Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her Department's planned timetable is for all Personal Independence Payment applicants to have the choice of a recorded assessment.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The option for a claimant to request an audio recording of their Personal Independence Payment (PIP) telephone or face-to-face assessment is already available, and we are working closely with providers to add the functionality to video assessments. In addition to this, from January 2022, claimants can make their own recordings on a device of their choosing if they do not wish for the assessment to be recorded on their behalf.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her Department's timetable is for running another pilot of non-financial penalties in place of benefit sanctions.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We have no plans to run another pilot at this time.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the (a) shortest, (b) median and (c) longest waiting times are among Personal Independence Payment applicants who are awaiting an assessment as of 28 June 2022.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Time waiting for assessment is defined as the time from the date an application was referred to the provider from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to the date the assessment was completed and referred back to DWP. Where claimants are outstanding, the assessment is not yet complete.
Shortest waiting times:
Shortest waiting times relate to Special rules for Terminal Illness (SRTI) cases where claimants have a terminal diagnosis.
As of May 2022 (the latest available data), the average time for an SRTI case to be returned to DWP after referral to a provider (i.e., assessment is complete) was 1.61 working days.
Median waiting times:
Median waiting times for each stage of the claimant process can be found in published stats.
Median time waiting for an assessment as of April 2022 (the latest available data) was 12 weeks for new claims and 11 weeks for reassessments.
Longest waiting time:
Latest data from 20 June 2022 shows the oldest case was referred in July 2021.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people were awaiting an assessment for Personal Independence Payment in each of the last 12 months for which data are available.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The total number of claimants that were awaiting an assessment for Personal Independence Payment (PIP), in each of the last 12 months, is provided in the table below.
Month | People Awaiting Assessment |
Jun-21 | 220,840 |
Jul-21 | 235,790 |
Aug-21 | 266,650 |
Sep-21 | 279,600 |
Oct-21 | 295,570 |
Nov-21 | 294,750 |
Dec-21 | 311,870 |
Jan-22 | 313,420 |
Feb-22 | 312,480 |
Mar-22 | 311,390 |
Apr-22 | 317,220 |
May-22 | 312,470 |
Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.
All of the above data is derived from contractual management information produced by the assessment providers.
Please note: the above data is derived from unpublished management information which is collected for internal departmental use only and has not been quality assured to Official Statistics Publication standards.