Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) paper-based and (b) telephone personal independence payment assessments have taken place in each month since April 2020.
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Department made a number of changes to health and disability benefits to safeguard the health of claimants and staff and to prioritise new claims and continuity of awards. These changes included the suspension of all face-to-face assessments and the introduction of telephone-based assessments where suitable, in addition to pre-existing paper-based assessments.
In each month from April to August 2020 there has been the following number of (a) paper based, and (b) telephone Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments.
PIP Total | Apr-20 | May-20 | Jun-20 | Jul-20 | Aug-20 |
Paper Based Assessments | 13,970 | 9,460 | 7,760 | 7,420 | 7,500 |
Telephone Assessments | 38,090 | 42,830 | 47,000 | 52,440 | 48,370 |
All volumes have been rounded to the nearest 10.
All of the above data is derived from contractual management information produced by the Assessment Providers.
Please note: the above data is derived from unpublished management information which is collected for internal departmental use only and has not been quality assured to Official Statistics Publication standards.