The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Mike Penning)
Later today the Government’s response to the consultation on the moving around activity within the assessment for personal independence payment (PIP) will be published on the gov.uk website. I will place a copy of the Government’s response in the House Libraries.
The consultation received over 1,100 responses, from both individuals and organisations. We listened carefully to all the feedback received.
The Government believe that the criteria are the best way of identifying those whose physical mobility is most limited. We think it is justified to focus support in this way on those with the greatest need and will not be making any changes to the criteria.
We recognise that the reliability criteria in the assessment are a key protection for claimants. Respondents to the consultation welcomed their inclusion but were concerned about how they will be applied. In response, we will look to strengthen the criteria by introducing a requirement for health professionals to confirm they have considered the reliability criteria when formulating their advice.
Later today I also intend to lay before Parliament amending regulations, which will introduce a phased start for PIP natural reassessments from 28 October 2013.
Introducing natural reassessment gradually enables us to test the claimant reassessment journey, using an approach similar to the one we took with new claims in the controlled start area in April.
This is in line with the way we have been introducing all our other programmes of change and we have made it clear that we would take a controlled approach to introducing PIP, learning lessons from live running. Later this week I will publish a note on the gov.uk website providing further detail.
As originally announced, most existing disability living allowance (DLA) claimants will not be reassessed until 2015 or later, after DWP has considered the findings of the first independent review in 2014.