AQW 50514/22-27


Ms Sian Mulholland
Alliance Party
North Antrim


Tabled Date: 03/07/2026
Answered On Date: 09/07/2026
Priority Written: No


Question:
To ask the Minister for Communities, pursuant to AQW 49312/22-27, to detail (i) a monthly breakdown, since the commencement of the Functional Assessment Service contract, of the number and proportion of aged Personal Independence Payment cases; and (ii) whether the contractual aged-case performance measure was met, including any (a) service credits; (b) Target Fee reductions; and (c) other contractual deductions, applied in respect of that measure.


Answer:
The Functional Assessment Services (FAS) contractual target for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) aged cases is measured using Capita's monthly Average Actual Clearance Time (AACT). The AACT represents the average number of working days taken to complete PIP assessment cases during a given month, measured from referral to completion. Under the contract, a case is classified as aged if it has been outstanding for more than the monthly AACT plus 20 working days. The contractual target, Target Performance Level (TPL) 2a requires that aged cases make up no more than 1% of outstanding cases. The tables below show, for each month from September 2024 to May 2026, the applicable AACT+20 working day threshold, the number and proportion of cases exceeding it, and any associated Target Fee (profit) deductions applied under the contract. In addition, a TPL2a Serious Performance Failure was recorded in March 2026 following 3 months of repeated failure, resulting in a further deduction of £27,057 from Capita's Target Fee in April 2026.
Month – Contract Year 1
Sep-24
Oct-24
Nov-24
Dec-24
Jan-25
Feb-25
Mar-25
Apr-25
May-25
Jun-25
Jul-25
Aug-25
Monthly threshold
(AACT+20)
49
52
58
64
72
75
75
73
72
72
71
68
Number of outstanding cases over monthly threshold (AACT+20)
32
46
28
26
14
32
27
70
55
93
65
37
Proportion of outstanding cases over AACT+20 threshold (%) - Target 1%
0.4
0.5
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.3
0.2
0.6
0.5
0.8
0.7
0.5
TPL2a deduction (£)
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Serious Performance Failure (£)
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Month – Contract Year 2
Sep-25
Oct-25
Nov-25
Dec-25
Jan-26
Feb-26
Mar-26
Apr-26
May-26
Monthly threshold
(AACT+20)
62
54
59
65
71
74
76
78
74
Number of outstanding cases over monthly threshold (AACT+20)
64
58
59
92
314
595
736
543
729
Proportion of outstanding cases over AACT+20 threshold (%) - Target 1%
1.0
1.0
0.7
0.8
2.8
5.1
6.0
4.3
5.9
TPL2a deduction (£)
0
0
0
0
16,309
16,344
16,265
16,043
16,094
Serious Performance Failure (£)
0
0
0
0
0
0
27,057
0
0