Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Oral Answer of 20 February 2017, Official Report, column 763, on personal independence payments, (a) how his Department plans to appoint personal independence payments and employment and support allowance claimants to service user panels, (b) how many such panels his Department plans to establish, (c) how many members each such panel will have and (d) what the length of the term will be for each such panel member.
We want to reach as many people as possible across the country. Contributors will be able to participate as little or as much as they want, rather than commit to being part of a joint Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) panel for a fixed period. Participation will be entirely voluntary.
We aim to run a panel approximately every 8 weeks, totalling around 6 in the next year. We will be exploring different approaches to reaching people, including working with charities and representative organisations to draw on their expertise.