(2) how many and what proportion of people who made a successful claim for (a) incapacity benefit and (b) employment and support allowance attended a medical assessment in each year since 1997.
Incapacity benefit and employment and support allowance customers are not medically assessed by the Department, they are assessed to determine their functional capability. All claims must be assessed in order to qualify for continued entitlement. Information on the number of initial awards following these assessments is not available. The available information for incapacity benefit is provided in the following table:
Number September 2005 to August 2006 816,043 September 2006 to August 2007 985,598 September 2007 to August 2008 1,068,920 September 2008 to August 2009 717,250 September to December 2009 140,423 Notes: 1. Management Information held by the Department does not separately identify Personal Capability Assessments in respect of initial claims to benefit, as all referrals were in respect of customers in receipt of incapacity benefit. 2. Excludes Work Focused Health Related Assessments. 3. Data relate to the number of completed medical examinations and paper scrutiny clearances completed by Atos Healthcare. Source: DWP medical services contract management information.
For employment and support allowance claims we have data on claims from the introduction of employment and support allowance on 27 October 2008 to May 2009. The main data relating to Work Capability Assessment claims are published at:
http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/workingage/esa_wca/esa_wca_19012010.pdf
A copy of this report has also been placed in the Library.