Chloe Smith: The Disability Commissioning Taskforce was approved in January 2021, under the leadership of the VCSE Crown Representative Claire Dove CBE. It will meet for the first time on 26th January.
Chloe Smith: In Wallasey’s jobcentres, Work Coaches, aided by Disability Employment Advisers, tailor support to claimant’s individual needs, taking account of local provision, training, and employment opportunities. This Government is committed to improving the lives of disabled people and delivering the most ambitious disability reform agenda in a generation. DWP delivers a range of national...
Chloe Smith: The next quarterly meeting of the Ministerial Disability Champions will be held on 26 January 2022.
Chloe Smith: Ensuring claimants are assessed at the earliest opportunity and reducing customer processing times are a priority for the department. As part of the Covid-19 response we introduced telephone and video assessments alongside existing paper-based assessments. We resumed face to face Work Capability Assessments (WCA) in May 2021, initially for claimants we were unable to assess by telephone. We...
Chloe Smith: As announced in the recent Shaping Future Support: Health and Disability Green Paper we want to make changes to the assessment process so people with the most severe health conditions and disabilities can claim the benefits they are entitled to through a simpler process. We are exploring how to test a new Severe Disability Group (SDG) so those with severe and lifelong conditions can benefit...
Chloe Smith: The Department published an update on the exercise to correct past ESA underpayments on Gov.uk on 8 July 2021. This reported that as of 1 June 2021, of the 600,000 cases checked, 118,000 arrears payments have been made totalling £613 million. This report showed the numbers of cases paid arrears at a national level only as the data was not available at sub-national level at that time. The...
Chloe Smith: Following the publication of the National Disability Strategy the Disability Unit is progressing the Disability Stakeholder Review, working closely with disabled people’s organisations and disability charities. People said that this review should enable a full opportunity for meaningful engagement with a wide range of stakeholders and as such the review will run through to Spring 2022, and...
Chloe Smith: The Government is committed to seeing one million more disabled people in work between 2017 and 2027 and reducing the disability employment gap. The disability employment gap has closed by around 5 percentage points since 2013 (when the current way of measuring disability began) and in the last four years, the number of disabled people in employment has increased by 850,000. We are committed...
Chloe Smith: As set out in answer UIN102750, benefits are designed to support an individual’s needs arising from a range of disabilities or ill health, including strokes. The Department aims to continually improve the assessment process for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) through customer insight, stakeholder engagement and qualitative research. For people with the highest level of support and...
Chloe Smith: The Diffuse Mesothelioma Payment Scheme (Levy) Regulations 2014 require active employers’ liability insurers to pay an annual levy, based on their relative market share, for the purpose of meeting the costs of the Diffuse Mesothelioma Payment Scheme (DMPS). This is in line with the insurance industry’s commitment to fund a scheme of last resort for persons diagnosed with diffuse...
Chloe Smith: Today the Department for Work and Pensions is introducing an amendment to the Universal Credit (UC) Regulations 2013 and the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) Regulations 2013 to exempt people who are terminally ill from the requirement to accept a claimant commitment to be eligible for benefits. A claimant commitment sets out what an individual agrees to do in return for benefit,...
Chloe Smith: The tender for Functional Assessment Service contracts to deliver health and disability assessments from 2023 was successfully launched by the DWP on 12 November 2021. The details can be found on Gov.UK
Chloe Smith: Yes, DWP will place in the library a copy of the questionnaires.. However, it should be noted that the survey questionnaires for each provider have since been updated to incorporate remote assessment channels (telephone and video) introduced as part of the Covid-19 response.
Chloe Smith: We have launched our first recruitment advert for Healthcare Professionals (closing date 03 February) for 10 roles in our existing Health Transformation Area sites in London and Birmingham. Individuals appointed from this advert will work alongside existing Healthcare Professionals provided by Advanced Personnel Management Group (UK) Ltd.
Chloe Smith: DWP undertook an EU open procurement exercise for the provision of Additional Healthcare Capacity services in 2018. Upon conclusion of the exercise APM (UK) Ltd were awarded the contract to provide these services. The details of the procurement process are publicly available and can be found on www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk.
Chloe Smith: There are currently 28 Healthcare Professionals employed by Advanced Personnel Management Group (UK) Ltd working in the Health Transformation Area (HTA). There were 13 Healthcare Professionals in the HTA when it first began operating. In the HTA, we have completed just over 500 PIP and close to 1500 WCA assessments.
Chloe Smith: Access to Work is committed to improving customer experience and transforming the service disabled people receive. This will introduce a new digital customer journey and explores how we can streamline the current processes, including reviewing the frequency of applications. In addition, we are developing the Adjustments Passport which aims to reduce the need for holistic assessments where...
Chloe Smith: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19th January to question number 104377.
Chloe Smith: I refer the Honourable Member to the answer I gave on 19th January to question number 104377.
Chloe Smith: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19th January to question number 104377.