§ Mr. Alfred MorrisTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) to what extent Government forecasts of future demands on the staff of the Benefits Agency were wrong in relation to the disability living allowance; where and by whom the forecasts were made; and if he will make a statement;
(2) how many hours of overtime have been worked by staff of the Benefits Agency in processing claims for the disability living allowance and the disability working allowance; and if he will indicate the equivalent in terms of additional staff;
(3) what additional resources were made available to the Benefits Agency to deal with the backlog of cases involving claims for the disability living allowance, top-up claims and claims for attendance allowance for people aged over 65 years; what was the number of cases still awaiting clearance at the end of September; and if he will make a statement.
§ 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 copies will be placed in the Library.
Letter from Mr. Michael Bichard to Mr. Alfred Morris, dated 26 October 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 staff dealing with Disability Living Allowance (DLA).
You asked first about the forecasting of future demands upon Benefits Agency staff in relation to DLA. I should explain that the implementation of DLA was planned within the Agency by a discrete Project team based at Fylde. Staffing levels were determined using forecast workloads prepared by the Government's Analytical Services Division, which in turn were built upon the benefit's original policy intentions and some assumptions as to likely take-up rates etc.
From this basis it was calculated that around 2,000 staff would be required to administer claims to DLA and Attendance Allowance (AA) for the over 65s. However, the pleasing success of the advertising campaign and the widespread interest from disabled people, attracted a much larger number of applications in the early stages than was predicted.
Whilst at first the take up of new claims to DLA was slow, the intake in March was more than double that forecast. In addition the "Top-Up" claims received by the end of April 629W had exceeded the total number forecast for the whole year (137,000) and by the end of September had reached 195,000, an increase of 35 per cent.
At the same time the staff in the Disability Benefit Centres, where DLA claims are processed, experienced a surge in claims to AA. Over 55,000 more claims than originally forecast were received in the period February to April, representing an overall increase of 42 per cent. Indeed the total claims activity for DLA (including "Top-ups") and AA for those over 65 during the period February to April inclusive was an intake of 447,000 which represented an increase of 27 per cent. (94,000 claims) over the original estimate of just over 353,000. Consequently, the effects of both the numbers and the rate at which claims were received resulted in backlogs.
As you will know from my recent letter to Members, we have as a result increased the number of staff devoted to handling DLA and AA claims by over 800.
You also asked about overtime. Since the onset of the new benefits almost 420,000 hours of overtime have been worked by staff at the Disability Benefits Centres (DBCs) and the Fylde Unit which is equivalent to around 340 posts in terms of additional staff. I have also established a senior management task force to tackle the arrears and to optimise work flows.
These measures have increased the throughput of new claims considerably, and we are on schedule to clear the backlog shortly.
Your third question also asked about number of cases still awaiting clearance at the end of September. The table below gives details of outstanding claims for the months June to September inclusive:—
New claims Top-ups AA June 125,000 123,000 153,000 July 117,000 104,000 143,000 August 106,000 79,000 122,000 September 90,000 58,000 90,000 All figures are provisional and may be subject to amendment.
During the same period, the numbers of claims cleared rose steadily from 15,600 in April to 52,000 in September in the case of DLA claims with 22,700 and 70,500 respectively for AA cases. The clearance of top-up claims remained steady at around 7,000 per week during the months August and September.
Of course there will always be a certain number of cases in action at any one time. We expect this normal on hand level for new claims to be in the region of 50,000 cases for DLA and just below 60,000 for AA.
Finally you also asked how many hours of overtime had been worked by staff in processing claims for Disability Working Allowance. So far no overtime has been worked by staff in processing applications for this benefit.
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.
§ Mr. FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security by what criteria he plans to determine the award of performance-related pay to Michael Bichard, chief executive of the Benefits Agency.
§ Mr. BurtMr. Bichard's entitlement to performance bonus is largely dependent upon the achievement of a range of specific targets which include improving on the performance targets which we set the Benefits Agency each year. These are published in the "Benefits Agency's Business Plan", a copy of which is available in the Library.