Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Written Statement of 20 September 2021, Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Update, if she will publish further detail on (a) the work involved in the Administrative Exercise including the different stages of work to be carried out and (b) the date on which she expects the Administrative Exercise to be completed.

We currently estimate between 320,000 and 340,000 claimants will need their claims to be reviewed as a result of the MM judgment. Early estimates are subject to uncertainty and we will be refining this estimate as the exercise progresses. The exercise includes claims that were in payment on 6 April 2016 (the date of the original Upper Tribunal decision) as well as claims where DWP made a decision on or after 6 April 2016, including some claims where we did not award PIP. Where these claimants have made more than one claim for PIP each claim will need to be reviewed. The Department published updated guidance implementing the judgment from 17 September 2020, so new PIP decisions from that date already reflect the judgment and will not be reviewed as part of the exercise.

We are not planning to invite claimants for an assessment. However, we may contact them for more information, so that we can make a decision on their claim. We will write to all claimants whose claim(s) we review. Claimants entitled to more PIP following a review will have their award increased and will receive backdated payments.

It is too early for us to give a date by which we expect to have completed all the reviews.