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 reduce the number of complaints made against independent personal independence payment assessment providers.

We are committed to ensuring that all claimants receive a fair, objective and accurate assessment as well as a quality service at all stages of a claim.

In 2017 and 2018, complaint volumes for Assessment Providers equated to less than 1% of the total number of assessments carried out that year. However, the Department is continually working alongside the PIP Assessment Providers to further improve the quality of assessments.

Assessment Providers engage with medical experts, charities and relevant Stakeholders to strengthen, review and update their training programmes. Alongside this, the Departments clinicians have been observing PIP assessments to provide further assurance of the face-to face assessment process and suggest areas for improvement.

The Department ensures a high standard is always maintained by having an Independent Audit function that continually monitors the performance and provides feedback to our Providers. Improvements have been supported by two Independent Reviews of the PIP assessment process, and we take on board recommendations from the Select Committee Enquiry. This ensures that our Providers consistently exceed the Customer Satisfaction target of 90%.