Work and Pensions written question – answered at on 12 October 2011.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate the cost to his Department of writing to all contributory employment and support allowance claimants in the support group to inform them of the entitlement changes to their benefit.
The Department took a decision to write to claimants who may be affected by proposals in the welfare reform bill to limit the time people can claim contribution based employment and support allowance in the Work Related Activity Group to 12 months. To deliver this letter, DWP recently undertook a scan of its computer records to identify all claimants that are in receipt of contribution-based ESA in the Work Related Activity Group with a view to writing to them. This included all those already in this category on the day the scan was run and those for whom a decision to place in the Work Related Activity Group had been made and input to the IT system with a future start date.
This scan did not identify claimants in the support group, as they will not be affected by the change. As we did not write to this group, no costs were incurred in writing to claimants receiving contribution based employment and support allowance in the Support Group.
Yes0 people think so
No0 people think not
Would you like to ask a question like this yourself? Use our Freedom of Information site.