Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 24 September 2020 to Question 90092 on Personal Independence Payment, with reference to the 30 claimants who subsequently registered a claim under the special rules for terminal illness, what the average length of time was between those claimants receiving an award under special rules for terminal illness and initially registering that claim under normal rules.

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is claimed by people with a range of health conditions and disabilities, many of which are degenerative or life limiting and the Department treats the death of any claimant sympathetically. New Claims made under Special Rules for Terminal Illness (SRTI) are fast tracked and were being cleared in 4 working days on average in April 2020. This is compared to an average of 16 weeks for New Claims cleared under Normal Rules in April 2020, down by 62% from their peak of 42 weeks in July 2014.

The cause of death of claimants to PIP is not collated centrally by the Department. There is no evidence in this data to suggest someone’s reason for claiming PIP was the cause of their death and it would be misleading to suggest otherwise. People claim PIP for various reasons, the majority of which are non-life threatening.

There were 30 PIP claimants who died within 6 months of registering an initial PIP claim who were disallowed under Normal Rules and who subsequently registered a PIP claim under Special Rules. Because of the small number of claims in this category we are unable to provide an average for the length of time between registration of the initial claim and the clearance of the subsequent claim. Calculating averages for small populations has a risk of misrepresentative results skewed by non-typical values. This is in line with our practice for PIP statistical publications, where averages for populations of less than 50 are suppressed.

Notes

Source: PIP ADS

• PIP data includes both new claims and reassessment claims from Disability Living Allowance.

• The outcome is the first DWP decision recorded on the PIP Computer system (PIPCS) for a given claim. This does not take into account any mandatory reconsideration or Appeal action so some of these claimants may have subsequently been awarded PIP. Some cases do not have a decision recorded.
• If a claimant dies before a decision is made on an outstanding claim, the Department establishes whether the claimant’s representative or next of kin wishes to proceed with the claim. If not, the claim is withdrawn.
• The latest PIP Official Statistics, including data to 31^st July 2020, were published on 15^th September 2020. We have provided figures here as at 30^th April 2020 for consistency with the original answer to PQ 90092 and PQ 81701.
• This is unpublished data from the PIP CS’s management information. It should be used with caution and may be subject to future revision.
• Figures cover PIP claims registered from April 2018 – October 2019, initial decisions made from April 2018 – April 2020, and deaths from April 2018 up to 30^th April 2020 as recorded at 2^nd October 2020. Data may be subject to retrospection.
• GB Only.

Under the Social Security (Notification of Deaths) Regulations 2012 and s125 of Social Security Administration Act 1992 date of death is provided to the Department for all registered deaths. Additionally, next of kin also provide information on the date of death of an individual and this information is used appropriately in the administration of Departmental benefits.