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.

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

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

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:

1. The figures are rounded to the nearest 100. – denotes figures that are zero or less than 50.
2. The information for 2017 is provided up to March 2017 only; this is the latest data available at time of request.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.