Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons her Department does not undertake a single capability for work assessment for benefit claimants instead of multiple assessments when claimants are applying for more than one benefit.

We are committed to assessing people with health conditions and disabilities fairly and accurately, helping people to access the right support.

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)/Universal Credit (UC) are paid for different purposes with different assessment criteria. PIP is designed to help people with long-term health conditions or disabilities to live independently, whereas ESA/UC is to support people with health conditions or disabilities who are not able to work, and support them towards work where possible. Therefore, we have separate assessments in place, but only the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) in ESA/UC is used to assess capability for work.

The Secretary of State recently announced our intention to test the feasibility of using a single assessment to determine eligibility for ESA/UC and PIP where claims have been made for both benefits. We want to establish if its introduction would improve the customer experience and to ensure it delivers high quality, accurate outcomes.