Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, in the light of the recent sickle cell and thalassaemia APPG Report How did you contract that?, of the suitability of the Personal Independence Payment Form 2 for the assessment of persons living with thalassaemia and sickle cell disease.

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claims are not condition based but are assessed on how a claimant’s long-term disability or health condition affects their day-to-day life and on the majority of days over the period of a year. The PIP2 questionnaire, “How your disability affects you”, is the first step in gathering detailed information about the needs arising from an individual’s health condition or disability. The form has been designed to allow claimants to tell us, in their own words, how their health condition or disability impacts them on a day-to-day basis. The questionnaire has a mixture of tick boxes and free text boxes allowing claimants to add as much or as little detail as they wish. We also ask claimants to send in any additional information or evidence to support their claim. Although the PIP2 is a standard template, we can assure you that it has been carefully designed to capture information on people’s needs regardless of their health condition or disability.