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.
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, if she will ask Atos to provide a detailed breakdown of the responses of disabled people to questions 11, 12, 13 and 18 on their view of the assessor’s knowledge of their case, their condition and that they were given time to explain how their disability or condition affects their everyday life.
Answered by Chloe Smith
In relation to PQ103610, the breakdown of customer responses to questions 11, 12, 13 and 18 of the Independent Assessment Services (IAS) customer claimant satisfaction survey for February 2020 is provided below.
| Very Satisfied | Satisfied | Dissatisfied | Very Dissatisfied | Don’t Know/ N/A |
11. that the health professional was familiar with and understood your case details? | 12% | 63% | 6% | 1% | 19% |
12. that the health professional understood the way that your condition or disability affects your daily life? | 10% | 60% | 6% | 1% | 23% |
13. that you had enough time and opportunities to explain your disability or condition and how it affects your day-to-day life – including on good and bad days, and at different points during the day? | 18% | 70% | 10% | 1% | 2% |
18. How satisfied were you with the overall service provided by Independent Assessment Services? | 31% | 62% | 6% | 1% | 0% |
Please note:
All of the above data is derived from contractual management information produced by the assessment providers.
Total of % may equal more than 100% due to rounding.
The above data is derived from unpublished management information which is collected for internal departmental use only and has not been quality assured to Official Statistics Publication standards.
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, if she will ask Capita to provide a detailed breakdown of the responses of disabled people to questions 10 and 11 in its survey about whether they were satisfied the assessor gave them time to explain how their condition affects their daily life, and whether they listened to their answers.
Answered by Chloe Smith
In relation to PQ103610, the breakdown of customer responses to questions 10 and 11 of the Capita customer claimant satisfaction survey for February 2020 is provided below.
| Very Satisfied | Satisfied | Dissatisfied | Very Dissatisfied | Don’t Know/ N/A |
10. How satisfied were you with the time you had to explain your conditions and the impact on your abilities to carry out daily tasks? | 48% | 48% | 3% | 0% | 1% |
11. How satisfied were you that the disability assessor listened to you throughout the assessment and allowed you to explain how your disability affects your daily life? | 48% | 50% | 1% | 0% | 1% |
Please note:
All of the above data is derived from contractual management information produced by the assessment providers.
Total of % may equal more than 100% due to rounding.
The above data is derived from unpublished management information which is collected for internal departmental use only and has not been quality assured to Official Statistics Publication standards.
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, if she will ask Maximus UK (Health Assessment Advisory Service Ltd) to provide a detailed breakdown of the responses of disabled people to the seven questions in section 5 of its survey on the satisfaction ratings for disability benefit assessments.
Answered by Chloe Smith
In relation to PQ103610, the full breakdown of customer responses to section 5 for the period December 2019 - February 2020 is provided below.
Thinking about the healthcare professional who carried out your assessment… | |||||
| Very Good | Quite Good | Quite Poor | Very Poor | n/a |
How would you rate how well the healthcare professional explained the purpose of the assessment? | 14% | 77% | 3% | 0% | 6% |
How would you rate them for courtesy and politeness? | 72% | 27% | 1% | 0% | 0% |
… and for professionalism? | 72% | 27% | 1% | 0% | 0% |
… and for gentleness of the assessment? | 22% | 76% | 1% | 0% | 0% |
How would you rate the healthcare professional in terms of listening and giving you adequate time to explain how your condition affects you in completing everyday tasks? | 44% | 51% | 5% | 0% | 0% |
… in ensuring you had the opportunity to explain how your ability to undertake everyday tasks may vary from day to day? | 45% | 51% | 3% | 0% | 0% |
… in terms of understanding your health condition or disability? | 25% | 70% | 5% | 0% | 0% |
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to improve the health assessments process for people with (a) multiple sclerosis and (b) other relapsing and progressive conditions.
Answered by Chloe Smith
We recognise that improvements could be made to the assessment process for health and disability benefits and are committed to making changes in this area.
In the Shaping Future Support Green Paper published last year we set out several areas we wish to explore, taking in account feedback from a wide range of stakeholders including disabled people, disability charities, academics and thinktanks to better understand what needs to change, and how.
We will follow up on the responses to this Green Paper with a White Paper later this year to outline the changes we want to make.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in the most recent 12 months for which data is available, what the average length of time applicants for (a) personal independence payment, (b) employment and support allowance, and (c) the limited capability for work assessment of universal credit, waited for (i) an assessment and (ii) a correct decision on their assessment.
Answered by Chloe Smith
We are committed to ensuring that disabled people get the full support that they need in a timely manner. We always aim to make an award decision as quickly as possible, taking into account the need to review all available evidence, including that from the claimant. Decisions are made following consideration of all the information provided by the claimant, including supporting evidence from their GP or medical specialist.
(a) For Personal Independence Payment (PIP), between November 2020 and October 2021, the most recent 12 months for which data is available:
- The average (median) time between a PIP new claim being referred to the Assessment Provider (AP) and returned from the AP was 13 weeks.
- The average (median) time between a PIP new claim being returned from the AP and a DWP decision being made was 2 weeks.
The length of time between Referral to AP and return from AP is used as a proxy for the length of time the claimant has waited for an assessment, because data on the dates that assessments took place is not held by DWP. Similarly, the length of time between return from the AP and a DWP decision being made is used as a proxy for the length of time for a decision to be made on the assessment.
(b) The Department publishes Employment Support Allowance (ESA) Work Capability Assessment (WCA) statistics on gov.uk which can be found here. The median ESA WCA customer journey processing times for initial claims can be found in section 10 of the latest statistical bulletin. The statistics include the average time taken for the full end-to-end process and also the time from WCA referral to AP recommendation and the time from the AP recommendation to the DWP decision, including those following a Mandatory Reconsideration.
More details can also be found in Table 1 of the ‘Clearance Times for Initial Claims’ dataset in the ESA Work Capability Assessments section of Stat-Xplore. Guidance for users is available here.
(c) The information for Universal Credit WCA processing times is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Notes
Source part (a): PIP ADS
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 103609 on Social Security Benefits: Medical Examinations, whether a new contract has been awarded following the expiry of the contract with Advanced Personnel Management Group (UK) Ltd on 11 December 2020.
Answered by Chloe Smith
On 07 December 2020 and 08 December 2021, the Department invoked twelve-month extension options contained within the Additional Healthcare Capacity Services contract with APM (UK) Ltd. The extended contract will end on 11 December 2022. The Department is currently considering options for future clinical capacity needs beyond this contract.
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, which parts of Birmingham will be covered by her Department’s second Health Transformation Area; and when she expects that pilot to start engaging with disabled people.
Answered by Chloe Smith
As part of a carefully phased approach to launching the Health Transformation Programme, we have begun handling Work Capability Assessment cases from a small number of claimants within the Birmingham postcodes of B14, B17, B19 and B78. We plan to take on Personal Independence Payment cases from these same postcodes from Spring 2022.
The programme engages with a group of national disabled people’s representative groups monthly where we have gained insights from disability charities to improve the design of the new service. We have also established and met a local group of disabled people’s representative bodies for the area the HTA covers in London and we are establishing a similar group to engage with for the Birmingham site.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the cost to her Department of mandatory reconsiderations for employment and support allowance and personal independence payment benefits claims in (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2020-21 (i) nationally and (ii) in York.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information for the Financial years covered by the request are detailed in the tables below:
| 2019-20 | 2020-21 (£m) |
PIP | £23.7 | £24.8 |
ESA | £6.6 | £1.6 |
Cost figures are rounded to the nearest £0.1m
Data Source: ABM
The cost figures quoted are estimated DWP level 1 operating costs, including both direct delivery staff and non-staff costs. Non-staff costs are only those costs incurred in local cost centres, relating to direct delivery staff.
Unfortunately, we are not able to provide a breakdown of the costs by city or post code.
Please note that the data supplied is from the Departmental Activity Based Models. This data is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standards. It should therefore be treated with caution. The Departmental Activity Based staffing models are a snapshot of how many people were identified as undertaking specified activities as assigned by line managers.