Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on what date his Department instructed assessment providers to prioritise Work Capability Assessments for new claims over reassessments of existing claimants.

It is well-established government policy to prioritise Work Capability Assessments for new benefit claims to determine their capability for work at the earliest possible opportunity.

Reassessments occur when there is capacity in the system which has been limited due to an increase in demand for WCAs for new benefit claims. As a result, over recent months, reassessments have not been done in large numbers.

We are aware of delays in reassessing cases where the claimant has advised us that their health condition has worsened. We understand that this is a very important issue. This is why we are putting in place a process to expedite the reassessment of these cases.

The government has made it clear in the Pathways to Work Green Paper that we will turn on WCA reassessments at scale as we build capacity to do so. We continue to work on options to make the WCA process more efficient and responsive, which includes accelerating healthcare professional recruitment to increase capacity for reassessments