Personal Independence Payment

Chloe Smith Excerpts

Tuesday 14th December 2021 Written Statements

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Chloe Smith)]

Today the Department will publish the latest update on progress on making backdated payments to personal independence payment claimants who are affected by the MH and RJ decisions of the upper tribunal (UT). The release will be published at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/pip-administrative-exercise-progress-on-cases-cleared.

The MH decision changed how overwhelming psychological distress is considered when assessing someone’s ability to plan and follow a journey. The RJ decision changed how we decide whether someone can carry out an activity safely and if they need supervision.

As at 1 November 2021, we have reviewed around 980,000 cases against the MH decision. This includes cases where claimants have previously been assessed as having “overwhelming psychological distress” or who have a “psychiatric disorder” as one of their main health conditions. We have also reviewed around 1,100,000 cases against the RJ decision. This includes cases where claimants have a “neurological disease” as one of their main health conditions. All reviews will have been carried out by a case manager within the department.

Around 8,200 arrears payments, totalling around £42 million, have been made. We gave a commitment that no one would see their PIP reduced as a result of this exercise.

In addition, we have written to the vast majority of other claimants in scope of the exercise we said we would in our update to the House [Official Report, 11 February 2020; Vol. 671, c. 26WS]. We are continuing to send out letters and carry out reviews for any claimant who asks us to.

This has been a complex and substantial exercise, involving over a million reviews against two UT decisions. Our approach demonstrates that we have prioritised claimants who are most likely to benefit, in order to make backdated payments as quickly as possible. We are now writing to claimants who we do not expect to benefit, so they can request a review if they think they have been affected by these decisions.

We have set out further background to this release in an updated frequently asked questions. I will deposit a copy of this document in the Library of the House.

We will release a final report at the end of 2022, when we know the outcomes of outstanding reviews.

[HCWS478]