Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people who previously qualified for disability living allowance have not been awarded personal independence payments following assessments by Capita.

DWP case managers make decisions on all claims based on the PIP2 questionnaire completed by the claimant, any additional evidence they have submitted, the report from the assessment provider and any additional information the assessment provider has requested, for example information from the claimant’s GP.

The table below shows the number of claimants who have undergone a Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) reassessment with our assessment providers, IAS and Capita. We previously answered this question for IAS under PQ 109416.

Table 1: Outcomes of DLA to PIP reassessments after assessment by Assessment Provider to 31st July 2017

The figures are the outcome of the first DWP decision on each DLA to PIP reassessment claim assessed under Normal Rules only, prior to any reconsideration, appeal action and award review, after the claimant underwent an assessment by IAS or Capita. Figures include decisions made between 8th April 2013 and 31st July 2017 as recorded on Department systems. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10 and are for Great Britain only.

The Department is committed to ensuring PIP claimants receive a high quality functional assessment. We continue to work closely to ensure a consistent approach is being taken across the country.

We closely monitor assessment providers to make sure that the quality of the service, that the nurses, physiotherapists and other health professionals who carry out the assessments provide, is as high as it should be. We are continually working with the assessment providers to further improve the quality of assessments, including clinical coaching, feedback and support available to each assessor. The Department has put in place an independent audit of assessments to ensure that the advice provided to the Department's decision makers is of suitable quality, fully explained and justified. In addition, there are other safeguards in place to ensure correct decisions are made, such as DWP decision makers being able to ask the provider for clarification or advice or returning the report to the provider if they believe that it does not provide sufficient information for them to make a decision.