Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which (a) organisations and (b) individuals responded to the Health and Disability Green Paper consultation proposing making PIP the sole health-based assessment in the benefits system.

During the consultation, we heard the views of more than 4,500 people and organisations and discussed our proposals at over 40 public events. In the consultation, people with long-term or chronic health conditions said that they should be assessed less frequently and that the PIP assessment and Work Capability Assessment (WCA) overlapped, leading to additional stress. We know that a large number of people who receive a health or disability benefit currently need to complete two applications and undergo two assessments to receive additional support for their disability or health condition.

We heard that people found these assessments contained unnecessary duplication and that they caused anxiety and distress. This is, in part, due to a fear that trying work or work-related activity could trigger a repeat assessment that could result in the loss of their benefit entitlement.

These issues and barriers cannot be fully resolved by making small changes to the health and disability benefits system, but instead require fundamental changes to the design of the system.

We have addressed these themes within our White Paper by committing to remove the financial disincentives that exist within the current system and reducing the assessment burden that people currently face. We will legislate to remove the WCA so that in future there will only be one health and disability assessment - the Personal Independent Payment (PIP) assessment. PIP will not be means-tested and will stay separate from UC.