STATISTICS ON RECONSIDERATIONS OF EMPLOYMENT AND SUPPORT ALLOWANCE REFUSALS

That this House notes that at present people who apply for employment and support allowance (ESA) and are declared fit for work following a work capability assessment can ask for this decision to be reconsidered prior to lodging a formal appeal; welcomes the introduction of reconsideration in all cases as of 28 October 2013; further notes that the Government regularly publishes statistics on the number of successful appeals, but does not publish statistics on the number of successful reconsideration requests; believes that this provides an incomplete picture of the effectiveness of the work capability assessment; and thus calls on the Government to regularly publish statistics on the number of successful reconsideration requests as soon as possible.