War Disablement Pension (Hansard, 17 June 1996)

§ Mr. Heald

These are matters for Mr. Kevin Caldwell, chief executive of the War Pensions Agency. He will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from K. C. Caldwell to Mr. David Hanson, dated 13 June 1996: The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about War Pension claims and appeals. The current average time being taken by the War Pensions Agency to clear a first claim to War Pension is 169 working days and the average time to clear an appeal is 328 working days. War Pensions claims and appeals, in many instances, relate to World War II cases and thus involve the determination of cause and effect of medical conditions arising from incidents in service over 50 years ago. The retrieval of old service records and the linkage from service incidents to current disablements, as well as the assessment of the current degree of disablement and determination of the part played by the service incident are all complicating factors. The War Pensions Agency set about a programme of modernising its administrative processes and through 1995 introduced a substantial programme of change: restructuring its operational teams into end-to-end sections to provide holistic service to claimants; introduction of a major operational computer system linked to the Department's other systems; and moving to new purpose built accommodation. These changes, aimed at providing an improved, more cost-effective service, did lead to a down-turn in performance in the second half of 1995 as the costs of retraining staff in the new arrangements were felt. As the throughput of work has picked up, and more cases are being cleared, more of these are relatively old cases in the system and average clearance times are elongated. The position on appeals has also been affected by the considerable increase in appeals in 1994. There are still many old appeals in the system, which will continue to depress performance, but the Agency is making inroads and now has 10,475 appeals on hand compared to 14,360 at the same time last year and is clearing about 1,000 a month against a current average intake of less than half that number. 327W I should explain the War Pension appeals are dealt with in two stages. First, the Agency prepares appeal papers and a Statement of Case for the independent Pensions Appeal Tribunals (PAT), who come under the jurisdiction of the Lord Chancellor's Department. The PAT, who consider all War Pension appeals, are then responsible for arranging the appeal hearing. The figures I have quoted relate solely to the Agency's performance. I am advised by the PAT that, after receiving the appeal papers from the Agency, it is currently taking them on average 59.4 weeks to arrange a hearing.

I hope you find my reply helpful.