Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what criteria are applied when assessing levels of personal independence payment awarded to those suffering from myasthenia gravis resulting in severe mobility impairment.

Personal Independence Payment provides support based on the needs arising from a health condition or disability. Individuals can be impacted by their health conditions in different ways, so the assessment considers the effect on a person’s day to day life, rather than focusing solely on the health condition or impairment itself. As such, our focus is on ensuring that PIP assessors are experts in disability analysis rather than diagnosing a condition or its severity or recommending treatment options.

The PIP assessment criteria are set out in legislation. The assessment looks at how a long-term health condition or disability impacts on daily life across 12 activities, taking into account fluctuations over a 12 month period. The activities are grouped into two components, for daily living and mobility and within each activity a descriptor must be chosen to score an individual depending on how well they are able to perform the activity. Every claim to PIP is assessed against all 12 activities.