§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will set out for Q3 and Q4 2000–01 and Q1 2001–02(a) how many people were awaiting an appeal for (i) Disability Living and (ii) Attendance Allowance at the end of each quarter, (b) the average time it took to process the appeal and (c) the average time it took to process the original claim. [7478]
§ Maria EagleInformation is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is as follows.
Table 1 Live load of Disability Living Allowance and Attendance Allowance appeals current on the last day of each quarter 2000–01 Attendance Allowance Disability Living Allowance Quarter 3 4,558 35,830 Quarter 4 3,521 30,601 The average clearance times from receipt of the appeal by the Benefits Agency to the Appeals Service issuing the tribunal's decision and the average waiting times from receipt of the appeal by the Benefits Agency to the first hearing by a tribunal for the third and fourth quarters of 2000–01 are shown in table 2. The figures for the first quarter of 2001–02 are not available.
833W
Table 2 Disability Living Allowance and Attendance Allowance average clearance and waiting times, in weeks, for cases heard in the following quarters: 2000–01 Quarter 3 Quarter 4 Clearance times1 Attendance Allowance 27.4 27.1 Disability Living Allowance 27.8 28.5 Waiting times2 Attendance Allowance 25.9 24.4 Disability Living Allowance 24.8 24.2 1 Clearance times shown apply from the date of lodgement with the Benefits Agency to the Appeals Service issuing the tribunal's decision. Thus delays caused by adjournments are included. The time taken for the Benefits Agency to implement the decision is not included. 2 Waiting times shown apply from the date of lodgement with the Benefits Agency to the date of the first tribunal hearing. (c) The average times taken to process Disability Living Allowance and Attendance Allowance claims for the third and fourth quarters of 2000–01 and the first quarter of 2001–02 are shown in table 3.
Table 3 Average time taken to process Disability Allowance (DLA) and Attendance Allowance (AA) claims, in days, for quarters: Attendance Allowance Disability Living Allowance 2000–01 Quarter 3 26.4 44.8 Quarter 4 26.7 43.7 2001–02 Quarter 1 26.0 42.2 Note:
It is not possible to track individual claims through subsequent stages. The figures above therefore give the average actual clearance times for all new claims received in the relevant quarters.