Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to reduce the length of time it takes for cases to be assessed by the Pensions Ombudsman.
Answered by Paul Maynard
DWP has provided additional financial support to The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO) to reduce the length of time it takes to deal with cases. Following increased funding of £750,000 in 2022/23 and £1,698,347 in 2023/24, an additional £1,050,000 has now been allocated for 2024/25 specifically for casework activities to reduce waiting times.
Additional funding has increased case clearances and is beginning to reduce average waiting times.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to improve the service personal independence payment claimants receive.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
In response to the Covid crisis, DWP put in place significant easements to support customers, including pausing reviews, stopping face to face assessments, introducing telephony assessments and providing customers with more time to return their PIP 2 forms. We are constantly seeking to improve the service further, currently testing a new digital claim form option with a view to wider implementation later this year.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress she has made in evaluating the findings of her Department’s pilot on video recording personal independence payment assessments.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The evaluation of the VR pilot has shown the importance of improving trust and transparency in the assessment process, and DWP remains committed to this. We had begun work to develop an approach to provide consistency for claimants across audio recording of Work Capability Assessments and PIP assessments. However, due to the impact of Covid-19, staff across DWP have been redeployed to support claimants and as a result, this work has been paused.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of personal independence payment assessors.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
We set our assessment providers challenging targets, we monitor performance closely and manage contracts robustly. All Health Professionals are subject to on-going quality checks to ensure they continue to deliver high quality assessments. A quality assurance audit process, following the consultation, is in place. The department is continually working alongside assessment providers to further improve the quality of assessments.