Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of (a) the number of outstanding personal independence payments assessments, and (b) the length of time each such assessment has been pending; and if she will make a statement.

At the end of April 2018, 39,200 Personal Independence Payment (PIP) new claims and 36,200 Daily Living Allowance (DLA) to PIP reassessment claims which had been referred to the assessment provider were awaiting an assessment.

The average (median) outstanding time for both new claims and reassessments was 3 weeks from the point of referral to the assessment provider.

Notes:

1. Outstanding assessments are defined as claims which have been referred to an assessment provider but which have not yet had a decision.

2. Outstanding time is measured as the average time between the date of referral to the Assessment Providers and the date at the end of the reported calendar month, for all claims awaiting a return from the Assessment Provider, i.e. we check the number of claimants that were outstanding on the last day of each month and measure the period for which they have been outstanding.

3. The median time is the middle value if you were to order all the times within the distribution from lowest value to highest value. The median is presented here instead of the mean because the mean can be unduly affected by outlying cases (e.g. cases where the person has been hard to reach due to being in prison, hospital, or failed to attend the assessment on numerous occasions.

4. The status of claims as 'normal rules' and 'new claim/reassessment' is the most recent known status for each claim.

5. Data exclude Award Reviews

6. Unpublished figures taken from the PIP Atomic Data Store.

7. Figures exclude claims made under Special Rules for the Terminally Ill.

8. Figures are rounded to the nearest 100 and whole number of weeks.

9. Great Britain only.