§ Mr. WillettsTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what the average processing time is for attendance allowance for(a) first-time claims and (b) appeals for claims to be reconsidered. [134551]
§ Mr. BayleyThe administration of Attendance Allowance is a matter for Alexis Cleveland, Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency, who will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Alexis Cleveland to Mr. David Willets, dated 30 October 2000:
The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what the average processing time is for Attendance Allowance (AA) for (a) first time claims and (b) appeals for claims to be reconsidered.For the period April to September 2000 the actual average clearance time for new and repeat claims was 34 days. The clearance time for reconsiderations was 54 days.New procedures for assessing claims for Disability Living Allowance and Attendance Allowance were introduced last year to improve the accuracy of decisions on entitlement. Customers can now receive clearer explanations of decisions on their benefit entitlement. Initially these changes led to significant increases in the time it took to process each case which, together with a growing caseload, created a temporary backlog of work. This has been tackled as a priority and, as decision-makers have become accustomed to the new procedures, the backlog has now been cleared.I hope this information is helpful