Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether claimants for extended personal independence payment awards will be given a choice between a face-to-face assessment and a phone/video assessment.

As has always been the case, we will continue to assess new claims to Personal Independence Payment (PIP), and reviews of existing PIP awards, on the basis of the paper-based evidence whenever possible. While telephone, paper-based and a limited number of video assessments will continue to be appropriate for many of our claimants, for others it might be more appropriate to conduct a face-to-face assessment in order to collect sufficient evidence and make a robust recommendation. These might include claimants without access to a telephone or a reliable telephone signal, claimants who lack insight into their condition, those with speech or hearing impairments (who cannot use the text relay service), and claimants who, due to their condition, feel unable to communicate via telephone. We will be identifying the most appropriate assessment type for individual claimants.