Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's publication entitled Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper, published on 16 March 2023, what progress his Department has made on testing matching a Personal Independent Payment applicant’s primary health condition to a specialist assessor; and when he plans to publish the findings.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Disability White Paper, published in March 2023, set out ambitious and extensive reforms to further support disabled people including exploring the initiative referred to as “Specialist Assessors”.
As the term “specialist” has a very specific meaning in a medical context, the decision has been made to rename the initiative to “Condition Focused Assessors” to avoid misalignment with clinical definitions. The ambition and intent of the initiative remains the same.
In September 2023, we began a small-scale test matching certain PIP claimants’ primary health condition to an existing healthcare professional (HCP) with relevant clinical experience. This test ran until January 2024, at which point it was expanded to cover claimants with multiple conditions.
We continue to work closely with key stakeholders and support organisations as we progress our testing. Initial exploratory research will be published later this year. The Health Transformation Programme looks to publish evaluation when services are suitably developed, and when findings are robust and provide a representative picture of our progress.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he has taken to inform recipients of the (a) limited capability for work-related activity element of Universal Credit and (b) Employment and Support Allowance support group of their potential entitlement to Personal Independence Payment.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP Work Coaches and Disability Advisers can signpost and support claimants who may be eligible for other benefits. Signposting is also performed by Citizens Advice Bureau, Disability Groups, healthcare professionals and Welfare Rights organisations.
Information for those who want to know more about DWP benefits is also available on GOV.UK and via social media.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's publication entitled Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper, published on 16 March 2023, what progress his Department has made on the test of the feasibility of sharing assessment reports with Personal Independent Payment applicants before a decision is made; and when he plans to publish the findings.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are currently conducting a test to understand the impact of sharing assessment reports with PIP claimants by default. As part of the evaluation, we will gather insight from claimants to understand whether sharing the assessment report provides them with the opportunity to clarify evidence so that we can make the right decision as early as possible and improve trust and transparency in the decision-making process. Once the analysis of that insight is complete, we will consider next steps.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 11 January 2023 to Question 7225 on Personal Independence Payment: Appeals, if he will publish the (a) number and proportion of personal independence payment claims overturned by Tribunal, broken down by primary reason, and (b) feedback provided by his Department's Presenting Officers for each of the last three years.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The table below shows the number of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) decisions overturned at Tribunal by reason between January 2021 and September 2023.
These figures are the result of a complex data match across a number of data sets. This data is unpublished data and should therefore be used with caution, as it may be subject to future revision.
To note, this information is taken from Decision Notices and recorded on the PIP computer system.
This data only provides one reason per appeal why decisions by DWP decision makers have been overturned at a tribunal hearing, and therefore may not give the full story as there may be other or multiple reasons.
Appeals data is taken from the DWP PIP computer system’s management information. Therefore, this appeal 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.
As with all DWP processes, we continuously review and have made improvements to our decision-making processes to help ensure we make the right decision as early as possible in the claim journey. We have introduced a new approach to decision making at both the initial decision and the Mandatory Reconsideration stage, giving Decision Makers additional time to proactively contact customers where they think additional evidence may support the claim.
The feedback from Presenting Officers is done on a case-by-case basis and only at a local level. Whilst trends are identified to help inform future decision making - this includes feeding back to Healthcare Professionals - there are no plans to consolidate and publish the feedback in data recording and other methodological differences in collating and preparing statistics.
Summary reason DWP decision | Appeal Clearance Year | ||
2021 | 2022 | 2023 (up to September) | |
New written evidence provided at hearing | 400 | 200 | 300 |
Cogent Oral Evidence | 8,800 | 8,800 | 11,800 |
Reached a Different Conclusion on | 16,300 | 16,700 | 17,500 |
Other | 1,900 | 1,900 | 2,000 |
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when the new Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work plans to outline her priorities for supporting disabled people.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Governments priorities on supporting disabled people remains unchanged. We will continue to build on our strong track record, which includes supporting over two million more disabled people into work
Our multi-billion pound support plans announced at Autumn Statement will further help millions more disabled people and those with health conditions, including those with long-term sickness, to start, stay, and succeed in work.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an estimate of the number of households that will be subject to the benefit cap due to (a) increases in the local housing allowance and (b) the uprating of benefits in 2024-25.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No estimate has been made. There are various factors that determine whether a household is brought into scope of the benefit cap.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an estimate of the number of households that will be subject to the benefit cap due to proposed changes to the work capability assessment descriptors in 2025-26.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No estimate has been made. There are various factors that determine whether a household is brought into scope of the benefit cap.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's publication entitled Sanctioned disengaged claimants management information April 2019 to August 2023, published on 12 December 2023, how many and what proportion of claimants with a universal credit nil award who were disengaged for six months or more were receiving housing benefit as a result of living in (a) temporary accommodation and (b) supported accommodation in August 2023.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
To provide this information would incur disproportionate costs due to linking the data.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance his Department issues to universal credit claimants living in (a) temporary and (b) supported accommodation that receive benefit sanctions.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Customers on work-related benefits are expected to take responsibility for meeting the requirements that they have agreed to with their Work Coach. These requirements will be clearly set out in the Claimant Commitment and tailored to the individual’s circumstances, making them realistic and achievable. The consequences and implications of not meeting a mandatory work-related requirement are clearly set out and explained to the customer. A sanction will only be applied if they fail to meet these requirements without demonstrating good reason.
If a sanction is applied, the customer is issued with a decision notification letter. This letter outlines the sanction reason, the amount and duration of benefit reduction and, where applicable, what action the customer needs to take to bring an open-ended sanction to a conclusion. The letters also contain information on what to do if the customer disagrees with the sanction decision, how to apply for Recoverable Hardship Payments, as well as links to money management advice and other sources of financial support.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department holds data on the (a) outcome and (b) reasoning behind Tribunal verdicts relating to personal independence payment claims; and whether his Department takes steps to use Tribunal verdicts to improve its processes.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service provide a Decision Notice in relation to each tribunal to DWP. This contains the outcome of the tribunal and some information on why the decision was reached. This information is recorded on the PIP computer system.
This data only provides one reason per appeal as to why decisions by DWP decision makers have been overturned at a tribunal hearing, and therefore may not give the full story as there may be other reasons.
We are continuing to learn from decisions overturned at appeal. For example, we gather insight from DWP Presenting Officers who regularly provide feedback from hearings they attend, with a view to learning from overturned decisions.