---

Social Security Benefits: Disabled

Answer

[holding answer 4 March 2010]: Information about the number and percentage of denied claims that have been appealed against and the subsequent number of successful appeals is not available.Information about the work capability assessment for employment and support allowance claims in Great Britain is available in the Department for Work and Pension's Employment and Support Allowance: Work Capability Assessment Statistic Release (January 2010). A copy of this report is available in the Library and can be found on our website at:"http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/workingage/esa_wca/esa_wca_arc.asp"This report contains details of the number of initial assessments carried out since the introduction of employment and support allowance, a breakdown of the result of the assessment, including the fit for work decision and separate information relating to work capability assessment appeals.The available information on attendance allowance, disability living allowance, and incapacity benefit is in the tables.

Number and percentage of attendance allowance and disability living allowance new claims that are denied
	Total number of attendance allowance decisions made	Number of attendance allowance claims denied	Percentage of attendance allowance claims denied	Total number of disability living allowance decisions made	Number of disability living allowance claims denied	Percentage of disability living allowance claims denied
2005-06	408,390	85,660	21	429,290	228,050	53
2006-07	387,960	78,480	20	422,550	226,170	54
2007-08	373,890	67,860	18	456,090	248,820	55
2008-09	388,220	64,060	17	466,680	252,540	54
2009-10¹	313,480	54,990	18	402,620	223,560	56
¹ YTD January. Notes: 1. "Denied" claims has been interpreted to mean claims that have been disallowed. 2. The number of decisions made is not equal to the number of new claims made. This is because there is always a percentage of customers who make a new claim and withdraw their request before a decision can be made. The percentage of disability living allowance and attendance allowance claims denied is defined as the number of claims denied divided by the number of decisions made. Source: Management Information Reports: Report Disability Allowance (RDA) and Report Attendance Allowance (RAA) 60209 and 60205.

Number and percentage of incapacity benefit new claims that are denied
	Total claims processed	Total claims refused	Percentage refused of those processed
2006-07	679,160	319,580	47
2007-08	673,770	328,130	49
2008-09	485,220	243,620	50
2009-10¹	*21,449	14,398	67
¹ To January 2010. Notes: 1. Information is only available from 2006-07 as the MISP system holds data only from that date. 2. "Denied" claims has been interpreted as those claims refused at the new claims stage because they did not meet the criteria for incapacity benefit, i.e. they were not sick/incapacitated. This means they either did not have a medical certificate giving a reason for the incapacity from their GP therefore claimed the incorrect benefit or the sick note provided did not state an illness. These figures also include claims from those customers previously disallowed following a personal capability assessment who reclaim incapacity benefit within six months with the same condition. 3. The reduced numbers in 2009-10* are due to the introduction of employment and support allowance. Those refused as a percentage is higher as following the introduction of employment and support allowance, customers claiming incapacity benefit had to have a linking claim in order to qualify. 4. MISP is the departmental performance management, data capture and reporting tool. The statistics presented here have not been subject to the rigorous quality assurance processes that are used for official statistics and as a result they should be used with a degree of caution. Source: Management Information System Programme (MISP).

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

508 c40-2W; 315720

Session

2009-10

Related items

Deposited Paper DEP2010-0690
Monday, 15 March 2010
Deposited papers
House of Commons

Written Questions: Government Responses
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
Written questions
House of Commons

Subjects

Disability Social security benefits

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk