Debates between Justin Tomlinson and Philip Hollobone during the 2019 Parliament

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Justin Tomlinson and Philip Hollobone
Monday 9th March 2020

(4 years ago)

Commons Chamber
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Philip Hollobone Portrait Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
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T8. From initial submission to award of benefit, how long does the average personal independence payment application take? Will the Government reduce the time period?

Justin Tomlinson Portrait The Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work (Justin Tomlinson)
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The average time is 14 weeks. We continue to review the process. As I set out earlier, with the forthcoming Green Paper we will be looking to identify further ways to improve the claims experience and make it easier to get supportive evidence that increases the likelihood of a paper-based review without the need for a face-to-face assessment.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Justin Tomlinson and Philip Hollobone
Monday 27th January 2020

(4 years, 2 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Philip Hollobone Portrait Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
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19. How many and what proportion of applications for (a) disability living allowance, (b) employment and support allowance and (c) personal independence payment that were considered by a tribunal resulted in a benefit award.

Justin Tomlinson Portrait The Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work (Justin Tomlinson)
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These are the figures for the most recent period for which data is available: DLA 69%; ESA 77%; and PIP 76%.

Philip Hollobone Portrait Mr Hollobone
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These numbers are far too high, and I suspect that one of the reasons that they are so high is that requisite paperwork is not provided until it reaches the tribunal stage. What can the Minister do to ensure that the paperwork from the applicants is provided earlier ?

Justin Tomlinson Portrait Justin Tomlinson
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My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is often the case that additional written and oral evidence is presented at the tribunal stage, which is why we have made significant changes to the mandatory reconsideration stage where we proactively contact claimants to try to assist in gathering that data. We rolled that out halfway through last year. It is now in all the mandatory reconsideration assessments, and we have seen a significant uplift in the number of appeals overturned at the MR stage, and that is a good thing.