Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to undertake a review of the application process for personal independence payments.

We are absolutely committed to improving the overall Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claimant experience as this is what claimants rightly expect and deserve. As part of that commitment, we constantly keep under review how we can improve the PIP application process. For example, this has been supported by the findings published in the PIP Claimant Research – Final Report, two independent reviews of PIP and recommendations from the Work and Pensions Select Committee.

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 are in the final stages of commissioning independent research to support further improvements to the PIP2 questionnaire. In addition to the independent research, the Department has gathered views, on video recording, from a range of stakeholders and representatives as well as from claimants and health professionals. These views have helped to inform the design of the live testing pilot which began on 29 November 2018, which will inform views on rolling out video recording more widely, in order to promote greater trust and transparency.