Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of her Department's policy that claimants’ (a) appointees and (b) Lasting Power of Attorney appointees cannot submit online claims on those claimants.

In law both appointees and attorneys can make online claims. They act for the claimant and can perform any function ordinarily required of the claimant.

The department is continuing to modernise its services to provide customers and appointees/attorneys with a greater choice over the channels they use to interact with the department. For example, the Health Transformation Programme is transforming the entire Personal Independence Payment service to improve the experience of applying and this includes introducing an optional online service.