§ Mrs. Bridget PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what are the actual clearance times on average for disability living allowance claims; and what is the proposed target for new claims and for reviews of earlier claims;.
(2) on how many claims for disability living allowance the adjudication officer decided to send an examining doctor to the claimant's home rather than a home visit officer;.
(3) what percentage of new claims for disability living allowances are successful; what percentage of successful claimants received each component of the benefit; and what percentage of unsuccessful claims are followed by an application for a review;.
(4) what is the current backlog for reviews of disability living allowance claims.
§ Mr. ScottThe administration of disability living allowance is a matter for Mr. Michael Bichard, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member and a copy will be placed in the Library.
Letter from M. Bichard to Mrs. Bridget Prentice, dated 10 November 1992:
As Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency, it is my responsibility to answer questions about relevant operational matters. I am therefore replying to the points raised in your recent Parliamentary Questions to the Secretary of State for Social Security about claims and reviews for Disability Living Allowance (DLA), their outcome and the types of evidence used in the adjudication officers decisions. I will deal with each of your points in turn.National clearance times
The Benefits Agency introduced a standard performance measure across benefits some time ago. This is expressed in terms of clearance targets rather than average clearance times as was previously the case.The primary target set for the clearance of DLA claims is 60 per cent. of claims to be cleared in 30 days. Since the launch of DLA in February 1992 the performance to date has been 33 per cent. of claims cleared in 30 days. The latest performance for the month of October shows 39 per cent. of claims cleared in 30 days.The success of the advertising campaign and the policy initiatives surrounding the launch of the benefits attracted a much larger number of applications in the early stages than was expected. Backlogs of work arose as a result and this has undoubtedly affected our ability to meet the clearance targets.I can assure you, however, that whilst we arc still some way from meeting the target, firm actions have been taken to reduce the backlog and thereby significantly improve the clearance times. Extra staff have been deployed and overtime is being worked to a considerable extent. We are also reviewing our working practices to ensure the most efficient procedures are in place consistent with our customers' needs. These measures have already borne fruit with the number of claims being cleared rising steadily from approximately 15,600 in April to 57,700 in October.Reviews
You asked about the target times for reviews of claims to DLA. This is also expressed in the same way as new claims but the primary target for these cases is 60 per cent. in 55 days.You also asked about the current backlog for reviews of DLA claims. At the end of October 1992 there were 25,085 applications for review still to be cleared. The number of applications for review has been steadily rising as the recovery programme to clear the backlog of new claims has been successfully completed.810WThe build-up of these reviews has also been affected by the diversion of resources to clear those outstanding Attendance Allowance and Mobility Allowance review and appeal cases inherited at 6 April 1992 when DLA was introduced. I am confident that these inherited cases will be cleared by the end of December 1992, as mentioned in my letter of 19 October 1992 to all MPs, and further resources are now being diverted to tackle the DLA reviews.Number of claims adjudicated upon after a medical examination has been requested.From February to the end of October just under 270,000 decisions have been made on new claims to DLA, of these nearly 160,000 decisions were made to award DLA, with almost 110,000 rejections. Over 54,400 decisions, representing 22 per cent., were made based on evidence obtained by way of a medical examination and over 400 decisions, less than 1 per cent., were made using information obtained by a home visit officer.Numbers and percentages of successful claims
During the period February to October there were around 342,000 new claims to DLA, of these nearly 160,000 were awarded, this is reflected as a success rate of 59 per cent. The table below shows a breakdown by each component and rate:
Rate Number As a percentage of successful claims Higher rate care 5,300 3 Middle rate care 7,900 5 Lower rate care 15,700 10 Higher rate mobility 45,600 29 Lower rate mobility 11,300 7 Higher rate care plus higher rate mobility 18,300 11 Higher rate care plus lower rate mobility 3,700 2 Middle rate care plus higher rate mobility 10,200 6 Middle rate care plus lower rate mobility 9,100 6 Lower rate care plus higher rate mobility 16,800 10 Lower rate care plus lower rate mobility 15,900 10 I should explain that it is not possible to identify the number of review applications received following a decision to reject a claim to DLA as customers may ask for a review on any decision whether it is favourable or not. However, the total number of review applications received between February and October was 29,664 which is less than 10 per cent. of the total number of decisions made during the same period.All figures quoted are provisional and may be subject to amendment.I hope you find this reply helpful. A copy of this reply will appear in the Official Report. Copies arc also being placed in the Library.
§ Mrs. Bridget PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) how many people have used the benefit inquiry line or his Department's local offices for help in completing the application form for disability living allowance; and what percentage of total claims are dealt with in this way;.
(2) how many claimants have requested home visits for help in completing the disability living allowance form; what percentage of total claims this represents; and, of those requesting such visits, how many claimants were visited by his Department's officers.
811W
§ Mr. ScottThe administration of disability living allowance is a matter for Mr. Michael Bichard, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member and a copy will be placed in the Library.
Letter from M. Bichard to Mrs. Bridget Prentice, dated 10 November 1992:
As Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency, it is my responsibility to answer questions about relevant operational matters. I am therefore replying to the points raised in your recent Parliamentary Questions to the Secretary of State for Social Security about how many customers have requested home visits for help in completing the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) claim form, what percentage of total claims this represents and how many visits were actually made. You also asked how many people have used the Benefit Enquiry Line or his Department's local offices for help in completing DLA forms and what percentage of total claims are dealt with in this way.Information is not available on the number of requests made for visits. However, since the launch of DLA in February 1992 to the end of October approximately 1,950 home visits had been made by the Customer Service staff in the Disability Benefit Centres.In this same period over 51,000 claims were completed with the assistance of telephone calls from Benefits Agency staff, which represents approximately 15 per cent. of the total of 342,000 new claims received.I hope you find this reply helpful. A copy of this reply will appear in the Official Report. Copies are also being placed in the Library.
§ Mrs. Bridget PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security at what intervals claimants are advised on the progress of their claims or reviews for disability living allowance.
§ Mr. ScottThe administration of disability living allowance is a matter for Mr. Michael Bichard, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member and a copy will be placed in the Library.
Letter,, from M. Bichard to Mrs. Bridget Prentice, dated 10 November 1992:
As Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency, it is my responsibility to answer questions about relevant operational matters. I am therefore replying to the points raised in your recent Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security asking at what intervals claimants are advised on the progress of their claims or reviews for Disability Living Allowance (DLA).New claims to DLA are administered by 10 Disability Benefit Centres (DBCs) around the country. When a new claim is registered on the computer system an acknowledgment is automatically issued. The claim is then referred to an adjudication officer who may decide that further information is required and if this is the case then the customer will be informed. If the claim has not been cleared after 35 days then the computer system issues a letter automatically informing the customer of the delay.I should explain that the volume of claims received has resulted in much longer delays in clearance and unfortunately we have been unable to keep customers fully informed of the progress of their claim in the latter stages. However now that the recovery programme to clear the backlog of claims has been successfully completed, clearance of claims will be accelerated and extended delays should not normally occur.In the case of reviews, which are dealt with at the DLA Unit in Blackpool, due to the volume of work currently on hand customers have not been kept fully informed of the progress of their case. Action is being taken to address the outstanding review cases and staff will be keeping customers informed of any further delays which might arise when they action those cases.I hope you find this reply helpful. A copy of this reply will appear in the Official Report. Copies are also being placed in the Library.