The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2014-05-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has issued guidance to Atos on how to prioritise work capability assessments between reassessments and new claimants for employment and support allowance.
Mike Penning
The Department does not issue guidance to Atos Healthcare on how to prioritise Work Capability Assessments.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2014-06-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what contingency arrangements have been put in place by the Department’s Child Maintenance Group to ensure that the Child Maintenance Options Service answers all calls promptly and there is a good service; and how often those contingency arrangements were invoked in the last year.
Steve Webb
The Child Maintenance Options service has an effective business continuity plan in place, which includes the ability to divert calls to other trained colleagues and deploy a variety of telephony-based solutions such as Interactive Voice Response.
There were around eight occasions in which contingency measures had to be used in the last year for reasons including brief local power outages, activation of the fire alarm system and occasions where call demands exceeded forecasted volumes.
Steps have been taken to prevent or minimise any reoccurrence of these events, including the installation of an uninterrupted power supply and better forecasting as we fully establish the impact of recent changes such as the use of Child Maintenance Options as a mandatory gateway to the statutory scheme.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Written Statement of 27 March 2014, Official Report, columns 56-7W, on Atos, how many Atos Healthcare staff currently carrying out work capability assessments are expected to carry out personal independence payment assessments in future; and if he will make a statement.
Mike Penning
The Department maintains separate contracts with Atos Healthcare for the delivery of work capability assessments and Personal Independence Payment assessments and these contracts require that resources for these two contracts be kept separate.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2014-05-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether Atos staff have been offered any additional retention or performance-related payments since the decision to terminate the contract to carry out work capability assessments was announced.
Mike Penning
The detail of any remuneration of their own staff is an issue for Atos Healthcare and not the Department.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2014-06-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in how many cases child support arrears have been written off under the Child Support Management of Payments and Arrears (Amendment) Regulations 2012 since November 2012; and how much has been written off in such a fashion.
Steve Webb
The circumstances, provided for in The Child Support Management of Payments and Arrears (Amendment) Regulations 2012, in which debt can be written off are:
– Where the Parent with Care (PWC) requests it;
– Where the Non-resident Parent (NRP) has died prior to 25/01/2010, or no further action can be taken to recover debt from the estate;
– Where the PWC has died;
– Where there is Interim Maintenance Assessment (IMA) debt and the IMA was in place between 5th April 93 and 18th April 95, and the assessment cannot be adjusted in light of a parent’s actual income for this form of debt when it arises over that period; or,
– Where the NRP has been told that no further action would ever be taken to collect the debt.
Since the introduction of the write off powers in November 2012 the Department has written off the following amounts:
– Financial year ended 31 March 2013 £1,133,310
– Financial year ended 31 March 2014 £15,480,677
The Department does not hold information on the number of cases this relates to.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2014-03-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 13 March 2014, Official Report, column 316W, on children: maintenance, in how many cases within the Child Support Agency collection service, excluding those with a deduction from earnings order, the Agency was notified of a missed child maintenance payment in the quarter up to and including December 2013; and in what proportion of such cases the non-resident parent was contacted by the Agency within 72 hours.
Steve Webb
There are currently three statutory maintenance schemes. The 1993 and 2003 schemes are delivered by the Child Support Agency and the 2012 scheme is delivered by the Child Maintenance Service.
In all schemes, our aim is to act within 72 hours of when we are notified of a missed payment where there is a current liability. The notification trigger comes after a five day tolerance period of a missed payment. This tolerance period is to allow for issues which may have caused the missed payment to be resolved (i.e. clearances through bank accounts) without the need for our intervention. While this trigger is built into the design for the 2012 system, there is no comparable automated process for the 1993 and 2003 systems.
As such, information on (a) the number of notifications of a missed child maintenance payment in cases within the Child Support Agency collection service and (b) the proportion of such cases where the non-resident parent was contacted by the Agency within 72 hours is not available as it is not routinely recorded for management information purposes. To provide this information would require the creation of new information which could only be completed and appropriately assured at a disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to monitor the transitional arrangements put in place by Atos Healthcare following the termination of his Department’s contract with that company for the provision of work capability assessments.
Mike Penning
The Department has negotiated a more robust agreement covering the remaining contract term; with an agreed performance regime that gives us confidence delivery goals will be achieved. Atos will continue to deliver Work Capability Assessments (and other assessments and advice) until contract exit and will be subject to a rigorous quality and service credit regime. To this end, a remedial advisory team is being appointed to work with the Atos Healthcare management during this period to assist Atos in meeting their contractual obligations, ahead of awarding the contract to a new provider.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2014-05-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what funding will be provided to local authorities after June 2016 to support former Independent Living Fund users.
Mike Penning
The 2013 Spending Review announced that local authorities and the devolved administrations will be fully funded to meet their additional responsibilities towards former ILF users in 2015/16. Funding in respect of former ILF users from 2016/17 onwards will be decided in the next Spending Review.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2014-04-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average waiting time for applicants for the personal independence payment (PIP) in each region of the UK is between submission of the PIP2 form and the date of receipt of the first payment after an assessment from each assessment provider.
Mike Penning
I refer the hon Member to the answer I gave to the hon Member for Liverpool, West Derby, official report, 5 March, column 850W.
In order to manage the gap between Personal Independence Payment go-live and the first release of Official Statistics in Spring 2014, we are assessing whether we can release some further information. If the quality assurance of this information shows that it is sufficiently robust and reliable then we will publish it via ad-hoc statistical releases.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what contracts are held by his Department with Atos Healthcare for the provision of medical and health-related assessments.
Mike Penning
The Department holds a national contract with Atos Healthcare for the provision of Work Capability Assessments and contracts for Personal Independence Payment Assessments for PIP Lot 1 covering North West England, North East England, Scotland and Isle of Man and PIP Lot 3 covering London / Southern England.