Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of paying people who are waiting for the outcome of their Personal Independence Payment appeal at the rate they received before their last decision.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is not an income replacement benefit. It is paid to help with the additional costs that arise from long term health conditions or disability where they impact on the activities set out in legislation. Claimants are assessed against the legislative criteria and a decision on entitlement is made by a DWP decision maker.
In line with the legislative requirement, applicable to most social security benefits, we continue to apply the latest decision on a PIP award until such time as a new decision is made. Payment of PIP after a claim has been disallowed, or at a rate higher than the latest decision whilst an individual is waiting for an appeal hearing could lead to inappropriate expenditure of public funds. If a subsequent first-tier tribunal decides to reinstate PIP, or give a higher award, then the Department will backdate any payments due, in line with the new decision.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help support disabled people financially whilst they await decisions on applications for the renewal of (a) Personal Independence Payments and (b) other benefits.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are committed to ensuring people can access financial support through Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in a timely manner. We always aim to make an award decision as quickly as possible, considering the need to review all available evidence, including that from the claimant.
PIP can be awarded with a fixed term duration to the award without a review date. In these circumstances the Department issues a reminder to the claimant 6 months prior to the existing award coming to an end that if they claimant wants to continue with PIP they need to submit a new claim. These renewal claims are treated as new claims and where the current average end-to-end clearance period is 15 weeks from the point the claim is submitted.
Where a claimant delays making their renewal claim, but submits it shortly before their existing award ends, they could experience a break in payment, but the award can be backdated to the date of claim ensuring that claimants don’t lose out in these circumstances.
Similar arrangements exist in both Attendance Allowance and Disability Living Allowance and where awards can be made for a fixed term. For these benefits, a reminder is sent prior to the award ending.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which disability benefits chance to work guarantee will apply to.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
At Autumn Statement 2023, we announced that we will be introducing a new Chance to Work Guarantee. This will apply to the majority of Universal Credit (UC) or Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) claimants who have been assessed as having Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity. The Guarantee means that, once introduced, the majority of people in this group will be able to try work without the fear of reassessment, within existing permitted work rules (ESA) and work allowance rules (UC).
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people claiming disability benefits cited mental health issues as a reason for claiming those benefits in 2023.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Data on Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Attendance Allowance (AA) can be found on Stat-Xplore. In particular, the requested data can be found in ‘PIP Cases with Entitlement’ dataset by going to ‘Disability’ and choosing ‘Psychiatric disorders’ from the drop-down list. The same can be done to ‘DLA: Cases with entitlement - Data from May 2018’ and ‘AA: Cases with entitlement - Data from May 2018’ dataset by going to ‘Main Disability Condition’ and choosing the mental health conditions you are interested in from the drop-down list.
Data is based on primary disabling condition as recorded on the PIP, DLA, and AA 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.
You may also wish to filter for “DWP policy ownership” under Geography due to the devolution of some disability benefits to Scotland.
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: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential mental health impact of (a) disability tests and (b) sanctions.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made of the potential mental health impact of PIP or WCA, assessments or social security sanctions.
a) Evaluations of Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and Work Capability Assessments (WCA) policy are routinely carried out, and often include engagement with external researchers. The methods used are designed to be appropriate to the specific type of intervention being evaluated. Customer experience of assessments is also continually monitored. However, it would be extremely difficult to objectively separate the specific impact of disability tests on mental health from other contributory factors.
b) Under Universal Credit and Employment and Support Allowance, sanctions do not apply to all customers. Those with a health condition, illness or disability who are found to have ‘limited capability for work and work-related requirements’, are not subject to work-related conditions and will therefore not be sanctioned. Those found to have limited capability for work and claimants on work-related benefits are expected to take responsibility for meeting the conditionality requirements they have agreed with their work coach. Where a customer has a health condition, illness or disability, work coaches have the discretion to tailor these requirements to what is reasonable and achievable, taking into account the individual's condition. Additionally, in some circumstances a customer’s work-related requirements may be lifted for a period if their ability to carry them out is disrupted due to their personal circumstances.
A sanction is only applied where an individual has failed to meet their agreed conditionality requirements without demonstrating good reason for doing so. In cases where vulnerabilities are known or suspected, a pre-referral quality check is undertaken prior to any sanction referral to ensure that it is appropriate in the circumstances.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 15 January 2024 to Question 7902 on Social Security Benefits: Disability, if she will provide a breakdown of those figures by age; and how many and what proportion of people who left the group in that time period did so as a result of reaching state pension age.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The age breakdown of the 65,900 claimants who were in the Limited Capability for Work-Related Activity group in November 2022 but had left that group by November 2023 is below. Currently we do not report aggregate information that directly identifies if the reason for leaving the group is as a result of reaching state pension age and to collate and quality assure this information would incur disproportionate costs. However, 15,700 of these claimants were aged 65 in November 2022, so would have turned 66 during the year.
Age Group | UC claimants who were in the LCWRA group in November 2022 but not in the LCWRA group in November 2023 | Percentage |
Missing - no match to age information | 700 | 1.0% |
Under 20 | 400 | 0.5% |
20 - 24 | 3,000 | 4.5% |
25 - 29 | 3,600 | 5.5% |
30 - 34 | 4,400 | 6.6% |
35 - 39 | 4,400 | 6.7% |
40 - 44 | 4,600 | 6.9% |
45 - 49 | 4,500 | 6.9% |
50 - 54 | 5,700 | 8.7% |
55 - 59 | 6,800 | 10.3% |
60 - 64 | 7,700 | 11.6% |
65 - 69 | 19,800 | 30.0% |
70 and over | 400 | 0.7% |
Total | 65,900 |
|
Notes:
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to educate assessors of disability benefits, including commissioned assessment services, about chronic inflammatory conditions such as Hidradenitis suppurativa and their impact on individuals' capacity to work.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We have interpreted your question to refer to healthcare professionals (HCPs) who conduct Work Capability Assessments for Centre for Health and Disability Assessments (CHDA) on behalf of the department, and not Department for Work and Pensions decision makers who make decisions on entitlement to benefit.
Assessments are carried out by qualified HCPs, who receive training in assessing the impacts of a variety of disabilities including chronic inflammatory conditions, to ensure they are familiar with the clinical aspects of the conditions and their impact on daily functions.
HCPs have access to a wide range of clinical resources, including e-learning modules and case studies, to research any conditions presented. CHDA has a learning module on hidradenitis suppurativa for use by their HCPs that has been externally quality assured by a consultant dermatologist. In addition, HCPs are also expected to keep their knowledge up to date through continuing professional development.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people in the Limited Capability for Work-Related Activity group left that group in the last 12 months.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
There were 1,020,700 claimants in the Limited Capability for Work-Related Activity group in November 2022, of which 65,600 (6.4%) were not in the Limited Capability for Work-Related Activity group in November 2023 (the latest month of data that can be analysed).
Note: These figures are rounded to the nearest 100, produced using internal MI and are not quality assured to Official Statistics standards.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support his Department provides to people who are waiting for (a) trauma, (b) joint replacement and (c) other orthopaedic treatment who have to give up their jobs until they receive that treatment.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Benefits and support for people with a health condition or disability are not condition-based. Eligibility will depend on the claimant’s individual circumstances, and needs, including work history where relevant.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Autumn Statement made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 22 November where he stated that if jobseekers "choose not to engage with the work search process for six months, we will close their case and stop their benefits" (HC Deb col 336), what steps they are taking to support individuals with health conditions and disabilities in finding employment.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are investing £2.5 billion over the next five years in our ‘Back to Work Plan’; this builds on the Government's existing package of support to create a more inclusive and productive labour market that helps disabled people, and people with health conditions, to start, stay and succeed in work. This support includes: a new WorkWell service to join up employment and health support at a local level, reforming the Fit Note process, delivering the Universal Support employment programme, improving the quality of occupational health for employers, and expanding access to mental health services.
As part of the Autumn Statement, we also announced the intention to close the claim of those who have been disengaged for 6-months or more, where they are in receipt of a nil Universal Credit award following a sanction decision. We will not be closing the claims of anyone who is in receipt of other Universal Credit elements, such as the disability, child, or housing element. The conditionality and sanctions regime also does not apply to those in the No Work Related Requirements, such as those with a severe health condition or disability.
For claimants who must meet certain work-related requirements to receive their Universal Credit payment, these requirements will be based on individual and household information and will take account of health, caring responsibilities, ongoing work or volunteering, and any earnings. Furthermore, all requirements are set in discussion with the claimant and tailored to their capability and circumstances, making them realistic and achievable.