Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment has he made of the accuracy of medical assessments for personal independence payment claimants who have autism.

The Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment is not a medical assessment requiring the assessor to diagnose a condition and recommend treatment options. It is a needs based assessment which considers how an individual’s condition(s) affects their ability to undertake everyday tasks. The Department continually monitors the performance of contracted suppliers including the requirements for delivering high quality and accurate assessments to all claimants regardless of their condition.

All Health Professionals undertaking PIP assessments must be registered practitioners who have also met requirements around training and competence. They must be an occupational therapist, level 1 nurse, physiotherapist, paramedic or doctor and must also be fully registered and have at least 2 years post full-registration experience, although this can be waived in exceptional circumstances by the Department.

All Health Professionals receive training on a wide range of conditions, including autism, as part of their initial new entrant training. This includes detailed modules covering all aspects of autism and learning disabilities, as well as simulated assessments to enable Health Professionals to understand how these conditions impact on a person’s ability to undertake the activities in the PIP assessment. This is followed by on-going professional training and support which continues for the duration of their employment in the role. All Health Professionals are subject to on-going audit by our Assessment Providers to ensure that they deliver high quality assessments.

We are continually working with the Assessment Providers to further improve the quality of all assessments including increasing clinical coaching, feedback and support available to each assessor. We are undertaking more observations of assessments and our independent audit of assessment reports ensures that the advice provided to the Department’s decision makers is of suitable quality, fully explained and justified.