Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 14 February 2018 to Question 127010, on employment and support allowance, how many ESA65B letters her Department has sent to doctors.

The ESA65B letter is issued to GPs in every case where an Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) claimant has been found ‘fit for work’. This process was built into the IT system as part of the introduction of ESA in October 2008.

Following a Ministerial requirement by the Cabinet Secretary, which was endorsed by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the content of the ESA65B letter has been improved in order to explain to GPs the type of support customers can expect to receive from their local Jobcentre, and to ask GPs to encourage customers in their efforts to return to work. As part of this work officials engaged with the British Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners to ensure that the revised wording was fit for purpose.

The Department does not hold information on the number of ESA65B letters sent to GPs.

I will place a copy of the ESA65B in the House Library.