Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department takes to ensure that assessors for personal independence payments have at least two years post-registration experience.

DWP has set clear requirements on the professions, skills, experience and training of the Health Professionals that the Assessment Providers can use to carry out Personal Independence Payment assessments.

Health Professionals must have at least 2 years post full registration experience (this refers to either UK registration or equivalent overseas registration for non-UK HPs) or less than 2 years post full registration experience by individual, prior, written agreement with the Department. Requests by providers to employ Health Professionals with less than 2 years post full registration experience is rare and exceptional. During the period 2015-2017, Independent Assessment Service (IAS) employed 1181 Health Professionals and only requested written approval for 7 Health Professionals with less than 2 years’ experience.

Assessment Providers are required to confirm that Health Professionals meet these standards, including the requirements around post registration experience, as part of their recruitment process.

Prior to granting approval for a Health Professional to carry out PIP assessments, DWP will also undertake checks to ensure all Health Professionals are registered with the relevant professional bodies.