Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether there is any upper limit on the proportion of assessments carried out for each assessment modality (face-to-face, telephony, video, paper-based) by providers of the Health Assessment Advisory Service.

The feasibility of a paper-based assessment will always be considered in the first instance. Only where a paper-based review is not possible, will the claimant then be invited to an assessment.

The contracts between Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and its assessment suppliers’ state that 80% of assessments should be carried out remotely (via telephone or video) and 20% carried out face-to-face, including home visits.

DWP remains committed to enabling a multi-channel assessment approach. Any future decisions will be evidence-based and to ensure this we will draw on existing evidence, as well as continuing to build our understanding via research and analysis.