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 ensure that Personal Independence Payment claimants are not required to travel for longer than is set out in the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Assessment Service – Service Requirement document of May 2012.

The department has set clear requirements in terms of geography and travel time to a PIP assessment and continues to ensure assessment providers adhere to this requirement. There are no current plans to reduce the existing travel time of 90 minutes by public transport though best endeavours are taken to schedule assessment appointments in centres near to a claimant. This limit of 90 minutes is an absolute maximum and the department expects that only a small minority of claimants will have to make a journey of this duration. New assessment centres have opened, and continue to open, to ensure the needs of claimants are met.