Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to reduce delays in the payments of personal independence payments and universal credit.

We have implemented a wide range of initiatives across the whole Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claiming journey to speed up processes and clear more claims and are continuing to identify further opportunities to drive forward improvements. Figures released on 17 June (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-independence-payment-april-2013-to-april-2015) reflect the significant progress made over the past year and show claims for PIP are now being cleared at four times the rate they were in January 2014. The average new claimant now only waits for 5 weeks for an assessment, and the number of cases dealt with by the assessment providers has more than quadrupled in the last year.

There are no delays in the payment of Universal Credit. All new claims assessed are processed within the required timescales.