Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people are waiting to attend a Personal Independence Payment assessment.

The total number of cases held with Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment providers at the end of October 2021 is 296,320. However, not all these cases will require the claimant to attend an assessment.

Where possible, claims will be assessed on the basis of paper evidence. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, we worked at pace with providers to deliver telephone assessments alongside introducing a small number of video assessments, to ensure assessments could continue whilst face to face contact was limited.

We are committed to assessing people as quickly as possible and are working with providers to ensure claimants receive the support to which they are entitled as quickly as possible.

Please Note:

The number of cases has been rounded to the nearest 10.

This figure is derived from contractual management information produced by the assessment providers.

This figure is unpublished management information which is collected for internal departmental use only and has not been quality assured to Official Statistics Publication standards.