Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will consider how people with life-long disabilities caused by receiving sodium valproate in utero will be affected by welfare reforms when planning those reforms.

In our Pathways to Work Green Paper, we set out plans to remove the WCA and move to using the PIP assessment as the single assessment for additional financial support for disabled people and people with long-term health conditions in England and Wales. To ensure that PIP and the PIP assessment are fair and fit for the future, we have launched the Timms Review.

The Review will look at PIP, the assessment criteria, and the wider role the assessment could play in providing access to the right support at the right level. To ensure lived experience is at the heart of its work, the Review will be co-produced with disabled people, the organisations that represent them, and other experts.

It will be for the Review’s leadership group – building from the Terms of Reference – to set its strategic direction, priorities and workplan. It will also oversee a programme of participation and engagement that brings together the full range of views and voices.

PIP assessments and Work Capability Assessments are not medical consultations and do not require Healthcare Professionals (HP) to diagnose conditions or recommend treatment. Instead, they are functional assessments designed to evaluate how an individual’s health conditions or impairments - including those caused by receiving sodium valproate in utero - affect their ability to carry out daily living activities and/or their capability for work

HPs conducting assessments are trained specialists in disability analysis. Their focus is on understanding the functional impact of a claimant’s condition, rather than its clinical diagnosis. All HPs receive specific training on assessing the effects of physical and mental health conditions.