Nick Thomas-Symonds: DWP: Written Answers (62)

Written Question

Personal Independence Payment: Appeals

Tuesday 20th February 2018

Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many mandatory PIP reconsiderations resulted in the original decision being upheld in 2016-2017.

Answered by Sarah Newton

The number of Personal Independent Payment (PIP) Mandatory Reconsiderations (MRs) cleared can be found in the official published statistics: “Data tables: Personal Independence Payment: Official Statistics to October 2017”. The relevant data can be found in Table 7b. This data shows the number of mandatory reconsiderations for New Claims and Reassessments broken down by month since PIP was introduced and split by outcome type:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-independence-payment-april-2013-to-october-2017

Latest available data to October 2017.

Written Question

Personal Independence Payment: Tribunals

Monday 5th February 2018

Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people who were refused personal independence payment had that decision changed at Tribunal in 2016-17.

Answered by Sarah Newton

The figures requested are given in the table below.

	Initial claims made in 2016-17
Number of people refused PIP	390,200

Of whom:
number of people who had that decision changed at mandatory reconsideration	28,500
number of people who had a decision changed at a tribunal appeal	32,300

Figures are for Great Britain.

Appeal figures are based upon appeals against mandatory reconsideration decisions. Initial decisions cannot be appealed until a claimant has gone through the mandatory reconsideration process.

Some decisions which are changed at mandatory reconsideration, and where the claimant continues to appeal for a higher PIP award, are then changed again at tribunal appeal. Therefore the number of people who had a decision changed at mandatory reconsideration and the number of people who had a decision changed at tribunal appeal cannot be added together.

Written Question

Personal Independence Payment: Appeals

Monday 5th February 2018

Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people who were refused personal independence payment had that decision changed at mandatory reconsideration in 2016-17.

Answered by Sarah Newton

The figures requested are given in the table below.

	Initial claims made in 2016-17
Number of people refused PIP	390,200

Of whom:
number of people who had that decision changed at mandatory reconsideration	28,500
number of people who had a decision changed at a tribunal appeal	32,300

Figures are for Great Britain.

Appeal figures are based upon appeals against mandatory reconsideration decisions. Initial decisions cannot be appealed until a claimant has gone through the mandatory reconsideration process.

Written Question

Personal Independence Payment

Monday 5th February 2018

Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people were refused personal independence payment in 2016-17.

Answered by Sarah Newton

The figures requested are given in the table below.

	Initial claims made in 2016-17
Number of people refused PIP	390,200

Of whom:
number of people who had that decision changed at mandatory reconsideration	28,500
number of people who had a decision changed at a tribunal appeal	32,300

Figures are for Great Britain.

Appeal figures are based upon appeals against mandatory reconsideration decisions. Initial decisions cannot be appealed until a claimant has gone through the mandatory reconsideration process.

Written Question

Employment and Support Allowance: Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Monday 29th January 2018

Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have (a) applied for and (b) received employment and support allowance for inflammatory bowel disease in each year since 2010.

Answered by Sarah Newton

Inflammatory bowel disease is a term commonly used to refer to either Crohn’s disease or Ulcerative Colitis. The information available is shown in the following tables:

Table 1: Number of individuals making an initial claim to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) whose main disabling condition was recorded as Crohn’s Disease or Ulcerative Colitis, by year of claim start Jan 2010 to Mar 2017: Great Britain

Year of ESA claim start	Initial ESA claims
2010	2200
2011	2600
2012	2800
2013	2700
2014	2800
2015	2600
2016	2400
2017 (Jan - Mar)	600

Table 2: Number of individuals assigned to the ESA Support Group or the ESA Work Related Activity Group following their Work Capability Assessment (for initial, repeat or IB reassessment claims), whose main disabling condition was recorded as Crohn’s Disease or Ulcerative Colitis, by year of claim start or IB reassessment referral, Jan 2010 to Mar 2017: Great Britain

Year of ESA claim start	Initial ESA claims	Repeat ESA assessments	IB reassessments
2010	800	700	-
2011	1100	1300	1300
2012	1600	1900	2300
2013	1200	1200	1800
2014	1200	500	200
2015	1200	400	100
2016	1000	100	100
2017 (Jan - Mar)	200	-	-

Source for Tables 1 and 2: Application data is derived from administrative data held by the DWP and assessment data provided by the Healthcare Provider.

Notes for Tables 1 and 2:

The figures are rounded to the nearest 100. – denotes figures that are zero or less than 50.
The information for 2017 is provided up to March 2017 only; this is the latest data available at time of request.
National roll-out of IB reassessments began in March 2011. As a result, the 2011 figures for IB reassessment in Table 2 cover the period from March to December.
An individual may have made more than one ESA claim or assessment in any given year. These individuals will only be counted once in each of the figures provided.
The primary medical condition recorded on the claim form does not itself confer entitlement to ESA. So, for example, a decision on entitlement for a customer claiming ESA on the basis of Crohn’s disease or Ulcerative Colitis would be based on their ability to carry out the range of activities assessed by the work capability assessment.

Written Question

Employment and Support Allowance: Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Monday 29th January 2018

Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)

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 people with inflammatory bowel disease who have submitted an appeal for their claim for employment support allowance during the last four years.

Answered by Sarah Newton

The information is not readily available and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Written Question

Employment and Support Allowance: Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Monday 29th January 2018

Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with inflammatory bowel disease applied for mandatory reconsideration of their claim for employment support allowance in each of the last four years.

Answered by Sarah Newton

The information is not readily available and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Written Question

Employment: Learning Disability

Tuesday 5th December 2017

Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, to where his Department has reallocated funding from the previous Work Programme and Work Choice to increase the employment opportunities of people with learning disability; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Sarah Newton

The Work and Health Programme, a new contracted provision that will build on lessons learnt from the Work Programme and Work Choice, will start in England and Wales between November 2017 and March 2018. Disabled people, who will be the majority of referrals, can volunteer for the programme at any time.

On Thursday 30 November 2017 we published ‘Improving Lives the Future of Work, Health and Disability’, which sets out details of a lifecourse approach to improving employment opportunities for people with a Learning Disability

In addition:

We are introducing 200 Community Partners into Jobcentres - these are external appointments with experience of disability who will engage with disabled people, Jobcentre Plus staff and local employers to strengthen the support we offer disabled people seeking work, including those with learning disabilities.

Supported Employment “place and train” will be delivered through the Local Supported Employment initiative. A key element of this is the use of Job Carving, which involves working with an employer to create a job which meets the employer’s needs and can be done by a person with a learning disability.

The Supported Work Experience proof of concepts will offer young disabled people, including young people with learning disabilities, the opportunity to take part in short work experience placements.

Access to Work has put in place a Hidden Impairment Support Team that aims to give advice and guidance to help employers understand how they can support employees with conditions like a Learning Disability.

DWP’s Disability Confident campaign has achieved commitments from over 5000 employers. DWP is requiring all its large contractors to be Disability Confident Leaders within 12 months from Jan 2017 and all main Government departments are now signed up to Disability Confident, ensuring that Government’s contracted services become better employers of people with disabilities, including learning disabilities.

Written Question

Pension Service: Cwmbran

Monday 11th September 2017

Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department made of public transport provision for former Cwmbran Pension Centre staff whose posts will be relocated to North Cardiff.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

DWP conducted some early analysis based on staff home postcodes and pre-existing rail and bus timetables and timings; this was a preliminary exercise when a number of potential sites were under consideration. However, whilst the Department has identified a potential location north of Cardiff for a new strategic hub, it is not yet confirmed. It is therefore too early to determine which existing offices will move to a hub location in the future, or to make further assessment of public transport provision. The site is to be retained as part of the DWP estate for the next 3-5 years.

Written Question

Pension Service: Cwmbran

Monday 11th September 2017

Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the closure of Cwmbran Pension Centre on local communities.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The Cwmbran Pension Centre site is to be retained as part of the DWP estate for the next 3-5 years, and as such no decision has yet been made on the closure of the site. As a large employer, DWP understands the potential impact that a closure or relocation of an office may have. Generally though the economic impact of employment is dispersed beyond the specific location of a workplace – because people spend most of their money where they live. I would also add that as our estate is made up of leased buildings, the landlords may offer premises to new tenants once DWP vacate.

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