Social Security Benefits: Standards

(asked on 4th February 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average length of a delay for payment of (a) employment and support allowance and (b) limited capability for work-related activity component of universal credit has been since March 2020.


Answered by
Justin Tomlinson Portrait
Justin Tomlinson
This question was answered on 9th February 2021

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Claimants do not have to wait for a Work Capability Assessment (WCA) before they can be paid Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) or Universal Credit (UC). They receive an assessment rate of ESA or a Standard Allowance of UC while their claim is being assessed.

For both ESA and UC, claimants will remain on the assessment rate or Standard Allowance award until the evidence needed to make a recommendation has been gathered (or until their benefit is due to end in contributory ESA). Any additional amounts the claimant may qualify for after their assessment will be backdated to ensure no long-term loss.

Statistics on WCAs for ESA by month of claim start to March 2020 for initial assessment outcomes, including those still in progress, assessment outcome by month of decision to June 2020, and clearance times for initial claims by month of clearance to June 2020, are published here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/esa-outcomes-of-work-capability-assessments-including-mandatory-reconsiderations-and-appeals-january-2021

Statistics on WCAs for UC are currently under development for future publication and have not previously been published as official statistics. We will issue them in due course as an official statistics release in accordance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. Whilst the initial statistics will not have median clearance times, these will be developed for publication in due course.

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