Clause 21
Welfare Reform Bill
8:45 pm
Anne McGuire (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Disabled People), Department for Work and Pensions; Stirling, Labour)
Right. With the greatest of respect, to determine the commencement of the assessment phase as the date of the claim would not be sensible. Many customers seek to backdate their claims due to a delay in contacting Jobcentre Plus that is no fault of their own. Others seek to advance their claim dates on the basis that their employer notified them of termination of contract some days down the line. We propose, through regulations, to set the assessment phase of the ESA as a 13-week period from the first day of entitlement. We have based that length on the evidence from the pathways pilots, which showed that 13 weeks is a realistic target for assessing the majority of customers. We will aim to get the assessment for every individual complete within the 13 weeks, but there might be instances where that is not possible, perhaps because of a delay in the collection of evidence or because a customer is unable to attend a medical examination. Earlier we considered examples such as when a medical examination has to be rescheduled because of illness or the one given, if I remember rightly, by the hon. Member for Windsor (Adam Afriyie) of all 246 Atos doctors being on strike on a given day. I know that was only an indicator, and that he used a somewhat flippant example.
We want to ensure that customers do not lose out if the assessment phase has to be extended for reasons such as I have described. Our proposals will also ensure that benefit is not paid to those who are not entitled to it, which would be a risk if everyone were automatically moved on to main phase even if their assessment was not complete. I hope that explanation will be accepted.