Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 3 March 2022 to Question 128374, on Social Security Benefits: Medical Examinations, if she will instruct officials to undertake an independent audit of the accuracy of surveys undertaken by her Department’s contracted assessor companies.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The department currently has no intention to undertake an independent audit of the accuracy of the customer satisfaction surveys.
Independent Assessment Services (IAS), Capita and Centre for Health and Disability Assessments (CHDA) customer satisfaction surveys are undertaken by independent third parties in line with the requirements of their individual contracts. Customer satisfaction rate is a Service Level Agreement within the contracts which attracts service credits for failure. All providers have consistently exceeded their customer satisfaction targets. Furthermore, we regularly review survey responses and feedback with providers, to identify any issues or trends and help us manage the performance of these contracts.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2022 to Question 103610, on Social Security Benefits: Medical Examinations, if she will place the most recent quarterly satisfaction ratings for disability benefit assessments by Atos, Capita and Maximus in the House of Commons Library.
Answered by Chloe Smith
We will not be placing the most recent quarterly satisfaction ratings in the House of Commons Library because they are already available in the Cabinet Office Key Performance Indicators documents published on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 7 February 2022 to Question 113786 on Social Security Benefits: Medical Assessments, what progress her Department has made towards its evaluation of the Health Transformation Programme.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Evaluation will be undertaken throughout the life of the programme to ensure that evidence is driving decision-making.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential (a) merits of giving claimants the right to request an assessor with knowledge of their condition and (b) effect that may have on the number of claims settled after initial assessment.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Department operates a robust quality assurance and independent audit process to ensure assessment decisions are consistent. We recognise that improvements could be made to the assessment process and we plan to publish a Health and Disability White Paper later this year following the views shared in response to the Green Paper published last year.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to reform the assessment processes for Employment Support Allowance, Universal Credit Limited Capability for Work and Personal Independence Payment.
Answered by Chloe Smith
In the Health and Disability Green Paper we put forward a number of proposals for reforming health assessments. We received over 4,500 responses to the consultation and we will bring forward detailed proposals in a White Paper later this year.
Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of abolishing repeat disability assessments for people with progressive conditions, such as multiple sclerosis.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Through the Severe Conditions criteria, we have stopped repeat assessments on ESA/UC for people with the most severe and lifelong conditions.
We have committed to testing a new Severe Disability Group (SDG) for people who have severe and lifelong conditions that will not improve. These people could then benefit from a simplified process without ever needing to complete a detailed application form or go through an assessment. We will consider these test results once complete to influence thinking on the next stages of this work.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2022 to Question 103610 on the satisfaction ratings for disability benefit assessments, what customer satisfaction targets (a) Atos, (b) Capita and (c) Maximus are required to meet in their respective contracts for personal independence payment assessments and work capability assessments.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The customer satisfaction target for the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment providers, Independent Assessment Services (IAS) and Capita, is 90%. The customer satisfaction target for the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) assessment provider Centre for Health and Disability Assessments (CHDA), is 92%.
A full breakdown of answers to each question is available upon request from IAS and Capita. For CHDA, a full breakdown is provided on a quarterly basis. The department reviews, in detail, the responses to the questions which contribute to the score against the customer satisfaction target.
The department has not requested an independent audit of the providers’ customer satisfaction surveys. This has not been considered necessary given that the IAS, Capita and CHDA surveys are undertaken by independent third parties in line with the requirements of their individual contracts.
The third parties conducting the surveys endeavour to contact PIP and WCA customers shortly after their assessment but before a decision has been made on their claim by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
This enables their satisfaction with the assessment experience to be measured before benefit entitlement decisions.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2022 to Question 103610 on the satisfaction ratings for disability benefit assessments, whether her Department has ever requested an independent audit of the satisfaction surveys of disabled people’s experiences carried out by Atos, Capita and Maximus.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The customer satisfaction target for the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment providers, Independent Assessment Services (IAS) and Capita, is 90%. The customer satisfaction target for the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) assessment provider Centre for Health and Disability Assessments (CHDA), is 92%.
A full breakdown of answers to each question is available upon request from IAS and Capita. For CHDA, a full breakdown is provided on a quarterly basis. The department reviews, in detail, the responses to the questions which contribute to the score against the customer satisfaction target.
The department has not requested an independent audit of the providers’ customer satisfaction surveys. This has not been considered necessary given that the IAS, Capita and CHDA surveys are undertaken by independent third parties in line with the requirements of their individual contracts.
The third parties conducting the surveys endeavour to contact PIP and WCA customers shortly after their assessment but before a decision has been made on their claim by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
This enables their satisfaction with the assessment experience to be measured before benefit entitlement decisions.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2022 to Question 103610 on the satisfaction ratings for disability benefit assessments, how frequently her Department receives a full breakdown of answers to each of the questions Atos, Capita and Maximus pose in their customer satisfaction surveys.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The customer satisfaction target for the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment providers, Independent Assessment Services (IAS) and Capita, is 90%. The customer satisfaction target for the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) assessment provider Centre for Health and Disability Assessments (CHDA), is 92%.
A full breakdown of answers to each question is available upon request from IAS and Capita. For CHDA, a full breakdown is provided on a quarterly basis. The department reviews, in detail, the responses to the questions which contribute to the score against the customer satisfaction target.
The department has not requested an independent audit of the providers’ customer satisfaction surveys. This has not been considered necessary given that the IAS, Capita and CHDA surveys are undertaken by independent third parties in line with the requirements of their individual contracts.
The third parties conducting the surveys endeavour to contact PIP and WCA customers shortly after their assessment but before a decision has been made on their claim by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
This enables their satisfaction with the assessment experience to be measured before benefit entitlement decisions.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, at what point in the customer journey for the work capability assessment and personal independence payment assessment are disabled and seriously unwell people contacted by the assessor company for their survey of people’s satisfaction.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The customer satisfaction target for the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment providers, Independent Assessment Services (IAS) and Capita, is 90%. The customer satisfaction target for the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) assessment provider Centre for Health and Disability Assessments (CHDA), is 92%.
A full breakdown of answers to each question is available upon request from IAS and Capita. For CHDA, a full breakdown is provided on a quarterly basis. The department reviews, in detail, the responses to the questions which contribute to the score against the customer satisfaction target.
The department has not requested an independent audit of the providers’ customer satisfaction surveys. This has not been considered necessary given that the IAS, Capita and CHDA surveys are undertaken by independent third parties in line with the requirements of their individual contracts.
The third parties conducting the surveys endeavour to contact PIP and WCA customers shortly after their assessment but before a decision has been made on their claim by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
This enables their satisfaction with the assessment experience to be measured before benefit entitlement decisions.