Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 6
6
Rejected
Monitor and publish data on health assessment services by area and provider to identify differences.
Conclusion
The Department has not worked out how it will manage the inevitable differences between claims made and processed in its new test areas and in areas using the current service. A key objective of the Programme is to help the Department make the benefit decision ‘right the first time more of the time’. Around 15% of initial decisions where the claimant was not awarded the full amount for their PIP payment are later revised by the Department through mandatory reconsideration or having been overturned at appeal. The Department is testing improvements to health assessments and the PIP application service within its health transformation 8 Revising health assessments for disability benefits areas in London and Birmingham. By 2026, the Department intends to process up to 20% of new claims using the new service. The Department hopes that these claimants will experience a faster process and improved accuracy in initial decisions. The Department claims that it has a low tolerance for inconsistencies between the new service it is developing and the existing service, and that both services should apply the same legislation and provide the same standard of service. There is an opportunity for the Department to learn from improvements they are making in the current service and input these to the new services so that they can be much improved for clients. Recommendation 5: The Department needs to monitor and publish data on the services provided in each transformation area and by each provider, so it can identify and manage any differences in the standard of service being delivered. This should include measures of how initial health assessment recommendations are changed by DWP officials and decisions are altered at mandatory reconsideration and appeal.
Government Response Summary
The government disagreed with the recommendation to monitor and publish specific data points for transformation areas, stating they already publish HTP MI and PIP Official Statistics. They will consider including equivalent measures in future HTP publications once the service is mature.
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation. On 19 December 2023, the department published the first in a new series of HTP MI. Publication of this MI will continue quarterly in line with the PIP Official Statistics release schedule. This release includes monthly information on the number of referrals to the Health Transformation Area (HTA). As the programme and underlying data systems mature, the department will be able to evolve this publication to report against KPIs and underlying performance metrics. Health assessments are conducted on the same legislative basis and same clinical standards across providers. The department will keep under review what data can be published on performance of the existing providers and is currently designing the publication strategy for when new FAS contracts are in place from Autumn 2024. The department already publishes overturn rates at Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) and appeal in the PIP Official Statistics and will look to include equivalent measures within future HTP statistical publications once the service is suitably developed and robust, and where publishing will provide a representative picture of the HTP’s progress.