Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to (a) correct its guidance concerning personal independence payment daily living activity 9 in respect of visual impairment being considered insufficient in itself to score points in respect of engaging with others and (b) identify cases incorrectly assessed on that basis.

When assessing a claimant against activity 9, engaging with others, the claimant’s ability to identify facial expressions and more generally read body language is to be taken into account in deciding whether a person can engage with other persons unaided, needs prompting or social support. Whether a visually impaired person will score against a descriptor will depend on the nature of the visual impairment and how they are able to engage face to face and this therefore needs to be assessed on a case by case basis.