Asked by: Baroness Thomas of Winchester (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the average waiting time for Personal Independence Payment assessments.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
These figures can be found at part 6 of the Personal Independence Payment: Official Statistics to July 2024 and are published quarterly as part of the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) statistics on GOV.UK.
As of July 2024, clearance times for normal rules new claims are 15 weeks “end to end” (from registration to a decision being made) and 10 weeks from the assessment provider (AP) referral to the DWP decision on entitlement.
The clearance times in July 2023 were 15 weeks and 10 weeks respectively. The clearance times peaked in August 2021 at 26 weeks “end to end” (from registration to a decision being made) and 21 weeks from the AP referral to the decision.
This was partly because claims that had been allowed a longer deadline for return of the PIP 2 form during the period late February to late May 2021 were reaching clearance, and partly because priority in some areas was given to claims that had been waiting longer for processing due to the COVID-19 disruption.
Asked by: Baroness Thomas of Winchester (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the way Personal Independence Payments are accessed by people with fluctuating conditions.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment is designed to take into account the impact of variations in an individual's level of functional impairment. The criteria consider an individual’s ability over a 12-month period, ensuring that fluctuations are taken into account.
Health professionals carrying out PIP assessments are required to assess individuals in line with the statutory criteria, including whether an individual can complete each of the PIP activities, the manner in which they do it, and whether they can complete each activity safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and in a reasonable time period.
The PIP assessment criteria were developed in collaboration with independent specialists in health, social care & disability, including disabled people. The Department aims to continually improve the assessment process through customer insight, stakeholder engagement and qualitative research. We are exploring the option of a Health Impact Record that claimants could use on a voluntary basis, in addition to other evidence, to capture the changing effect of their condition on day-to-day functionality. This could help claimants present evidence in a structured way at or preceding an assessment.
Asked by: Baroness Thomas of Winchester (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to change the personal independence payment assessment.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Asked by: Baroness Thomas of Winchester (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the proportion of Personal Independence Payments appeals which are successful at the tribunal stage; and what steps they intend to take in response.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
We are continuing to learn from decisions overturned at appeal. For example, we gather insight from Presenting Officers who regularly provide feedback from hearings they attend, with a view to learning from overturned decisions.
We have made improvements to the decision-making process at both the first decision and the mandatory reconsideration stage, giving decision-makers additional time to proactively contact claimants if they think additional evidence may support the claim.
Asked by: Baroness Thomas of Winchester (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of Personal Independence Payment appeals which went to a tribunal were successful, in each year since those payments were introduced.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
The table below shows for those Personal Independence Payment appeals that were cleared at hearing, the proportion that were decided in favour of the claimant.
Financial Year | Percentage of Personal Independence Payment appeals that were cleared at hearing, that were decided in favour of the claimant |
2013/14 | 26% |
2014/15 | 50% |
2015/16 | 61% |
2016/17 | 65% |
2017/18 | 68% |
2018/19 | 73% |
2019/20 | 77% |
2020/21 | 76% |
2021/22 | 70% |
2022/23* | 69% |
Notes:
The 2022/23 financial year is not complete, it will contain up to and including December 2022. The figures for this year are provisional and subject to revision in later publications.
Asked by: Baroness Thomas of Winchester (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Stedman-Scott on 9 November (HL2940), what plans they have to direct assessors for Personal Independence Payments to speak to more claimants directly before they make an initial decision.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
Following the consultation with a heath professional and receipt of the subsequent functional assessment report, DWP Case Managers are trained to make outbound calls to customers, where necessary, as part of the decision-making process to clarify any gaps in evidence or further clarify customers’ restrictions.
Asked by: Baroness Thomas of Winchester (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take in response to the data published by the Department for Work and Pensions on 1 October which showed that most Personal Independence Payment claimants successfully appealing a decision did not present new evidence at tribunals.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
The data published was for the period July 2013 up to March 2022, and covers the period since the introduction of the benefit. The aim of the decision-making process is to make the right decision as early as possible in the claim journey. We are constantly looking to improve our processes and learn from tribunal outcomes. Since PIP was introduced in 2013 we have made improvements to our decision-making process to ensure that we not only gather all material evidence as early as possible, but more that we carefully consider that evidence so that we identify the key facts that inform the decision made. Of course, Tribunals are independent and in discussing the same evidence directly with the claimant may obtain a different perspective and thereby reach a different conclusion.
Asked by: Baroness Thomas of Winchester (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have increased the number of Disability Employment Advisors at Job Centres in the last 12 months.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
As at December 31st 2021 DWP had 894.9 full time equivalent FTE (ABM activities1) employees carrying out the Disability Employment Advisor role. This is an increase of 441.3 FTE since January 2021 where the number stood at 453.6 FTE.
1FTE (ABM activities) is from Departmental Management Information which records how much of each persons’ role is spent doing certain types of work activity. The FTE (ABM activities) is therefore lower than the total staff in post.
Asked by: Baroness Thomas of Winchester (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans the Department for Work and Pensions has to contact all disability claimants who were appealing their decisions and were persuaded to accept a lower offer, to inform them of their right to continue with their appeal.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
In a previous response HL2130, it was explained that all claimants who accepted the new decision and whose original appeal lapsed, were told that they had the right of appeal against the new decision. They were told this both by the Department for Work and Pensions and the Tribunals Service. This gave them the opportunity to have the revised award further increased and backdated. Accordingly, there are no plans to contact affected claimants.
Asked by: Baroness Thomas of Winchester (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government why they are relying on telephone assessments to determine a claimant’s level of disability rather than using a video service.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
We are committed to improving the experience of health and disability benefits and we are currently delivering health and disability assessments via a variety of channels. Face-to-face assessments are being delivered alongside new telephone and video assessments introduced in response to the pandemic.
A programme of in-house analysis and externally commissioned research into the outcomes from and experiences of the newly introduced assessment channels is underway. The Health and Disability Green Paper will offer an opportunity to hear views on how we can improve assessments, including how we might provide a multi-channel health assessment service. Any future decisions about channel will be evidence-based and to ensure this we will draw on existing evidence as well as continuing to build our understanding via research and analysis.