CMS compliance influencing activities to tackle non-paying cases and challenge non-compliant behaviours.
We move cases swiftly to Legal Enforcement, securing a Liability Order for 11k cases in the courts, in 2023.
CMS does not measure a) shortest, (b) median waiting times to secure a Liability Order but does measure an average of (c) longest. The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
CMS applies a Continuous Improvement focus to the Enforcement strategy and processes. The planned introduction of the Administrative Liability Order in 2024 will remove the need to apply to the courts and will reduce the average time of 22 weeks to secure a Liability Order to 6 weeks.
The published statistics below provides data, excluding waiting times, to September 2023: Section 9 Enforcement and National tables 7.1.
Child Maintenance Service statistics: data to September 2023 - GOV.UK(www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his planned timetable is to respond to his Department's consultation entitled Child Maintenance: Accelerating Enforcement.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance “Accelerating Enforcement” consultation concluded on 24 November 2023, the Government is carefully considering the feedback and a response will be published shortly.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will take steps to allow (a) applicants and (b) appointees acting on behalf of an applicant can request that his Department consider multiple assessment reports under each application.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health Transformation Programme will transform the entire Personal Independence Payment (PIP) service, from finding out about benefits through to decisions, eligibility, and payments.
We are working closely with key stakeholders such as charities and support organisations to make it easier for claimants and appointees access our services and build greater trust in our decisions.
In the Health Assessment Service, we are exploring a number of ways to transform the claimant experience of health assessments, including by making use of previous assessment reports to ensure claimants don’t have to repeat information to the department.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will take steps to require (a) his Department's assessors and (b) external assessment providers for personal independence payment applications to receive the same (i) initial training and (ii) continued professional development.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
All health professionals (HPs) receive comprehensive training in assessing functional capability relating to physical and mental health conditions. As referred to in PQ6000, both Personal Independence Payment assessment providers (APs), Independent Assessment Services and Capita, are required to supply the department with a training plan. This must set out in detail, the manner in which their training programme, both initial training and refresher training/continuing professional development (CPD), will be delivered. The plan should be developed in co-operation with the department and will be subject to departmental approval.
APs must also evaluate the effectiveness of their training and CPD programmes. The format and timescales of the evaluation should be agreed with the department.
This year’s Health & Disability White Paper committed to developing the skills of HPs. In addition to their professional experience, HPs will take part in training to enable them to be matched to the functional impacts of specific health conditions.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will set a requirement for (a) his Department's assessors and (b) external assessment providers for personal independence payments to respond to applicant queries within a specified timeframe.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We have interpreted your question to refer to general enquiries made by Personal Independence Payment (PIP) applicants to Independent Assessment Service and Capita and can confirm that there is no specified timeframe for them to respond to queries from applicants.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will take steps to allow (a) applicants and (b) appointees acting on behalf of an applicant for the personal independence payment to (i) request and (ii) receive an assessment report from the assessment provider before a further assessment on that application is carried out.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Where a Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment has been undertaken by a healthcare professional on behalf of DWP a copy of the assessment report can be requested from the Assessment Provider and sent to the claimant or their appointee.
Assessment reports can be requested as soon as the DWP decision has been made, and so claimants will have a copy before any subsequent reviews take place.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will take steps to allow (a) applicants and (b) appointees acting on behalf of an applicant to (i) request and (ii) receive an assessment report from the assessment provider before his Department makes a decision on an application.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health Transformation Programme will transform the entire Personal Independence Payment (PIP) service, from finding out about benefits through to decisions, eligibility, and payments.
We are working closely with key stakeholders such as charities and support organisations to make it easier for claimants and appointees to access our services and build greater trust in our decisions.
As part of this, we will test a number of approaches regarding the feasibility of sharing assessment reports with people by default rather than on request.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
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 monitor the quality of the (a) customer service and (b) assessments provided by (i) Capita and (ii) other external assessors for Personal Independence Payment applications.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Quality is a priority for both the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment providers (APs), Capita and Independent Assessment Services, and the department. There is a comprehensive performance regime which drives APs to meet stringent quality standards. Through robust contract management processes, we continually monitor and work with APs to manage performance and obtain maximum value. If they are unable to meet our expectations, we will work with them to address any issues, whilst seeking any financial compensation as appropriate under the terms of the contract.
Customer satisfaction is one of the service level agreements within the PIP contracts. Each providers’ customer satisfaction survey is undertaken by an independent third party, in line with the requirements of their individual contract. They have consistently exceeded their customer satisfaction target of 90%.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has an independent audit function that continually monitors performance and provides feedback to its providers. DWP works extensively with providers to make improvements to guidance, training and audit procedures to ensure a quality service. Quality performance is regularly reviewed through DWP and provider senior governance meetings at a national level and in each of the provider areas
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on the number of complaints received by (a) Capita and (b) other external assessors for Personal Independence Payment applications in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department manages the PIP contracts robustly and has a full set of service level agreements setting out our expectations for service delivery.
It is important for providers to have their own complaints process to deal with dissatisfaction about the service they provide. This process signposts complainants to the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) if they are dissatisfied with the provider’s final response to their complaint.
The process is designed to ensure that those complaining about third party provision have access to the same complaint escalation route as those who complain about services provided by Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). This encourages providers to resolve complaints at the earliest opportunity. It also gives providers the right incentives to offer good customer service and to comply with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s Principles of Good Complaint Handling.
In each of the last five calendar years (2019 to date), the total number of cases where Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment providers (APs), Capita and Independent Assessment Services (IAS), received a complaint, are shown in the table below.
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 to date |
Capita | 2800 | 1390 | 1380 | 1380 | 1580 |
IAS | 6140 | 2800 | 2390 | 1760 | 1830 |
Please note:
- All volumes have been rounded to the nearest 10.
- All above data is derived from contractual management information produced by the APs.
- The above data is derived from unpublished management information, which is collected for internal departmental use only, and has not been quality assured to Official Statistics Publication standards.
All APs strive to provide an excellent service to claimants and are held to account for their performance. To put the above figures into context, the total number of complaints shown as a percentage of all completed assessments for the same period, are as follows:
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 to date |
Capita | 1.24% | 0.74% | 0.76% | 0.56% | 0.57% |
IAS | 0.87% | 0.51% | 0.41% | 0.24% | 0.23% |
Please note:
The above percentages have been derived from the unrounded totals.