Disability Minister Esther McVey (or the staff in her department) has been kept busy drafting written replies to parliamentary questions, following the announcement of Atos and Capita’s involvement in the roll-out of Personal Independence Payment. 18 Written Answers in 2 days! Use a website such as ‘They Work For You’ to get full details of individual answers…
Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Personal Independence Payment (18 April 2013) Esther McVey: The contracts with Atos and Capita include service level agreements setting out the Department’s expectations, including quality of assessments, number of days to provide advice to the Department and evidence of claimant satisfaction. These service level agreements will be monitored and where appropriate financial remedies will be applied.
Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Personal Independence Payment (18 April 2013) Esther McVey: The Department has no plans to estimate the number of potential claimants to personal independence payment who do not have a landline. We will offer freephone lines for people to make a personal independence payment claim. Calls to the 0800 numbers are free from BT landlines and most mobiles and will only take a short time. We can call claimants back on request.
Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Personal Independence Payment (18 April 2013) Esther McVey: Atos will be carrying out assessments in Scotland, North West and North East England, and in London and Southern England. Capita Business Services will be carrying out assessments in Wales and central England. Atos and Capita were selected following the usual procedures for open and fair competition and assessed against established and published selection criteria.
Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Personal Independence Payment (18 April 2013) Esther McVey: Audio recording of PIP assessments will not be offered by Atos or Capita. The DWP has not seen evidence from other disability assessments that this would improve the quality of assessments. If claimants wish to record their assessment they must inform the assessor in advance and provide the assessor with a copy of the recording.
Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Personal Independence Payment (18 April 2013) Esther McVey: Decisions on benefit entitlement will rest with a departmental decision maker. The assessor’s report forms just one part of the evidence for a claim. We do not routinely provide the report to claimants following assessment as this could give a false impression to the claimant on the outcome of their claim. The length of time taken to make a formal decision on entitlement will vary depending…
Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Personal Independence Payment (18 April 2013) Esther McVey: Questions during the claim stage identify those claimants with additional support needs and this information remains visible throughout the journey. Once a claimant has submitted their claim we will send them a form on which they will be able to provide additional details in support of their claim. The form will ask claimants to describe, in their own words, how their disability or impairment…
Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Personal Independence Payment (18 April 2013) Esther McVey: Atos will be working with physiotherapy clinics, local hospitals and medical centres to offer PIP claimants familiar surroundings and experienced health professionals. All consultation centres will meet accessibility standards as defined in the Equality Act 2010. If a face-to-face consultation is required, claimants will be invited to the most convenient location but will be able to request a…
Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Personal Independence Payment (18 April 2013) Esther McVey: All claimants for personal independence payment will be notified in writing of the outcome of their application including the reasons for the decision.
Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Personal Independence Payment (18 April 2013) Esther McVey: In exceptional circumstances, where a claimant is unable to deal with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) by phone, or needs extra help, they can request a paper version of the personal independence payment (PIP) initial claim form. This captures the same basic information that DWP take over the phone. The forms will be personalised to the individual who requested them, and should not…
Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Personal Independence Payment (18 April 2013) Esther McVey: DWP is committed to enabling communication with claimants who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired. We have standard processes in place across all of DWP to support deaf people. To enable people to make their own claim, a third party can act as interpreter and “be their voice” as long as the claimant is present during that call. DWP staff have guidance to help them…
Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Personal Independence Payment (18 April 2013) Esther McVey: All personal independence payment health professionals must go through a comprehensive training programme and pass an assessment of competence before they can carry out assessments. In addition, they must be approved by the Department’s Chief Medical Advisor. A programme of audit will confirm that individual health professionals continue to meet these standards. Where a health professional’s…
Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Personal Independence Payment (18 April 2013) Esther McVey: Atos is not required to offer claimants the choice of a home visit. The contracts between the Department for Work and Pensions and Atos, and Capita, set out the circumstances in which face-to-face consultations will take place in the claimant’s home. These are: at the claimant’s request, if the assessor agrees that their health condition or disability means they are unable to travel; when the…
Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Personal Independence Payment (18 April 2013) Esther McVey: Both Atos and Capita are required to ensure that the health professionals carrying out assessments have knowledge of the clinical aspects and likely functional effects of a wide range of health conditions and impairments. The Department does not believe that it is necessary for providers to deploy health professionals who are specialists in the specific conditions or impairments of the…
Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Personal Independence Payment (17 April 2013) Esther McVey: The contracts between the Department for Work and Pensions and the personal independence payment assessment providers, Atos and Capita, stipulate that their training for health professionals must meet the Department’s requirements. The Department requires health professionals to have a broad training in disability analysis, as well as training in specific conditions. This training will…
Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Personal Independence Payment (17 April 2013) Esther McVey: The contracts between the Department for Work and Pensions and the personal independence payment assessment providers, Atos and Capita, stipulate that they must provide mental function champions to give advice and support to health professionals on health conditions and disabilities affecting mental, cognitive, intellectual and behavioural function. Assessment providers are also obliged to…
Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Personal Independence Payment (16 April 2013) Esther McVey: The contracts between the Department for Work and Pensions and the personal independence payment assessment providers, Atos and Capita, stipulate that they must provide mental function champions to give advice and support to health professionals on health conditions and disabilities affecting mental, cognitive, intellectual and behavioural function. These mental functional champions will be…
Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Personal Independence Payment (16 April 2013) Esther McVey: All personal independence payment health professionals must go through a comprehensive training programme and pass an assessment of competence before they can carry out assessments. In addition, they must be approved by the Department’s chief medical adviser. A programme of audit will confirm individual health professionals continue to meet these standards. Where a health professional’s…
Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Personal Independence Payment (16 April 2013) Esther McVey: The health professionals who will be carrying out the assessments for personal independence payment will have a broad training in disability analysis, as well as training in specific conditions. This will include training in mental, intellectual and cognitive impairments, and autistic spectrum disorders. The Department for Work and Pensions has reviewed Atos’ training materials and is content…