§ Mr. CorbettTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what is the average time now taken to deal 763W with appeals against disability assessment for war pension purposes; and what was the average time 12 and 24 months earlier;
(2) how many appeals against disability assessment for war pension purposes are currently waiting to be dealt with, and what were the figures 12 and 24 months earlier;
(3) how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time staff are employed in handling appeals against disability assessment for war pension purposes; and what were the numbers 12 and 24 months earlier.
§ Mr. HagueThese are matters for Mr. Peter Mathison, the chief executive of the War Pensions Agency. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Peter Mathison to Mr. Robin Corbett, dated 2 March 1995:
I have been asked by the Secretary of State to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about appeals against the assessment of claims to War Pension.
At 31 January 1995 the War Pensions Agency (WPA) had 8,337 assessment appeals on hand. The equivalent figures for 31 January 1994 and 1993 were 7,325 and 2,511 respectively.
The average time taken to clear an assessment appeal is currently 220 days compared with 183 days and 247 days 12 and 24 months earlier.
The work of WPA is organised so that staff deal with all aspects of a claim be it the initial claim, any review or deterioration or an ensuing appeal. As such it is no possible to be specific about the number of staff employed on dealing with assessment appeals.
The majority of resources have been used to clear the high number of claims that have been received and this is demonstrated by a clearance of nearly 240,000 first claims in the last two years compared to 98,000 in the previous two year period. The balance of first claims has been reduced from a peak of 88,000 at April 1993 to 25,000 at January 1995.
This activity on claims has led to a consequent increase in the number of appeals received and hence an increase in the total on hand. However the Agency has responded with a very large increase in output as can be demonstrated by the fact that in 1994 a total of 9,589 assessment appeals were cleared compared to 5,075 in 1993 and 3,194 in 1992.
I hope you find my reply helpful.