Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he expects disabled people in Wirral with outstanding applications for personal independence payment to receive a decision on their claim.

There are several reasons why a new claim could be outstanding and awaiting a decision. For example, the claimant is waiting to receive or has not yet returned their PIP 2 How your disability affects you form, the claimant is awaiting their assessment appointment date, the DWP have not yet made a decision on the claim, or the claimant has told DWP that they wish to withdraw their claim.

We keep the time taken to process claims under constant review and are absolutely committed to improving performance to ensure that claimants receive high quality, objective and fair decisions. We are already seeing improvements to our processes and outcomes and will continue to work further to reduce processing times and levels of work outstanding.

By the end of the year we expect that nobody will be waiting longer than 16 weeks for an assessment once we have received a completed ‘How your Disability affects you’ form.