§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many invalidity benefit awards have been(a) reviewed, (b) disallowed following review and (c) reinstated on appeal during the last 12 months in each of the Doncaster and Mexborough area Benefits Agency offices.
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§ Mr. HagueThis is a matter for Mr. Michael Bichard, chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member with such information as is available.
Letter from Michael Bichard to Mr. Martin Redmond, dated 17 January 1995:
The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about Invalidity Benefit (IVB) awards in Doncaster and Mexborough.
The Benefits Agency (BA) Doncaster District comprises Doncaster West District Office (DO) and Doncaster East Benefit Office (BO). Reviews of IVB cases appropriate to the Doncaster District are centralised at Doncaster West DO.
Mexborough BO is part of the BA Rother and Dearne District which comprises Rotherham South DO and Goldthorpe, Mexborough and Rotherham North BO's. Reviews of IVB cases for customers dealt with by Mexborough BO are dealt with at that office.
The information requested is provided in the following table:
IVB awards reviewed between 1 January and 31 December 1994 Office IVB awards reviewed and disallowed IVB awards reinstated on appeal Doncaster DO 616 126 Mexborough BO 260 55 Requests for review were received by the Adjudication Officer (AO) in 707 cases at Doncaster and 383 at Mexborough. Of those cases, the AO decided that in 91 cases at Doncaster and 123 at Mexborough the requirements for entitlement to IVB were still satisfied and IVB should not be reviewed. However, in the remaining cases the AO decided that the award of IVB should be reviewed and disallowed.
I hope you find this reply helpful.