4.
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if his Department has now resolved the backlog of disability living allowance claims.
7.
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the current backlog of claims for disability allowance.
The Benefits Agency has been meeting its primary clearance targets for new claims since February, and only a very small number of older disability living allowance claims remain to be processed. I am pleased to tell the House that the one millionth award of DLA and attendance allowance was made last month. That amply demonstrates the success of those benefits.
I am sure that the right hon. Gentleman will accept that, following the introduction of DLA in April last year, the original situation was quite appalling. May I express my thanks to the hotline people for their assistance to Members of Parliament? However, it should never have been necessary to establish a hotline for hon. Members. Indeed, I am sure that the many cases in my constituency represented only a fraction of the cases in which there were delays. May we be assured that such a situation will never occur again? If there are delays for any reason, will the Minister consider people being notified of why there is unacceptable delay so that they will know exactly what the situation is?
I can assure the hon. Gentleman that Ministers and the Benefits Agency have studied very carefully the lessons to be learnt from the introduction of DLA and the delays that occurred because of the unexpected surge at its introduction. I am delighted that the hon. Gentleman has been pleased with the service that he has had from the hotline, but it was only one of a number of steps that were taken to enhance the ability to respond by telephone to Members of Parliament, those who advise customers of the Benefits Agency and customers themselves. A very great deal has been done. I am delighted to say that we have made substantial improvements. It is worth pondering, particularly by Opposition Members, that in the first year of DLA we delivered that benefit to seven times as many people who received mobility allowance when the Labour Government introduced it.
Why does the Minister not have the guts to tell us how many people have died since the backlog built up in the first instance? Will he tell the House that no fewer than 1,000 people have died waiting for benefit and that, as a result, that money has been saved? If some of the beneficiaries live to be old enough to get their pension, they will find that the Post Office has been closed by this lousy rotten Government and they cannot get it. I have two proposals for the Minister. One, use the computer that collects income tax to get those benefits paid and, secondly, he should pay some of the people who cannot get their benefits out of the Norman Lamont legal aid defence reserve fund.
As ever, the hon. Gentleman goes way, way over the top. I do not know from where he invents his figures, but the fact is that the delivery of disability benefits is better than it has ever been in the history of their payment. There is no question of any savings accruing to the Government from any delays that have occurred. We are determined not only to maintain but, where possible, to improve the level of service that we now give.
I should like to take the opportunity to congratulate my right hon. Friend on the success of the DLA. That benefit has been introduced in one go, unlike the mobility allowance which it took the Labour party four years to phase in.
I agree very much with what my hon. Friend has said. The staff of the Benefits Agency deserve our congratulations and not our criticisms on their performance. This year, we set the Benefits Agency an enhanced target of delivering 65 per cent. of claims within 30 days. Today, it is delivering 75 per cent. of DLA claims within that period.
I share my right hon. Friend's pleasure in the fact that the service to DLA claimants has improved dramatically, but he is aware of a number of cases involving my constituents which are still subject to considerable delays. I have sent him the detail on those cases and I am grateful to him for the attention that he has already given to them. Will he take further steps to ensure that the speed of service in dealing with outstanding claims is yet further improved in the light of the welcome improvements that have already been made?
I will certainly do that. I am aware that a handful of claims—about 40—that were made in 1992 are still outstanding for a variety of reasons. In a number of cases, people may have failed to respond to inquiries by the Benefits Agency or sometimes a payment is already in payment because of a duplicate claim. It is worth the House grasping one figure in particular: of the 705,000 claims for DLA made last year, 99·99 per cent. are in award.
I am sure that the Minister will be aware that many hon. Members have processed cases to the Department that have been subject to long delays, sometimes due to the loss of papers and goodness knows what. I recently dealt with a case that had been considered for more than two years before the person finally got his entitlement. Is it not correct that there should be some kind of cut-off line, so that after three months or six months, when a claimant is finally paid his benefit, he should at least be paid interest on his entitlement? The same thing happens to people who pay income tax and who are charged interest if they delay in paying the Government.
If the hon. Gentleman looks at the matter, I think that he will find that the Department has improved its arrangements for compensation for the late payment of benefits. Special arrangements have been made for those who have been affected by delays in the delivery of DLA.