Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking in response to the findings of its report, Personal Independence Payment Claimant Research – Final Report, published in September 2018, to improve the application process for personal independence payment claimants.

We are absolutely committed to improving the overall Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claimant experience as this is what claimants rightly expect and deserve. The three waves of research that have been completed, and were published in the PIP Claimant Research – Final Report have provided valuable insights, alongside other sources, to make improvements to the PIP application process.

Here are some of the key improvements we have made to the PIP application process:

• In April 2018 we increased our use of SMS text messages to better keep claimants updated about the progress of their claim
• In April 2018 we launched a series of PIP videos to help claimants better navigate and understand the PIP claims process and the types of supporting evidence to send and;
• In October 2016 (after the wave 1 fieldwork), we published a revised version of the PIP2 questionnaire where the language, style and tone of the form was simplified, and paragraphs were shortened to make it easier to understand and more focused for claimants to complete;

However, I recognise that there is more to do to improve the application process and that is why we will be commissioning independent research to support further improvements to the PIP2 questionnaire. In addition to the independent research, we are also progressing options to video record PIP face-to-face assessments to help increase people’s trust in the assessment process. We have been working over the summer to gather views from claimants, representative bodies and health professionals on video recording in order to inform a live testing pilot later in the year, which will inform wider rollout decisions.