Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to provide personal independence payment claimants with a choice of being assessed by phone or face-to-face; and if her Department will take steps to help ensure that claimants can make an informed choice about how they would prefer to be assessed.

In Shaping Future Support: The Health & Disability Green Paper, we are consulting on the use of telephone and video assessments as an alternative to face-to-face in the future. We have asked for views about the different ways to provide assessments, and how to improve telephone assessments to ensure they are as accurate and effective as possible.