Oral Answers to Questions

John Robertson Excerpts

Monday 13th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mike Penning]

Yes, we do. There is a financial penalty regime that I have every intention of implementing.

[John Robertson (Glasgow North West) (Lab)]

2. How many claimants have received the personal independence payment since April 2013.

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Mike Penning)]

The Department intends to publish official statistics in the spring. In the meantime, we are looking to see whether we can publish interim information as soon as it becomes available.

[John Robertson]

I thank the Minister for that answer, which is good news for a lot of people. He will appreciate that a lot of people are suffering while Capita takes so long to get that information out; they have the anxiety of not knowing whether their appeals, or even their applications for assessment, have been agreed. What kind of monitoring of Capita is he doing, and does it have enough people to do the job?

[Mike Penning]

We are monitoring the work of both Capita and Atos, and we will have the figures as soon as we can. Under the previous Administration’s scheme, fewer than 6% of people claiming this or a similar benefit were ever assessed. It must be right and proper that there is not self-assessment; it is done by the experts.