HC Deb 29 January 1993 vol 217 cc903-6W
Mr. Flynn

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what are the national average clearance times for(a) new claims, (b) top-up claims and (c) requests for review of disability living allowance for each month since September 1992; and if he will break down the figures by disability benefit centre;

(2) if he will list the number of appeals against a disability living allowance and attendance allowance decision broken down by outcome of appeal heard by the new disability appeal tribunals, and the number and percentage of appeals waiting to be heard;

(3) in how many cases a person has lost either a care or mobility component of the disability living allowance following a review of the other component;

(4) if he will provide details of in which parts of the Benefits Agency the 800 additional staff taken on to help clear the backlog of disability living allowance and attendance allowance cases were previously employed; what training on disability living allowance and attendance allowance they received, and the number and percentage that had to be relocated; and if he will make a statement on the Benefits Agency's future plans with regard to the employment of these additional staff to work on disability living allowance and attendance allowance;

(5) what number and percentage of (a) new claims and (b) top-up claims for disability living allowance claims to date have (i) resulted in an award, (ii) been rejected, broken down by whether (1) further evidence was requested or (2) the claim was decided solely on the statement of disability evidence provided by the claimant;

Standard Industrial Classification.

Figures for Luxembourg and Ireland are not available.

Total resident population used as denominator.

Mr. Nicholas Winterton

To ask the President of the Board of Trade what information he has concerning the level of imports of manufactured goods in terms of percentage of total domestic expenditure in each member country of the European Community in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available.

Mr. Needham

[holding answer 26 January 1993]: The figures requested are shown in the table.

(6) how many staff, divided into full and part-time and permanent and temporary, have been employed by his Department at each disability benefit centre in each month since the beginning of February 1992;

(7) for what number and percentage of claims for disability living allowance and attendance allowance the adjudicating officer required further evidence; and if he will list the number and percentage requiring (a) an examining medical practitioner report, (b) evidence other than an examining medical practitioner report and (c) both;

(8) how many requests for reviews of disability living allowance and attendance allowance have been received by his Department since the introduction of self-assessment: and what number and percentage of these (a) resulted in an increase in the amount of benefit payable, (b) resulted in an orginal award being maintained, (c) resulted in a reduction in benefit and (d) remain outstanding;

(9) how many claims for the disability living allowance and attendance allowance have been received by the Department to date in total and in each month since the beginning of February 1992; and if he will provide a breakdown by (a) the number and percentage of these that resulted in an award, (b) the number and percentage of these that were refused broken down by grounds for refusal (c) the number and percentage of these that required further evidence broken down by type of evidence and (d) the number and percentage of these that are awaiting a decision; and if these can be broken down by the totals for the country as a whole and by each of the regions covered by the 10 disability benefit centres.

Mr. Scott

The administration of disability benefits 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 Mr. Paul Flynn, dated 28 January 1993: 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 Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Attendance Allowance (AA). I will deal with each of your points in turn.

Number of claims made and decided You asked for the number of new claims and "top-up" claims for DLA together with the number and percentage of awards and refusals, including reasons for refusal. Annex 1 shows a breakdown of this information together with details of decisions based upon information provided on the claim form, medical examinations and other forms of evidence. A further breakdown showing the complete picture of the outcome of claims within each of the DBC's from May 1992 to date for AA claims is shown at Annex 2 and Annex 3 for DLA claims from February 1992 to date. The first half of each Annex shows the actual numbers and the remainder reflects the percentages.

National average clearance times Since the launch of DLA in February 1992 the performance to date has shown a 37 per cent. clearance rate against the primary target of 30 days. Performance has been improving steadily over recent months and the latest performance for the month of December shows 55 per cent of claims cleared within 30 days. The table at Annex 4 shows the clearance times for each Disability Benefit Centre (DBC) between February and December inclusive for new claims and those made under the special rules, for both the primary target (60 per cent. in 30 days for normal; 80 per cent. for special rules) and the secondary target (95 per cent. in 55 days for normal; 90 per cent. in 15 for special). The clearance of top-up claims is shown at Annex 5.

Reviews of decisions on DLA You have asked how many requests for review of DLA and AA claims have been received. To date just under 56,000 requests for DLA reviews have been received whilst in the case of AA around 92,000 have been received. At the end of December 47,000 DLA reviews were outstanding and 30,000 AA reviews. I should explain that figures are not routinely gathered to show instances whereby a claimant loses either a care or mobility element following a review of the other component. However, these occurrences are not thought to be significant, as protection exists within the Regulations so that the Adjudication Officer need not consider the other component to that which he is reviewing. Annex 6 shows details of the number and percentage of reviews that have resulted in (a) an increase, (b) an award maintained and (c) reduction in benefit.

Number of appeals against a DLA and AA decision The number of appeals received by the AA Unit between 6 April 1992 and 31 December 1992 is 782. This figure includes both Disability Appeal Tribunal cases as well as Social Security Appeal Tribunal cases. Of these, 372 are still awaiting submission to the Independent Tribunal Service. For DLA the number of appeals registered by the end of December 1992 was 2,375. 246 have so far been cleared and 2,129 remain outstanding.

Staffing You asked how many staff, divided into full-time, part-time, permanent and temporary have been employed at each of the DBC's since the beginning of February 1992. I presume you are referring to those staff employed on DLA and AA65+ operations within the Centres. This information is shown in Annex 7 attached. The figures show a steady increase in the manpower deployed on the new benefits. Across the DBCs and Fylde Units, this increase amounts to around 800 additional staff. Approximately half of this total were redeployed from within the Agency, with just over 300 from the District Office network around the country and almost 100 from other operations within the Fylde Directorate. The remaining 400 are temporary staff recruited to assist in the clearance of the backlogs of cases which existed in the months surrounding the benefits' launch. I am of course conscious of the need to ensure that the valuable support these additional resources have provided is not removed too early. We are constantly monitoring this situation and reviewing staff needs therefore on an ongoing basis. You also asked about the training which these staff received. In most areas extra staff were taken on to deal with specific areas of work. In the main, training was therefore specifically designed to meet the needs of the individual circumstances which prevailed, often covering specific tasks. Formal computer system and adjudication training courses were arranged as appropriate. I hope you find this reply helpful. A copy will appear in the Official Report. A copy will also be placed in the Library. The information has been placed in the Library.