Employment and Support Allowance
Work and Pensions
Stephen Timms (East Ham, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of appeals against decisions that an applicant for employment and support allowance (ESA) should be placed in the work related activity group have been successful for people who have (a) made a new claim for ESA and (b) been reassessed from incapacity benefit.
Chris Grayling (Minister of State (Employment), Work and Pensions; Epsom and Ewell, Conservative)
Information on outcomes of appeals by incapacity benefits claimants reassessed for employment and support allowance (ESA) is not available.
Information on outcomes of appeals by new ESA claimants against a decision to be placed in the work related activity group is not readily available and has not previously been published as official statistics. We will consider whether to include the statistics requested in part of an upcoming statistics release in line with the code of practice for official statistics.
Annotations
Les Reed
Posted on 9 Jul 2012 3:00 pm (Report this annotation)
Mr Grayling, are you of the opinion that the public "don't need to know"? The use of ATOS is, from personal experience, somewhat suspect and I urge you to delve deeper into their efficacy so that, if and when you condescend to let the public know the results of your "sweep", the figures are true and accurate - not massaged for convenience.
Peter Morris
Posted on 9 Jul 2012 3:09 pm (Report this annotation)
Even if he thinks the public don't need to know, surely the Department and the Minister need to know as part of the Service Level Agreement performance monitoring for the ATOS contract?
If they are not collecting these statistics then they are not ensuring the Government is getting Best Value for Money from the contract with ATOS.
Les Reed
Posted on 9 Jul 2012 3:24 pm (Report this annotation)
Yes, Peter. Even without the element of personal disruption in the lives of many, the contract with ATOS needs to be established as value for money - and not another, err, job for the boys. Factual errors are rife, yet the government seem oblivious to that fact (selectively, perhaps), and to not keep/obtain/reveal figures when asked is in my opinion, rather suspect.