Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people applying for (a) personal independence payments and (b) employment and support allowance have missed a medical assessment in each of the last three years; and how many of those people have lost entitlement to a benefit as a result of that missed assessment.

Table 1 below shows the number of claimants who failed to attend their Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment.

Table 1 – Number of claimants who failed to attend their PIP assessment.

These figures include those claimants who fail to attend their PIP assessment and were subsequently found to have ‘good cause’ for not attending and so considered for another assessment.

The Department does not hold on information on those who may have lost entitlement as a result of a missed appointment.

In regard to Employment Support Allowance (ESA). The information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The Department does collect some information on individuals who failed to attend a Work Capability Assessment (WCA). However, to assess the completeness of recording and quality assure the figures would take in excess of 5 days and therefore incur disproportionate cost.

The Department publishes statistics on the outcomes of initial WCAs, including the volumes of those who were found Fit for Work and those whose claim closed before the assessment took place. These categories will include any individuals who lost entitlement due to failure to attend their WCA but will also include cases where the recorded outcome was due to a different reason. The latest published figures are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/esa-outcomes-of-work-capability-assessments-including-mandatory-reconsiderations-and-appeals-december-2016