Social Security Benefits: Learning Disability

(asked on 26th June 2015) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to reduce the time taken for (a) disability living allowance and (b) personal independence payment assessments for people with a learning disability.


Answered by
Justin Tomlinson Portrait
Justin Tomlinson
This question was answered on 1st July 2015

New claims for Disability Living Allowance can only be made on behalf of children under the age of 16. Child claimants are not required to be assessed by an independent health professional. Currently over 95% of claims, excepting those fast tracked under the special rules for people with a terminal illness, are currently being cleared within 40 days

Over the course of 2014 and 2015 the Department and the independent assessment providers have taken measures to improve waiting times for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments, for example: quadrupling the number of health professionals; increasing the number of paper-based assessment; opening more assessment centres; and improving processes and delivery mechanisms and claimant communications. As a result of these improvements, the average time taken for a claimant to be assessed by an assessment provider has fallen by more than three quarters since June 2014. In April 2015, the average new claimant was waiting five weeks for their PIP assessment and the average reassessment claimant was waiting four weeks.

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