Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Written Statement of 21 February 2019, HCWS1348, how many additional claimants have been identified since 11 February 2019 as having been wrongly awarded contribution-based employment and support allowance (ESA) and not income-based ESA after being moved from incapacity benefit; and how much in ESA arrears has been paid to date.

The Department will be publishing an update of progress on checking cases potentially affected by underpayments of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) on conversion from previous incapacity benefits on the 16 May 2019.

This publication has been pre-announced here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements/esa-underpayments-progress-on-checking