Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will undertake a review of section 4.05 of the Access to Work Holistic Assessments Provider Guidance, published on 7 August 2019 which states that a report may be deemed not to meet the specified standard (and therefore rejected) if it is evident that the Assessor has been influenced by customer preference and has not considered the minimum requirements.

DWP is not looking to review paragraph 4.05 of the Access to Work Holistic Assessment Provider Guidance.

AtW recognises the importance of the holistic assessment for customers and as a result introduced a measure for quality as part of these new holistic assessments contracts that went live in June 2017.

Access to Work advisers and the holistic assessment suppliers will always consider customer preference in determining if similar support is available to the same specification providing a more cost effective solution.