PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Department for Work and Pensions: Staff (5 September 2022)

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much her Department has spent on staffing costs for (a) mandatory reconsideration and (b) appeals against Work Capability Assessment decisions for Employment Support Allowance in each year since 2012-13.

Asked by:
Marsha De Cordova (Labour)

The information for the financial years covered by the request are detailed in the tables below:

ESA (WCA)	2012-13 (£m)	2013-14 (£m)	2014-15 (£m)	2015-16 (£m)	2016-17 (£m)	2017-18 (£m)	2018-19 (£m)	2019-20 (£m)	2020-21 (£m)	2021-22 (£m)
Mandatory Reconsiderations	£0.0	£5.2	£18.4	£11.5	£11.1	£15.0	£7.7	£4.8	£0.6	£0.5
Appeals	£24.4	£37.1	£9.4	£6.5	£7.9	£14.6	£8.4	£6.0	£0.8	£0.8

Cost figures are rounded to the nearest £0.1m

Data Source: ABM

The cost figures quoted are estimated DWP level 1 operating costs, including both direct delivery staff and non-staff costs. Non-staff costs are only those costs incurred in local cost centres, relating to direct delivery staff.

Please note that the data supplied is from the Departmental Activity Based Models. This data is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standards. It should therefore be treated with caution. The Departmental Activity Based staffing models are a snapshot of how many people were identified as undertaking specified activities as assigned by line managers.

Figures quoted exclude ESA Non-WCA costs.

Appeals costs relate to the costs of processing the Appeals and include expenditure related to DWP Presenting Officer who attend some Tribunals.

2013/14 costs for ESA Reconsiderations are only part-year due to the introduction of the Reconsideration process (hence the reduction in Appeals costs from 2014/15).

Answered by:
Julie Marson (Conservative)
15 September 2022