Cathy Jamieson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 11 June 2014, Official Report, column 176W, on work capability assessment, if he will make it his policy to set a target timescale for employment and support allowance and incapacity benefit reassessment work capability assessments in order to monitor and reduce the waiting times for those assessments.

Mike Penning

We are committed to completing Work Capability Assessments as quickly as possible so that eligible claimants receive the appropriate rate of benefit.

However it is important to get assessments right rather than setting an artificial timescale for completion. We are working with the existing supplier to improve processing times and reduce waiting times. In addition, we are seeking a replacement supplier to undertake Work Capability Assessments.

In the meantime we continue to rigorously monitor and manage the existing contract to ensure that both quality and performance are maintained as part of our drive to improve the quality of decision making and process claims more quickly.