Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 14 May 2024 to Question 24973 on Attendance Allowance: Employment, for what reason his Department does not record the requested data.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's statistical release Unfulfilled eligibility in the benefit system: financial year 2023 to 2024 estimates, publish on 16 May 2024, whether his Department has made an assessment of the reasons for unfulfilled Personal Independence Payment eligibility.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are committed to ensuring people can access financial support in a timely manner and understand the importance of paying people their correct entitlement. For PIP, we encourage all claimants in our communications with them and on Gov.UK to inform us if their needs have changed for better or worse. We are also prioritising claims where a claimant reports a change in their needs to ensure we are paying individuals the right amount.
The statistical release notes that all unfulfilled eligibility for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) awards was due to claimants failing to inform the department they needed more help or their condition had deteriorated.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's statistics entitled Unfulfilled eligibility in the benefit system: financial year 2023 to 2024 estimates, published on 16 May 2024, what steps his Department is taking to tackle unfulfilled Personal Independence Payment eligibility.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are committed to ensuring people can access financial support in a timely manner and understand the importance of paying people their correct entitlement. For PIP, we encourage all claimants in our communications with them and on Gov.UK to inform us if their needs have changed for better or worse. We are also prioritising claims where a claimant reports a change in their needs to ensure we are paying individuals the right amount.
The statistical release notes that all unfulfilled eligibility for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) awards was due to claimants failing to inform the department they needed more help or their condition had deteriorated.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the longest wait time was between an person submitting an Access to Work application and receiving initial contact from his Department in the last (a) six and (b) 12 months.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested for the longest wait time between an individual submitting an Access to Work application and receiving initial contact from his Department in the last (a) six and (b) twelve months is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
However, the Access to Work statistics includes how many applications result in provision being approved from 2007/08 to 2022/23. Please see Table 3 of the Access to Work statistics.
The latest Access to Work statistics can be on the Access to Work statistics on GOV.UK
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
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 help ensure that adequate support is in place for jobseekers with (a) health conditions and (b) disabilities in the period between the end of referrals to the Work and Health Programme in Autumn 2024 and the start of Universal Support in 2025.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
When referrals to the Work and Health Programme (WHP) end in September and before Universal Support begins its rollout from Autumn 2024 there will still be services available for disabled people and those with health conditions who have employment support needs. These include Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies and the Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care (IPSPC) programme for disabled people and those with mild to moderate mental and physical health conditions.
It also includes, for example, the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) programme for people with drug and alcohol dependency and the Local Supported Employment (LSE) programme for people who are learning disabled, neurodivergent or Autistic as well as locally led employment support delivered through Jobcentres.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 15 May 2024 to Question 24972 on Universal Credit: Employment, what the criteria are for classifying people as live fit note (pre-wca).
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
People on the Universal Credit Health caseload are in the ‘Live fit note (pre-wca)’ stage if they have accepted medical evidence of a restricted ability to work, usually a statement of fitness for work (or ‘fit note’), on the caseload date, and have not yet had a Work Capability Assessment or received a Work Capability Assessment decision.
More information about the Universal Credit Health caseload, process and WCA official statistics can be found in the published UC WCA stats background information document.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 15 May 2024 to Question 24964, when he plans to publish the data on Personal Independence Payments made since January 2024.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The next quarterly release of Official Statistics on Personal Independence Payments will take place on 18 June 2024 9:30am. The release will include back series and new data for the three months to April 2024.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the service standard time is for making initial contact with an applicant following the submission of their Access to Work application.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The service aspiration time for making initial contact with an applicant following the submission of their Access to Work application is 20 days.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, at what stage an Access to Work application is logged as an outstanding case for statistical purposes.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
An Access to Work application is logged as an outstanding case within 24 hours of submission.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average waiting time is for making an Access to Work request for reasonable adjustments at a job interview.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The average waiting time for making Access to Work decisions for Communication Support at Interview applications is:
2023/24 = 11.6 days
April 2024 = 9.4 days
Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution.