Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to work with (a) charities and (b) advice centres to improve the advice and support provided to disabled people (i) completing applications and (ii) undergoing assessments for benefits.

The Department for Work and Pensions provides funding of up to £39 million to Citizens Advice and Citizens Advice Scotland to deliver Help to Claim support. Help to Claim provides advice and practical support to people making their Universal Credit application.

On top of this, as part of our ongoing work on the Green Paper, we have run 16 virtual events in which we’ve heard directly from over 200 disabled people, and 30 organisations supporting them, about their experiences with the benefits system. The health and disability Green Paper will reflect themes coming out of these conversations and ask for views on how best to improve the benefits system, including the application and assessment process.

We regularly engage with a wide range of external stakeholders in order to continually improve the PIP claimant experience. We are working with charities to hear their views on the PIP application process and reflecting these in improvements to the customer journey and assessments, and in up-coming changes to GOV.UK.