Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to improve the personal independence claims and decision making process.

We are committed to driving up PIP performance, and I am in regular contact with providers to do this – as you would expect. Unlike DLA, PIP involves a face to face consultation for most applicants. Around 80% of claimants will see a health professional instead of around 6% of DLA.

We acknowledge that claims are currently taking too long and we have taken steps to improve performance. So far we have introduced:

• A dedicated phone service;
• An electronic transfer of information between claimant's health professional, DWP and assessment providers.
• A new process to enable SRTI decisions to be made in-house with support from health care professionals.
• A streamlined Assessment Report form.