Select committee: Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 19
Fifth Report - Health assessments for benefits
Published 14 Apr 2023
Paragraph 91
Addressed to Department for Work and Pensions
Work and Pensions Committee Health assessments for benefits All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
DWP has introduced changes to the Mandatory Reconsideration process that it says make it a more effective check on decision-making. A worryingly high number and proportion of appeals still result in the Department’s decision being overturned, with implications for wider trust in the system beyond those directly affected. The Department does not provide any data on Mandatory Reconsideration decisions for UC WCAs. Without this, we cannot know whether Mandatory Reconsideration is functioning effectively for one of the largest groups of claimants that rely on it. We recognise the Government has announced it intends to scrap WCAs, but they will remain in use for several years. When the Government begins to publish data on UC WCAs from June 2023, it must also include data on Mandatory Reconsiderations. DWP should also work with HM Courts and Tribunal Service to ensure it has an accurate understanding of the scale of disability-related UC Tribunals as part of the wider Tribunal Service caseload.
From: Work and Pensions Committee, Fifth Report - Health assessments for benefits (HC 128), paragraph 91, 14 April 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 26 June 2023 (deadline 14 June 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Department welcomes the Committee's report and says it 'wholeheartedly agrees' that assessments must be fit for purpose, while setting out where it accepts, declines or is still testing individual recommendations.
- It accepts the recommendation on accessible digital services (Recommendation 14) and agrees with the call to evaluate the Health Transformation Programme, having published an evaluation strategy on 25 May 2023.
- It does not support extending the deadline for returning ESA50, UC50 and PIP2 forms to two months, citing 15 years' experience and a balance between time to respond and getting the correct award in place "at the earliest opportunity".
- It remains "committed to retaining audio recording on an opt-in basis" rather than recording by default, and says payment of a PIP assessment rate "could lead to inappropriate expenditure of public funds".
- On timing, it says reforms would require primary legislation and would be rolled out "from no earlier than 2026/27", with improvements to the UC50 journey to be delivered "by the end of 2023".