Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 1 February 2019 to Question 209777 on Personal Independence Payment, after how many days on average the 5,290 claimants who applied for personal Independence payment under special rules for terminally ill people died after registering but prior to her Department making a decision.

Between April 2013 and 30^th April 2018, 109,000 applications to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) were made under Special Rules for Terminal Illness (SRTI).

5,290 of these 109,000 claimants died after registering but prior to the DWP making a decision on their claim. The median time between a PIP registration under SRTI and the death of a claimant whilst waiting for an initial decision was 6 working days.

Notes:

• These figures include new claims and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to PIP reassessment claims.
• Special rules indicator is taken at the point of registration. It is possible for claims to transition between normal rules and special rules for terminally ill people during the claimant journey.
• The point of application is taken as the day the claimant registered a claim to PIP as recorded on the PIP computer system.
• This is unpublished data from the PIP computer system’s (PIP CS) management information. It should be used with caution and it may be subject to future revision.
• The median time is the middle value if you were to order all the times within the distribution from lowest value to highest value. The median is presented here instead of the mean because the mean can be unduly affected by outlying cases (e.g. cases were the person has been hard to reach due to being in prison, hospital, failed to attend the assessment on numerous occasions etc.)
• Figures cover claims made up to and including 30^th April 2018.
• GB only.

Under the Social Security (Notification of Deaths) Regulations 2012 and S125 of Social Security Administration Act 1992 date of death is provided to the Department for all registered deaths. Additionally, next of kin also provide information on the date of death of an individual and this information is used appropriately in the administration of Departmental benefits.