Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations

(asked on 4th September 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many completed repeat assessments there have been of people with (a) Parkinson's disease, (b) multiple sclerosis, (c) motor neurone disease, (d) rheumatoid arthritis and (e) cystic fibrosis, by year of repeat assessment, since the introduction of personal independence payments in 2013; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
Penny Mordaunt Portrait
Penny Mordaunt
Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
This question was answered on 12th September 2017

To answer this question, “repeat assessments” has been interpreted to mean Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) reassessments. The table below gives statistics on the number of completed DLA reassessments to PIP by year of DLA reassessment for people with (a) Parkinson's disease, (b) multiple sclerosis, (c) motor neurone disease, (d) rheumatoid arthritis and (e) cystic fibrosis.

Table 1: reassessments for Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, Motor neurone disease, rheumatoid arthritis and cystic fibrosis by year of reassessment (April 2013 to October 2016)

2013

2014

2015

2016

Total

Parkinson's disease

0

70

420

1,490

1,980

Multiple sclerosis

0

490

1,950

7,710

10,160

Motor neurone disease

0

40

130

190

360

Rheumatoid arthritis

0

1,130

3,860

9,930

14,920

Cystic fibrosis

0

40

150

460

650

Total

0

1,170

6,510

19,800

October 2016 is the latest published data available. Later data is available but has been withheld as will be published as part of official statistics in December 2017.

We recognise that claimants in the ESA Support Group and UC Limited Capability for Work Related Activity with the most severe health conditions or disabilities who have conditions that are unlikely to improve, and are unlikely to ever be able to move closer to the labour market and into work, are having to go through a very lengthy, stressful and bureaucratic process to claim their benefits.

We are working with our assessment provider, medical professionals and other stakeholders, to develop a set of criteria that will help us identify those with the most severe health conditions or disabilities, for whom ESA reassessments can be stopped unless there is a change of circumstances.

Reviews of PIP are a key part of the benefit and ensure that not only awards remain correct where needs may change and that we also maintain contact with the claimant, both features missing from its predecessor Disability Living Allowance. PIP recognises that for the most severely disabled claimants, the award review process could seem unnecessarily intrusive. Existing PIP claimants with the most severe, lifetime disabilities, whose functional ability has remained the same, are more likely to have their evidence reviewed by a DWP Decision-Maker and will not need to have another face-to-face assessment with a healthcare professional.

Reticulating Splines