Tag: Debbie Abrahams

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-05-26.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to ensure that disabled people are not disproportionately affected by reductions in government expenditure.

Damian Hinds

The Government has protected the value of disability benefits, exempting these payments from the uprating freeze and exempting those in receipt of them from the benefit cap.

Disability spending will be higher in every year to 2020 relative to both 2010 and to today.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-07-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on the introduction of the cost collection process within the Local Government Pension Scheme.

Richard Harrington

None.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many (a) men and (b) women by (i) age and (ii) incident have been diagnosed with secondary breast cancer in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Jane Ellison

Public Health England (PHE) is responsible for collecting cancer data to support national cancer registration in England and recognises the importance of collecting data on recurrent breast cancer; however data on the number of people diagnosed with secondary breast cancer is not currently available. Pilot work undertaken in April 2012 in acute trusts has improved the reporting for breast cancer recurrence and metastasis to the National Cancer Registration Service (NCRS). In order to drive up data completeness for the submissions to the NCRS, monthly reports on data quality and completeness of the Cancer Outcomes and Services Dataset are made available to all acute providers.

Since the completion of the pilot project the NCRS in PHE has been working with all acute National Health Service providers in England to improve the reporting of breast cancer recurrence. The collection of this particular item of data remains challenging because relapsed patients may represent in many different ways and through many referral routes.

Further work is being scoped by NHS England and PHE based on the recommendation in the recent Independent Cancer Taskforce report to establish robust surveillance systems to collect this data on all cancers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-01-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of personal independence payment recipients the sample of 105 cases represented in his Department’s Consultation on aids and appliances and the daily living component of personal independence payment; what methodology his Department used in its review of those cases; and how that sample was selected.

Justin Tomlinson

As part of the consultation on aids and appliances and the daily living component of PIP, the Department reviewed a sample of 105 cases where claimants scored all, or the majority, of their points from aids and appliances. These were randomly selected.

PIP is designed to provide a contribution to the additional costs faced by those with a long-term impairment or health-condition. Yet in over 90% of the cases reviewed claimants were likely to have only low or minimal additional costs. This was based on the professional opinion of DWP doctors who looked at all the information held on departmental systems relating to each case.

The Department’s latest published statistics show that, as of October 2015, there were 611,121 PIP claimants. 105 cases would represent 0.02% of this figure. However, this includes claimants who receive the mobility component, which is not within scope of the consultation, as well as those who receive the daily living component, the majority of whom did not score all, or most, of their points from aids and appliances.

Given the strength of the pattern that emerged from the review of the 105 cases, we believe that the cases provide an important indication of how the assessment is working and that it was important to include these findings in the consultation document.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many one-month reminder letters of CSA case closure have been issued in each month since November 2014 for cases in (a) segment 1, (b) segment 2, (c) segment 3 and (d) segment 4.

Priti Patel

We do not currently collate this data on a monthly basis.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many stroke survivors are in (a) receipt of employment and support allowance and (b) the work-related activity group.

Priti Patel

The information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many care leavers aged 18 to 25 have had sanctions overturned or reduced on reconsideration or appeal in (a) 2013-14 and (b) 2014-15.

Priti Patel

The information requested in respect of care leavers is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-06-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on GP services of increasing medical indemnity costs for GPs.

Alistair Burt

The Department and NHS England committed in the recently published General Practice Forward View to review the current arrangements for indemnity cover for general practitioners. To take this review forward, a General Practice Indemnity Steering Group has been established by the Department with NHS England to look at the rising cost of indemnity, and to bring forward proposals for discussion by the end of July 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-07-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his estimate is of the number of people in receipt of universal credit in regular employment and paid monthly whose pay date will fluctuate with their universal credit assessment period resulting in two sets of earnings in one assessment period and no earnings in the following assessment period since the roll-out of the digital service.

Damian Hinds

The specific information requested could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

Unlike tax credits which meant that claimants received demands for repayments and could never be sure they were receiving the correct entitlement, Universal Credit assesses monthly earnings and income in that month. That lessens the burden on claimants who have fluctuating incomes or irregular payments so they can budget with greater confidence and without the anxiety they will be hit with a demand for repayment.

We are currently implementing a test and learn approach to understand the interaction of Universal Credit and employer pay cycles and its effect on awards. This work will include discussions with employers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether there are differences in the (a) definition and (b) recording of secondary breast cancer in ICD-10 compared with the Cancer Registry.

Jane Ellison

The National Cancer Registration Services (NCRS) code their data using International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 03 in which the data is mapped back to ICD-10 for analysis purposes. ICD-10 does not distinguish between a primary breast tumour or secondary breast tumour. They are coded the same. It is the additional data that the Registry collects across the patient pathway, such as those recurrence data items in the Cancer Outcomes and Services Dataset that allows NCRS to detect whether a tumour is a primary or a secondary.