Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many new employment and support allowance claimants have been placed in the work-related activity group with the prognosis that engagement in work is unlikely in the longer term since October 2008.

The information requested to answer both questions are shown in the table below:

Outcomes of functional assessments by prognosis of 2 years or more for the ESA work-related activity group, Great Britain: October 2008 – September 2013

Source: Data in the tables above is derived from administrative data held by the DWP and assessment data provided by Atos Healthcare.

Notes:

1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 100.

2. The outcome recorded is the final DWP Decision Maker's decision or the recommendation made by the Atos Healthcare Professional where the Decision Maker's decision is not yet available.

3. The data presented above comes from benefit claims data held by the Department for Work and Pensions. It related to new and repeat ESA claims. In October 2008, ESA replaced IB for new claims. Starting with a trial in October 2010, and reaching a full scale national roll-out in April 2011, existing IB claims began to be phased out, with claimants reassessed to see if they qualify for ESA instead.