Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, further to the reply of 14 May 2021 to the letter from the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare on behalf of North Somerset Citizens' Advice Bureau, (a) for what reason his Department was unable to provide figures of the number of claimants whose award has ended and were waiting for their new claim to be processed, (b) when he will provide them, (c) what estimate he has made of the number of claimants in this position; and (d) what steps he is taking to resolve the issue.

We always aim to make an award decision as quickly as possible and are treating as a priority advance claims, where a person’s previous fixed term award has ended. Where a person is found to still be eligible for Personal Independence Payment their award is backdated to the point they claimed or when their previous award ended, so no one loses out financially.

In relation to part (a) of your question, the information requested in respect of the numbers of claimants whose award has ended and were waiting for their new claim to be processed is not in the public domain; new statistical information is not released via Ministerial Correspondence.

In relation to parts (b) and (c) the information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.