Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the document entitled Personal Independence Payment: Official Statistics to July 2023, published on 19 September 2023, what steps his Department is taking to manage increases in the number of new PIP applications.
Despite the increase in new claims, we have seen a decrease in PIP clearance times since August 2021 with the latest statistics showing that the average end-to-end journey has reduced from 26 weeks in August 2021 to 15 weeks at the end of October. This means that we’re clearing claims faster than we were prior to the pandemic.
This is because we are:
In addition, the Health Transformation Programme (HTP) is modernising Health and Disability benefit services to create a more efficient service, to reduce processing times and improving trust in our services and decisions. As part of this, from July 2023, a limited number of claimants have been able to begin their claim for PIP entirely online.