Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress her Department has made on creating a single assessment service for benefits claimants who are disabled or have long-term health conditions.

We announced in March 2019 that we have launched the Health Transformation Programme to deliver a new integrated assessment service across all health and disability benefits. This will make the assessment process simpler, quicker, more user-friendly and more joined-up whichever benefit people are claiming. This integrated service will still be taking applications to individual benefits on a separate basis.

Alongside this work, we are also undertaking a feasibility study to explore whether a single assessment for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) would further improve the experience for the small number of people who apply for PIP and benefits requiring a WCA at the same time. The study is being informed by existing evidence and we have been gathering views and insight from key stakeholders including healthcare professionals to understand the issues around feasibility.