Disability Benefit Unit (Hansard, 25 February 1997)

§ Mr. Andrew Mitchell

The administration of disability living allowance is a matter for Peter Mathison, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Peter Mathison to Mr. David Winnick, dated 24 February 1997: The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what responsibility the Director of the Disability Benefit Unit has for replying to letters form honourable Members; for what reasons the honourable Member for Walsall North was told in a letter of 31st January (ref. J9627090C) that the official correspondence section would be replying to him; and if he will make a statement about the internal organisation of the Disability Benefit Unit (DBU). Can I first of all explain that as you copied me your letter of 28 January to the Director of Disability Benefits, I arranged for the issues raised to be investigated and replied personally on 20 February. Therefore the acknowledgement letter of 31 January from the Disability Benefits Director should have advised you that I would be responding. I apologise for any confusion this may have caused. As I explained in this letter, much of the correspondence received by the Disability Benefits Director relates to the operational handling of individual cases. The Director has arranged for all issues arising from correspondence to be investigated by front line managers within the 11 Disability Benefit Centres and also the DBU. I should stress, however, the Director remains fully responsible for all replies and will, of course, respond personally if a customer remains dissatisfied, The Agency issues guidance to managers on how to deal with official correspondence, including that from Members of Parliament. We are currently reviewing this guidance and will consider the processes in place at the DBU as part of this review. I hope you find this reply helpful.