Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
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 ensure that students with long-term health conditions are able to access the financial support to which they are entitled; and if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of deducting loans that cover maintenance from Universal Credit on the income of affected students.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Students, including disabled students and those with health conditions, access fees and living costs support for their higher education courses through various loans and grants funded through the student support system. It is important that UC does not duplicate this support, which is designed for the needs of students unlike the social security system. This includes support which recognises a person’s disability, such as the Disabled Students Allowance for those in higher education and discretionary bursaries and grants if undertaking further education. Disabled students also have access to discretionary Hardship Funds which are made available by universities and colleges.
It is important that Universal Credit does not duplicate this support. A condition of entitlement for Universal Credit is that the claimant must not be in education, which excludes most students. There is an exception where a person has already been determined to have limited capability for work before entering education and is entitled to a qualifying disability benefit, such as Personal Independence Payment. The rules for this exception are designed to encourage those already claiming Universal Credit because of disability or ill health to take up education that may help them into work in the future.
Treatment of student income under Universal Credit broadly mirrors that in income related Employment and Support Allowance, Housing Benefit, Income Support and income-based Jobseekers Allowance which safeguards fairness whilst also ensuring simplification of the benefit system. If an eligible student makes a claim to Universal Credit we take into account, as income, any financial support which provides for the student's basic maintenance, such as student maintenance loans and grants. We do not take into account student income which covers additional costs, such as loans for tuition fees and books. The first £110 of any student maintenance loan or grant paid to meet living costs is not taken into account in each monthly Assessment Period where benefits are calculated. Over a typical 9 or 10 month academic year claimants are able to keep between £990-£1100 more of their Universal Credit award. The intention behind this is to help students with any added costs of books, equipment and travel which may be incurred whilst studying or training.
Whilst it is acknowledged that maintenance loans are to be paid back, if they were not treated as income and were ignored this would result in Universal Credit (and most legacy benefits) duplicating support already provided through the student finance system.
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 protections for people with disabled worker status are maintained in the managed migration to Universal Credit.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
People who are being moved to Universal Credit (UC) from Employment and Support Allowance take with them their Work Capability Assessment decision. They are not required to have another assessment to get the disability element they are entitled to on Universal Credit.
At the point of moving over to Universal Credit as part of the managed migration process, all claimants will be assessed for transitional protection and paid where appropriate. Transitional protection is designed so that eligible claimants will not have a lower entitlement to Universal Credit than they had entitlement to legacy benefits, at the point they move to the new benefit system.
Asked by: Keir Mather (Labour - Selby and Ainsty)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average waiting time was for a Work Capability Assessment in Selby and Ainsty constituency in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
DWP publishes Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) Work Capability Assessment (WCA) national processing times for initial claims on GOV.UK. We are currently unable to provide Universal Credit (UC) WCA processing statistics as these could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
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, how many people are employed by his Department to determine the outcome of work capability assessments as of 5 September 2023.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The latest information of the number of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff who are in paid employment and undertake decisions on Work Capability Assessments is in the table below:
Work Capability Assessment (WCA) | FTE |
Universal Credit (UC) | 480 |
Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) | 100 |
Total | 580 |
Source: Derived from the department’s Activity Based Model (ABM). Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10 and may not sum to the total due to the rounding.
Notes: |
|
|
|
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
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, with reference to worksheet 1 of his Department's Data tables: Health and Disability benefits based on data from 2019 to 2022, published on 20 July 2023, whether his Department has undertaken analysis of the health conditions reported by the 516,100 people with limited capability for work and work-related activity who are not receiving a personal independence payment.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Currently we do not report aggregate information about whether or not a UC claimant has reported specific health conditions and to collate and quality assure this information would incur disproportionate costs.
DWP have published a forward-looking Release Strategy for UC-WCA Official Statistics including plans to develop and publish statistics on WCA decisions by health conditions under Phase 2. See here for further details:
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 information his Department holds on the number of assessors employed by contractors to carry out (a) Personal Independence Payment and (b) work capability assessments in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
As of 31 July 2023, the number of health professionals (HPs) employed by Capita and Independent Assessment Services to carry out Personal Independence Payment assessments was 3,900.
The number of HPs employed by Centre for Health and Disability Assessments (CHDA) was 1,400. HPs employed by CHDA undertake assessments across both Universal Credit, Employment and Support Allowance, and Incapacity Benefits Reassessments, as well as some smaller non-Work Capability Assessment benefits.
The above figures also include clinical support leads, who may also complete assessments from time to time.
Please note: -
Volumes have been rounded to the nearest 100.
All the above data is derived from contractual management information produced by the assessment providers.
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, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of work capability assessment decisions were overturned at tribunal in each of the four most recent quarters for which data is available.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Statistics on Employment and Support Allowance Work Capability Assessments, including appeal decision outcomes are published quarterly on Stat-Xplore. Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.
The Official Statistics for Universal Credit Work Capability Assessments covers key metrics on the number of people on the UC health journey, as well as WCA decisions and outcomes. As set out in the published release strategy we are taking a phased approach to development and publication of additional statistics accounting for the complexity of source data that is in discovery. Future releases are planned to include new/repeat claims, medical conditions, Mandatory Reconsiderations and Appeals, and clearance times.
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, what information his Department holds on the number of people aged 16 to 24 on Universal Credit with (a) Limited capability for work and (b) Limited capability for work and work-related activity who had a mental health condition as of March 2023.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The initial release of Official Statistics for Universal Credit Work Capability Assessments (UC WCA) on 8 June 2023 covers key metrics on the number of people on the UC health journey, as well as WCA decisions and outcomes. As set out in the published release strategy we are taking a phased approach to development and publication of additional statistics accounting for the complexity of source data that is in discovery. Future releases are planned to include new/repeat claims, medical conditions, Mandatory Reconsiderations and Appeals, and clearance times.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what were (1) the average waiting times, and (2) the average length of waiting lists, for assessments for (a) Child Disability Living Allowance, and (b) the limited capability for work element of Universal Credit, for each of the most recent period of six months for which data are available.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
In the case of Disability Living Allowance for children, the data is not available. Decisions are made on behalf of the Secretary of State by Case Managers from evidence supplied by parents and medical professionals, and do not require an assessment.
In Universal Credit (UC) a claimant is only deemed to have limited capability for work after an assessment has been completed, and a decision made by a DWP decision maker. We have, therefore, interpreted part 2 of your question to mean the total number of UC claimants, who have been referred to the assessment provider, and are awaiting a Work Capability Assessment (WCA) in each of the most recent period of six months for which data are available.
To manage the assessment service effectively, we hold the number of outstanding WCA referrals made to the assessment provider. The number of UC WCA referrals outstanding at the end of each month are shown in the table below:
UC | Oct-22 | Nov-22 | Dec-22 | Jan-23 | Feb-23 | Mar-23 |
Total outstanding | 227,000 | 222,000 | 215,000 | 204,000 | 192,000 | 180,000 |
Please note:
There will always be outstanding referrals in the assessment process, from those claimants, who have been asked to return a Capability for Work questionnaire and have yet to do so, through to those with an assessment scheduled in the coming weeks. The department closely monitors the levels of outstanding referrals. Not all of these cases will require the claimant to attend an assessment. Where there is already sufficient evidence to determine benefit entitlement, claims will be assessed on a paper basis.
With regards to waiting times, the initial release of Official Statistics on UC WCA covers key metrics on the number of people on the UC health journey, as well as WCA decisions and outcomes. As set out in the published Release Strategy, we are taking a phased approach to development and publication of additional statistics accounting for the complexity of source data that is in discovery. Future releases are planned to include new/repeat claims, medical conditions, Mandatory Reconsiderations and Appeals, and clearance times.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that people with (a) severe and (b) lifelong conditions are not subjected to unnecessary reassessments for (i) Personal Independence Payments and (ii) other benefits.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
We want to reduce unnecessary assessments for people with severe and lifelong health conditions which will not improve.
We announced in the ‘Future Support: Health and Disability Green Paper’ that we will test a new Severe Disability Group (SDG), so that those with severe and lifelong conditions can benefit from a simplified process to access PIP, ESA and UC, without needing to go through a face-to-face assessment or frequent reassessments. We will consider the test results once complete to influence thinking on the next stages of this work.
We have made changes to help reduce the frequency of repeat assessments some people need to go through on Personal Independence Payment. We have also ensured that people who receive the highest level of support, and whose needs will not improve, together with most people over State Pension age, receive an ongoing award of PIP with a ‘light touch’ review at the 10-year point.
For the Work Capability Assessment (WCA), the Severe Conditions Criteria (SCC) were introduced in 2017 and are applied during the WCA for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and the additional health-related amount of Universal Credit (UC). They identify claimants who have severe disabling lifelong conditions whose level of function would always mean that they are unlikely ever to be able to move into work. Claimants who meet the SCC are not routinely reassessed.
We are also now supporting people via changes to the Special Rules for End of Life and the testing of a new Severe Disability Group (SDG). These changes will ensure that people receive access to the financial support they need as quickly as possible, and will simplify the assessment process for people with severe and lifelong conditions that will not improve.