Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of the average response time to Personal Independence Payment applications from people in St Helens as of November 2022; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of that period of time on applicants.

This information is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

The latest available data by region, including the North West region containing St Helens, published here (in Table 1A (v)), shows that in July 2022 the end to end (from registration to DWP decision) Personal Independence Payment (PIP) journey time in the North West was 18 weeks, down from 27 weeks in August 2021.

We are committed to ensuring people can access financial support through PIP in a timely manner, taking into account the need to review all available evidence. Reducing customer journey times for PIP claimants is a priority for the department and we are working constantly to make improvements to our service, including using a blend of phone, video and face-to-face assessments, increasing case manager and assessment provider health professional resource, and prioritising new claims, whilst safeguarding the continuity of existing awards to ensure they do not go out of payment.