Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of people no longer eligible for contributions-based employment and support allowance (ESA) because of time-limiting to one year have qualified for an alternative income-related benefit at the termination of contributory ESA payments in each year since implementation of that policy; and what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of the people affected by that policy who have moved into work as a result.

Information about claimants who were entitled to means tested ESA within a month of their entitlement to contributory ESA expiring are in the table below.

Information on claimants qualifying for Income Support, income-related Jobseeker’s Allowance, Pension Credit and claimants who have moved into work as a result of time limiting is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Notes:

1. The 2012/13 data includes a number of cases who had been in receipt of contributory ESA for 12 months or more at the point the change was introduced.

2. This estimate is based on the Generalised Matching Service, which is a departmental data capture tool. The data have not been fully quality-assured. This type of information does not form part of the regular official statistics outputs that are released by the Department in accordance with the UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice.