Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's personal independence payment (PIP) assessment guidance updated on 2 November 2017, how many PIP claimants in (a) the Brighton and Hove area and (b) nationally have been identified to date as being entitled to a higher rate of PIP following the decision to change the rules on claimants' ability to carry out unsupervised daily tasks safely; by what date his Department will have completed the task of going through all existing cases to identify people who might be entitled to a higher rate of PIP as a result of the judgment handed down on 9 March 2017; by what date all people entitled to that higher rate will be contacted by his Department; and if he will make a statement.

New claims have been benefitting from the changes since the 13 November 2017; The exercise to ensure that all claims made prior to that are receiving the correct award based on the judgment handed down on the 9 March 2017 will be complex and it’s important we get it right so we will begin testing the process from the 20^th of November 2017. Due to the scale involved in reconsidering approximately 1.5million claims, the exact duration will depend upon a number of factors such as the number of people affected.

At this time, we cannot say how many claimants in either the Brighton or Hove area, or nationally, have been identified as being entitled to a higher rate of PIP following the changes on claimants’ ability to carry out unsupervised daily tasks safely.