Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to paragraph 124 of the Fourth Report of Session 2019-21 from the Women and Equalities Select Committee on Unequal impact? Coronavirus, disability and access to services: full Report, HC1050, published on 22 December 2020, what steps his Department has taken to evaluate the extent to which Government communications comply with the accessible communications checklist.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government Communication Service (GCS) is committed to ensuring the government communicates effectively to everyone by making its communications inclusive and accessible. This includes standards, monitoring, training and guidance on accessibility and inclusion. We have aligned, where possible, with the charity sector’s accessibility checklist.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to recommendation 13 of the Fourth Report of the Women and Equalities Select Committee of Session 2019-21, on Unequal impact? Coronavirus, disability and access to services, HC1050, published on 22 December 2020, what progress his Department has made on ensuring that all Government communications comply with the accessible communications checklist.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government Communication Service (GCS) is committed to ensuring the government communicates effectively to everyone by making its communications inclusive and accessible. This includes standards, monitoring, training and guidance on accessibility and inclusion. We have aligned, where possible, with the charity sector’s accessibility checklist.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 11 September to Question 197988 on Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme: Coronavirus, how many and what proportion of the 221 claims rejected due to not meeting the 60% disability threshold would have met a disability threshold of (a) 50%, b) 40%, c) 30% and (d) 20%.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Of the 221 COVID-19 related claims rejected due to not meeting the 60% disability threshold, as of 1 September 2023, only nine, or 4%, potentially would have met a disability threshold of 50%; 34, or 15%, potentially would have met a disability threshold of 40%; 73, or 33%, potentially would have met a disability threshold of 30%; and 116, or 53%, potentially would have met a disability threshold of 20%. The data for lower thresholds is cumulative and includes claims that would meet a higher threshold.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people claiming Personal Independence Payments have covid-19 classified as their primary reason for claiming that benefit.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
As of March 2021, a new code, ‘Coronavirus Covid 19’, has been added to the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) disability coding system in Infectious disease, Viral disease B01-B10 section with other viral diseases.
Claimants under ‘Coronavirus Covid 19’ are a group of people who remain unwell at 12 weeks, with a wide variety of symptoms whose long-term prognosis is unknown. These people meet the diagnostic criteria for post Covid-19 syndrome. Some may recover in a few more months, some may recover over a longer time period. Others may remain unwell or become more unwell over time. Fluctuating functional impairment and wide-ranging symptoms that change over time seem to be a feature of the condition. It is those claimants who have significant functional impairment at 12 weeks, who do not seem to be recovering, who may have entitlement to PIP. Claimants do not have to have had a positive test result to be diagnosed with the syndrome. Testing has not always been easily available.
Data on PIP applications can be found on Stat-Xplore.
In particular, the PIP cases with entitlement dataset allows you to view the number of cases with entitlement split by primary condition. ‘Coronavirus Covid-19’ can be selected by expanding ‘Infectious disease’ then ‘Viral diseases’. Please note that there may be other claimants where the ongoing impact of a Coronavirus infection has influenced the award of PIP. Data is based on primary disabling condition as recorded on the PIP computer systems. Claimants may often have multiple disabling conditions upon which the decision is based but only the primary condition is shown in these statistics. There may be claimants with long Covid who came onto the benefit before March 2021 who are not recorded under the new code.
You can log in, or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user, which still gives instant access to the main functions, and, if needed, you can access guidance on how to extract the information required.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people claiming Personal Independence Payments with covid-19 classified as their primary reason for claiming that benefit are awaiting a tribunal hearing.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
As of March 2021, a new code, ‘Coronavirus Covid-19’, has been added to the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) disability coding system in the Infectious disease, Viral disease B01-B10 section with other viral diseases.
Claimants under ‘Coronavirus Covid-19’ are a group of people who remain unwell at 12 weeks, with a wide variety of symptoms whose long-term prognosis is unknown. These people meet the diagnostic criteria for post Covid-19 syndrome. Some may recover in a few more months, some may recover over a longer time period. Others may remain unwell or become more unwell over time. Fluctuating functional impairment and wide-ranging symptoms that change over time seem to be a feature of the condition. It is those claimants who have significant functional impairment at 12 weeks who do not seem to be recovering, who may have entitlement to PIP. Claimants do not have to have had a positive test result to be diagnosed with the syndrome. Testing has not always been easily available.
For Personal Independence Payment (PIP) initial decisions made up to 30th June 2022, where ‘Coronavirus Covid-19’ was recorded as a claimant’s primary condition, there were 290 lodged appeals (8% of initial decisions) with no appeal outcome recorded by 30th September 2022.
Please note:
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that children with long covid are (a) assessed for and (b) awarded Disability Living Allowance.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is an extra-costs benefit available as a contribution to the extra costs associated with being disabled to those children under the age of 16 who, due to a disability or health condition, have mobility issues and/or have needs which are substantially in excess of a child the same age without the disability or health condition. Entitlement to DLA depends on the effects that severe disability has on a child’s life, and not on a particular disability or diagnosis. The needs arising from Long Covid are assessed in the same way as for all other health conditions or disabilities.
From March 2021 we amended DLA statistical classifications to include the category “Coronavirus COVID-19”. Data on the DLA caseload by a range of factors, including main disabling condition, can be extracted from Stat-Xplore - Log in (dwp.gov.uk). Information on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found at Getting Started (dwp.gov.uk).
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to paragraph 124 of the Fourth Report of Session 2019-21 of the Women and Equalities Committee entitled Unequal impact: Coronavirus, disability and access to services, published on 22 December 2020, HC 1050, whether his Department is taking steps to implement the recommendation that Government communications be subject to an accessibility checklist.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
I refer the hon. Member to PQ 59318.
As outlined in our response to the Fourth Report, the Government Communication Service (GCS) is leading efforts to support departments in enhancing the accessibility of their communications so key messages are available to all audiences.
This forms part of the Government’s commitment to ensure all communications are in an accessible format.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people whose main disability is long Covid have (a) registered for, (b) been assessed for, (c) been awarded and (d) had their applications rejected for Personal Independence Payment as of 7 December 2022.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Information on conditions is not collected at registration. However, it is available when claimants have been through assessment.
Data on Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claims, with Long Covid as the primary condition up to July, can be found on Stat-Xplore. In particular, the ‘PIP clearances’ dataset includes the outcomes of PIP assessments and can be broken down by disability. ‘Coronavirus COVID-19’ can be found under the disability subcategory ‘Viral diseases’ which is under the main disability category of ‘Infectious disease’. Only the claimant’s main disabling condition is recorded on the department’s systems. Many people in receipt of PIP have more than one condition.
Data up to 7th December will be published in due course.
You can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, you can access guidance on how to extract the information required.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to take steps to extend the NHS and Social Care Life Assurance Scheme 2020 to include support for (a) NHS and (b) social care staff who have (i) a long-term disability due to a covid-19 infection and (ii) Long Covid.
Answered by Will Quince
The NHS and Social Care Coronavirus Life Assurance Scheme provided financial security to the families of frontline National Health Service and social care staff who died from COVID-19 contracted in the course of performing their duties. While the NHS and Social Care Coronavirus Life Assurance Scheme closed to new claims on 31 March 2022, it will remain open until 31 March 2023 to allow for outstanding claims which occurred whilst the Scheme was open. Financial and welfare support is available to support those affected by chronic healthcare conditions and who are unable to work.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 7 November 2022 to Question 72915 on Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme: Coronavirus, how many of the 217 rejected claims were rejected for (a) lack of causation and (b) falling below the 60 per cent disablement threshold; and what were the five most commonly cited (i) disabilities and (ii) other health impacts in claims that were rejected.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Of the 217 rejected COVID-19 claims, 199 were rejected due to lack of causation and 17 were rejected due to not meeting the 60% disability threshold. One claim is invalid as not meeting the eligibility to apply under the Scheme.
Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme assessors do not accept or reject specific conditions or injuries. Claims are individually assessed on a case-by-case basis by an experienced independent medical assessor. We are unable to provide the information requested on the health conditions of individuals whose claims have been rejected as it relates to personal information, from which unsuccessful claimants could potentially be identified.