§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) how many applications for Attendance Allowance have(a) been subject to reconsideration and (b) successful at reconsideration; and what was the average number of days taken to process appeals in each quarter of the last three years; [141493]
(2) how many (a) claims, (b) reviews, (c) reconsiderations and (d) appeals there were on which a decision had not been reached at the end of each quarter of the last three years. [141494]
§ Mr. BayleyThe information is not available in the format requested as it is not possible, from overall statistics, to track individual claims through subsequent stages. The figures therefore show the total number or reconsiderations. All figures relate to Attendance Allowance.
130W
1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 Reconsiderations and Reviews June 9,038 8,766 2,267 September 8,437 8,671 2,177 December 6,851 2,589 — March 10,398 1,954 — Success rate of Reconsideration and Review decisions made in this period June (percentage) 43 39 34 September (percentage) 38 37 43 December (percentage) 43 33 — March (percentage) 40 40 — Average Clearance time for Appeals (working days) June 28.7 46.1 70.8 September 33.8 50.4 76.7 December 28.6 1— — March 36.1 65 — Claims outstanding June 26,220 34,757 47,726 September 29,614 32,026 30,362 December 30,569 42,183 — March 35,501 47,927 —
1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 Reviews and Reconsiderations outstanding June 14,606 19,205 4,438 September 15,489 19,229 4,110 December 15,493 14,977 — March 17,310 6,337 — Appeals outstanding June 475 765 4,378 September 507 701 4,237 December 397 1,905 — March 518 3,542 — 1 Statistics are not available for this quarter due to a technical difficulty Note
From October 1999, considerations replaced reviews as the mechanism for looking again at decisions
I refer the hon. Member to my written answers on 22 November 2000, Official Report, columns 229–30W, and 7 November 2000, Official Report, columns 162–63W in which I stated that new procedures for assessing claims for Disability Living Allowance (DLA)/Attendance Allowance (AA) were introduced last year to improve the accuracy of decisions on entitlement.
As with any major change to the processing of benefit, there was a lengthy period of adjustment both in the preceding months and immediately after the new procedures became effective. As a result, significant backlogs of work built up in DLA/AA operations. This has been tackled as a priority and work in most areas of the business has now returned to acceptable levels. However, as claims have been processed, this has led to increases in the levels of appeals outstanding as cases work through the system. Achieving a reduction in the level of appeals outstanding has been our highest priority and the numbers outstanding have reduced steadily in recent months.