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1689333

	registered interest
	date	16/02/2024
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Employment and Support Allowance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of transition of claimants from Incapacity Benefit to the Employment and Support Allowance; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of that transition on claimants' accruals of National Insurance credits.
	tabling member constituency	Harborough
	tabling member printed	Neil O'Brien
	uin	14253
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/02/2024 answer text <p>All Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) claimants receive Class 1 National Insurance Credits as part of their award. If any claimants believe that an error has been made in the award of these credits they should contact the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).</p><p>ESA was introduced in October 2008. From March 2011, the DWP began reassessing people on incapacity benefits (for example, Incapacity Benefit (IB) and Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA) ahead of moving them onto ESA.</p><p>The DWP made an historic error with the reassessment of IB cases when they were transferred onto ESA. This arose because the Department converted some IB and SDA claimants to Contributory ESA but did not consider whether they may also have been entitled to Income-Related ESA. A Legal Entitlement and Administrative Practices (LEAP) exercise was concluded in June 2021, the exercise reviewed around 600,000 cases and made 118,000 arrears payments, totalling £613 million pounds. Those claimants who have received arrears payments would have been entitled to receive National Insurance credits from the date they were transferred onto contributory ESA. The then Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work made a statement about the completion of this LEAP to the house on 7th July 2021. This statement can be found <a href="https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2021-07-12/hcws171" target="_blank">here.</a></p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 27/02/2024 10:52:46 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4679 label Biography information for Neil O'Brien

1689356

	registered interest
	date	16/02/2024
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Employment and Support Allowance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which companies (a) were involved in designing and (b) are involved in maintaining the technology programmes used to manage (i) the Employment and Support Allowance, (ii) the transition from Incapacity Benefit to the Employment and Support Allowance and (iii) National Insurance credits for Employment and Support Allowance claimants.
	tabling member constituency	Harborough
	tabling member printed	Neil O'Brien
	uin	14255
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/02/2024 answer text <p>The following companies were involved alongside DWP in the design and maintenance of (i) Employment and Support Allowance, (ii) the transition from Incapacity Benefit to the Employment and Support Allowance and (iii) National Insurance credits for Employment and Support.</p><p> </p><p>The Employment and Support allowance (ESA) service was initially designed by Electronic Data Systems (EDS) who later became Hewlett Packard Enterprise Systems (HPES) in August 2008, working with DWP to implement it.</p><p> </p><p>HPES continued to maintain and support ESA until 2016 when the Government company BPDTS Ltd (Benefits and Pensions Digital Technology Services) was established to provide digital technology services to the DWP. The Company’s employees were public servants who provided a full range of digital technology services to DWP. BPDTS was formally classified as a non-departmental public body. BPDTS colleagues were subsequently transferred into DWP in 2021.</p><p> </p><p>The ESA benefit is now developed and maintained by an in-house DWP team.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 22/02/2024 14:51:44 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	4679 label Biography information for Neil O'Brien