Asked by: Philip Boswell (Scottish National Party - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time taken has been for a decision to be made on a (a) personal independence payment (PIP) and (b) mandatory reconsideration for PIP from the date his Department receives the relevant documentation from the claimant in each year from the introduction of that process.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
Average clearance times for Personal Independence Payments are published online on a quarterly basis. The latest version can be found at
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-independence-payment-april-2013-to-july-2016.
Table 5A of “Personal Independence Payment: Official Statistics to July 2016” gives clearance times for Normal Rules claims broken down by month and by the stage of the claims process.
The average time taken for a Mandatory Reconsideration is not available and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Philip Boswell (Scottish National Party - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many personal independence payment applications have been accepted at the first stage, without submission of a mandatory reconsideration or appeal, between April 2015 and October 2016.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
Breakdowns of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) reassessment claims by type of clearance (i.e. whether the claim was awarded, disallowed or withdrawn), at the point of initial decision, are published online at https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk. This includes data on both the total number of PIP awards made and on such awards as a percentage of overall claims. It also includes breakdowns by month and by Local Authority.
These statistics run until July 2016. Figures are published on a regular basis and statistics for August to October will be available in due course.
Asked by: Philip Boswell (Scottish National Party - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department's staff performance monitoring includes key performance indicators on how many personal independence payment (PIP) claims are (a) accepted and (b) rejected by those staff who are PIP assessors.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
The role of contracted Assessment Providers is to carry out health and disability assessments on behalf of the Department. They do not determine if a claim to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is successful. They provide a report to DWP decision makers who then determine entitlement to benefit. No targets are in place as to how many applications are successful.
Asked by: Philip Boswell (Scottish National Party - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether personal independence payment (PIP) assessors employed by (a) his Department, (b) Capita and (c) Atos Healthcare have targets of how many PIP claims they (i) reject and (ii) accept.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
The role of contracted Assessment Providers is to carry out health and disability assessments on behalf of the Department. They do not determine if a claim to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is successful. They provide a report to DWP decision makers who then determine entitlement to benefit. No targets are in place as to how many applications are successful.
Asked by: Philip Boswell (Scottish National Party - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what qualifications are required of people who work as personal independence payment assessors.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to his previous questions numbered 47755 and 47757 (PQs asked on Tuesday 11th October 2016).
Asked by: Philip Boswell (Scottish National Party - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what criteria determine whether personal independence payment assessors receive financial bonuses in addition to their salary.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
The Department does not prescribe providers with criteria on how they should pay salary or bonuses to their staff. That is purely a commercial decision for the assessment provider.
Asked by: Philip Boswell (Scottish National Party - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what qualifications and experience are expected of personal independence payment assessors who handle cases in which an individual suffers from a neurological condition for which symptoms may present sporadically; and what processes are in place for claimants who consider the result of an assessment an unfair representation of their condition.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
All Health Professionals (HPs) undertaking assessments on behalf of DWP must be registered practitioners who have also met requirements around training, experience and competence. Approval to work as an HP must be conferred by the DWP Chief Medical Adviser on behalf of the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
For the delivery of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments, they must be an occupational therapist, level 1 nurse, physiotherapist, paramedic or doctor. They must also be fully registered and have at least two years’ post full-registration experience. In addition to their profession, the Department recognises the importance of ensuring that individuals also have sufficient experience, skills and training to carry out their duties and PIP providers are required to ensure that the HPs carrying out assessments have knowledge of the clinical aspects and likely functional effects of a wide range of health conditions and impairments.
This means that all HPs receive comprehensive training in disability analysis which includes a functional evaluation as to how medical conditions and the long-term medical treatment of those conditions affect an individual’s ability to perform day-to-day activities. Prior to carrying out an assessment the HP routinely refreshes their knowledge of any condition with which they are not fully familiar.
Claimants who consider the result of an assessment to be an inaccurate representation of their condition can ask for a “mandatory reconsideration”, in writing or by telephone, giving their reasons. They may include further information to support their case.
Asked by: Philip Boswell (Scottish National Party - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what standard of medical expertise is expected of personal independence payment assessors; and what (a) experience and (b) training is required to understand the symptoms of medical conditions.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
All Health Professionals (HPs) undertaking assessments on behalf of DWP must be registered practitioners who have also met requirements around training, experience and competence. Approval to work as an HP must be conferred by the DWP Chief Medical Adviser on behalf of the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
For the delivery of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments, they must be an occupational therapist, level 1 nurse, physiotherapist, paramedic or doctor. They must also be fully registered and have at least two years’ post full-registration experience. In addition to their profession, the Department recognises the importance of ensuring that individuals also have sufficient experience, skills and training to carry out their duties and PIP providers are required to ensure that the HPs carrying out assessments have knowledge of the clinical aspects and likely functional effects of a wide range of health conditions and impairments.
This means that all HPs receive comprehensive training in disability analysis which includes a functional evaluation as to how medical conditions and the long-term medical treatment of those conditions affect an individual’s ability to perform day-to-day activities. Prior to carrying out an assessment the HP routinely refreshes their knowledge of any condition with which they are not fully familiar.
Claimants who consider the result of an assessment to be an inaccurate representation of their condition can ask for a “mandatory reconsideration”, in writing or by telephone, giving their reasons. They may include further information to support their case.
Asked by: Philip Boswell (Scottish National Party - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the cost to the public purse is of the contracts with (a) Capita and (b) ATOS Healthcare for the assessment of personal independence payments.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
The information may be found in Contract Finder via the following links:
Atos Healthcare for PIP assessments in Northern England and Scotland – Lot 1
http://data.gov.uk/data/contracts-finder-archive/contract/695721/
Capita for Central England and Wales assessments – Lot 2
http://data.gov.uk/data/contracts-finder-archive/contract/740844/
Atos Healthcare for PIP assessments in London, East of England and Southern England – Lot 3
http://data.gov.uk/data/contracts-finder-archive/contract/695729/
Capita for Northern Ireland assessments – Lot 4
http://data.gov.uk/data/contracts-finder-archive/contract/762330/
Asked by: Philip Boswell (Scottish National Party - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people are paid as personal independence payment assessors in Scotland.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
378 people were working as Personal Independence Payment Health Assessors in Scotland (6 October 2016).