Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to Personal Independence Payment new claims: ad hoc statistics, published on 28 January 2015, how many of the 143,000 people disallowed personal independence payment (PIP) claims highlighted in that report were people who were described as not attending an assessment without good reason; what reasons for missing such assessments are permissible; whether the Department or assessment providers adjudicates on reasons for missed appointments; and how many of those people have since reapplied for PIP.

As detailed in the PIP statistical ad hoc released on the 28th January, by the end of December 2014 143,400 claimants had been disallowed Personal Independence Payment post-referral to the assessment providers. We do not currently hold information that allows us to break this figure down to report how many were disallowed because they did not attend an assessment without good reason, and hence we do not know how many of these claimants have since reapplied for PIP. We do not have high volumes of complaints about disallowance due to non-attendance indicating this isn’t a serious issue.

Good Reason is considered on an individual basis by the Department and will be dependent on the individual case. This might typically include a health or domestic emergency for example.

Of the 63,600 claims that were disallowed pre-referral to the assessment providers, 94% of these were disallowed due to the claimant not returning the Part 2 form within the time limit (which represents 10% of all registrations up to 31st December 2014).

Returning the Part 2 form within the deadline is a legal requirement. Individuals can request an extension if required. There are processes in place to provide additional support to those who need it and haven’t returned their form.

The table below provides a time series of these data since April 2013, for new claims normal rules.

Source: PIP Computer System claimant records

Notes to table;

1. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 100. Components may not sum to totals due to rounding.

2. Figures are for normal rules (i.e. non special rules for the terminally ill) new claims only.

3. Disallowed pre-referral to the assessment providers (AP) includes claims that have been disallowed due to failure of basic eligibility criteria or non-return of the Part 2 form within the time limit and have not been marked as requiring additional support.

4. '-' Less than 50 claims in this category.

5. Great Britain only.

6. Between Feb-14 to May -14 numbers were understated due to an IT issue within the PIP computer system. Issue resolved in Jun-14, with previous months corrected in month, leading to an inflated figure for Jun-14.

Claims may also be withdrawn by the claimant at any point during the PIP claims process (either before or after the return of the PIP2). The latest published PIP ad hoc statistics show that between April 2013 and December 2014 a total of 19,300 claims were withdrawn by the claimant. DWP research with PIP claimants showed that some people reconsidered their claim on receipt of a PIP2 form and decided to withdraw or discontinue it for a range of reasons including improvements in their health condition (see section 4.1 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/332622/rr_867-early-process-evaluation-of-new-claims-for-pip.pdf)