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1353055

registered interest
date	06/09/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Department for Work and Pensions: Correspondence
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what additional steps she will take to improve response times to personal independence payment inquires from hon. Members.
tabling member constituency	Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
tabling member printed	Drew Hendry
uin	43554
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/09/2021 answer text <p>The Department aims to provide substantive replies to inquiries from hon. Members within 20 working days. Where issues are complex substantive replies may take longer.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 09/09/2021 16:38:33 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	4467 label Biography information for Drew Hendry

1347987

registered interest
date	19/07/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Personal Independence Payment
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Order by Consent issued by the High court on 13 July 2021 (CO/4263/2020), what assessment she has made of the potential merits of conducting an inquiry into her Department's handling of Personal Independence Payment benefit calls.
tabling member constituency	Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
tabling member printed	Drew Hendry
uin	35747
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/07/2021 answer text <p>The Department’s aim is that claimants are paid the correct amount of benefit at the earliest opportunity. Where new evidence or information becomes available after an appeal has been lodged, but before it is heard at a tribunal, DWP is able to revise a decision and increase the award where appropriate. In circumstances where the decision can be revised but not to the level the claimant is seeking on appeal, we contact claimants to give them the option to continue with their appeal or to have the decision revised, in which case they can still appeal the new decision. The right of appeal was always set out in the decision letter claimants receive notifying them of the new decision. Accordingly, we have no plans to further review the Department’s handling of past calls.</p><p> </p><p>We began contacting claimants in this way in 1998 consequent on the change in the law introduced by the Social Security Act 1998, whereby the Secretary of State may revise a decision in the claimant’s favour even if they would not get everything they were seeking on appeal. An equality impact assessment was not conducted at that time and has not been conducted pursuant to the Equality Act 2010.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson grouped question UIN 35748 question first answered 22/07/2021 13:22:30 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	4467 label Biography information for Drew Hendry

1347988

registered interest
date	19/07/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Personal Independence Payment
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Order by Consent issued by the High court on 13 July 2021 (CO/4263/2020), whether her Department carried out an equalities impact assessment of its policy to make on-the-spot personal independence payment benefit calls to recipients of that benefit.
tabling member constituency	Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
tabling member printed	Drew Hendry
uin	35748
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/07/2021 answer text <p>The Department’s aim is that claimants are paid the correct amount of benefit at the earliest opportunity. Where new evidence or information becomes available after an appeal has been lodged, but before it is heard at a tribunal, DWP is able to revise a decision and increase the award where appropriate. In circumstances where the decision can be revised but not to the level the claimant is seeking on appeal, we contact claimants to give them the option to continue with their appeal or to have the decision revised, in which case they can still appeal the new decision. The right of appeal was always set out in the decision letter claimants receive notifying them of the new decision. Accordingly, we have no plans to further review the Department’s handling of past calls.</p><p> </p><p>We began contacting claimants in this way in 1998 consequent on the change in the law introduced by the Social Security Act 1998, whereby the Secretary of State may revise a decision in the claimant’s favour even if they would not get everything they were seeking on appeal. An equality impact assessment was not conducted at that time and has not been conducted pursuant to the Equality Act 2010.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson grouped question UIN 35747 question first answered 22/07/2021 13:22:30 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	4467 label Biography information for Drew Hendry

1347367

registered interest
date	15/07/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Personal Independence Payment
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the consent order in K v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions CO / 4263 / 2020, what steps her Department is taking in response to that consent order to ensure that people who received on the spot benefit calls and as a result accepted a lower Personal Independence Payment (PIP) payment than they were legally entitled to are (a) contacted and (b) have that PIP payment (i) corrected and (ii) fully backdated.
tabling member constituency	Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
tabling member printed	Drew Hendry
uin	33963
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/07/2021 answer text <p>The Department’s aim is to ensure that claimants are paid the correct amount of benefit at the earliest opportunity. Accordingly, if new evidence or information becomes available after an appeal has been lodged, it is right that decisions are reviewed and claimants put in the best position where they can choose either to continue with their appeal, or have the decision revised. At the same time claimants have, and have always had, a right of appeal against the revised decision, and to have their payments fully backdated if successful at appeal. Claimants are notified of this right of appeal in their revised decision letter.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 20/07/2021 13:15:17 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	4467 label Biography information for Drew Hendry

1347426

registered interest
date	15/07/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Personal Independence Payment: Long Covid
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 6 July 2021 to Question 28245 on Personal Independence Payments: Long Covid, how many people have applied for personal independence payments with covid-19 as a primary disability since March 2021.
tabling member constituency	Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
tabling member printed	Drew Hendry
uin	33964
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/07/2021 answer text <p>In the application process for Personal Independence Payment (PIP), a claimant’s main disabling condition is only recorded centrally on Departmental computer systems at assessment. Disabilities are not recorded centrally at the point of application. The Department does not therefore hold data on the number of applicants to PIP with particular conditions. Only those who have a disability assessment determination decision will have a main disabling condition recorded for them.</p><p> </p><p>The latest available data on the number of people who have “Coronavirus COVID-19” recorded as their primary disability following assessment for PIP each month can be found on Stat-Xplore: <a href="https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/" target="_blank">https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/</a>. As described in my response to Question 28245, this disabling condition has been available to record for PIP assessments following a computer system change in March 2021. Due to the nature of the qualifying period for PIP claims, these cases will all be “long COVID” or “post-COVID syndrome” cases rather than initial COVID-19 infections.</p><p> </p><p>Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here:</p><p><a href="https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html" target="_blank">https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html</a>.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 20/07/2021 14:43:27 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	4467 label Biography information for Drew Hendry

1344133

registered interest
date	06/07/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Personal Independence Payment: Long Covid
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the inclusion of covid-19 as a registrable cause for a long term health condition when applying for personal independence payment (PIP) since March 2021, what discussions his Department has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on developing a system of monthly published reporting of PIP application numbers to allow for additional tracking of the economic impact of long covid.
tabling member constituency	Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
tabling member printed	Drew Hendry
uin	28245
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/07/2021 answer text <p>Entitlement to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is assessed on the basis of the needs arising from a health condition or disability, rather than the health condition or disability itself.</p><p> </p><p>PIP statistics are published on a quarterly basis and include breakdowns by month. From March 2021, the published statistical series that include low level disability breakdowns (clearances, PIP cases with entitlement, MR registrations and clearances, Award Review &amp; Change of Circumstance clearances) include the additional category “Coronavirus covid-19”. This reflects an operational change implemented in March 2021 to include this code on the PIP Computer System. This will allow us to track the volume of clearances with Coronavirus covid-19 as a primary disability and the corresponding volume/proportion of the PIP caseload. There are currently no plans to publish the PIP statistics on a monthly basis.</p><p> </p><p>There are regular, ongoing discussions between the Secretary of State and Cabinet colleagues.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 12/07/2021 13:14:32 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	4467 label Biography information for Drew Hendry

1327292

registered interest
date	24/05/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Personal Independence Payment
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the average waiting time for a decision on whether an award should be made in the case of a new Personal Independence Payment application; and what assessment she has made of acceptability of that waiting time.
tabling member constituency	Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
tabling member printed	Drew Hendry
uin	6346
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/05/2021 answer text <p>I refer the Hon member to the answer I gave on 24 May 2021 to Question <a href="https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2021-05-18/3035" target="_blank">UIN3035</a>.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 27/05/2021 13:28:08 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	4467 label Biography information for Drew Hendry

1315657

registered interest
date	18/05/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Personal Independence Payment
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the time taken for a decision on a new personal independence payment claim.
tabling member constituency	Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
tabling member printed	Drew Hendry
uin	3035
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/05/2021 answer text <p>We are committed to ensuring that people can access financial support through Personal Independence Payment in a timely manner. We always aim to make an award decision as quickly as possible, taking into account the need to review all available evidence.</p><p>We are currently operating within expected levels. Average clearance times from initial claim to a decision being made for new claims are currently 19 weeks, which is the same as average clearance times achieved in January 2020.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 24/05/2021 13:04:04 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	4467 label Biography information for Drew Hendry

1301325

registered interest
date	10/03/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Personal Independence Payment
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the effect on claimants of having to proactively reapply for personal independence payments as opposed to having an integrated process of automatic renewal of those payments.
tabling member constituency	Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
tabling member printed	Drew Hendry
uin	166483
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/03/2021 answer text <p>On Personal Independence Payment (PIP), we do not have an integrated process of automatic renewals but review claimants to ensure their award reflects their needs. Once someone has been awarded PIP, which can be paid at one of eight rates, that award will be reviewed. Award rates and their durations are set on an individual basis, based on the claimant’s needs and the likelihood of those needs changing. Regular reviews are a key feature of the benefit and ensure that payments accurately match the current needs of claimants, something fundamentally missing from Disability Living Allowance, which PIP began to replace in 2013. Award durations are based on an individual’s circumstances and can vary from nine months to an on-going award, with a light touch review at the ten-year point.</p><p> </p><p>Some claimants can be given a shorter, fixed-term award which isn’t subject to a review on the basis that the individual’s needs will improve to the point they are not entitled by the end of their award. Claimants subject to such an award are free to make a new claim before their award ends if they consider they may still be entitled.</p><p> </p><p>Since PIP was introduced we have implemented changes and improved guidance which reduces the frequency of reviews for most pensioners and those with the highest needs and where those needs will not improve or will deteriorate.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 15/03/2021 14:18:35 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	4467 label Biography information for Drew Hendry

1288141

registered interest
date	22/02/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Personal Independence Payment
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the average waiting time for decisions to award personal independence payments (PIP) to people whose fixed term PIP awards ended after the 2 October 2020.
tabling member constituency	Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
tabling member printed	Drew Hendry
uin	156465
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/02/2021 answer text <p>Table 1 below shows the median clearance time in working days from registration to initial clearance (end to end clearance time) of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) advanced claim awards made up to 31<sup>st</sup> October 2020 (the latest data available), following a fixed term award with no review that was due to end after 2<sup>nd</sup> October 2020. This is broken down by whether the advanced claim was awarded under Normal Rules or Special Rules for the Terminally Ill. This data excludes advanced Claims that were outstanding as of 31<sup>st</sup> October 2020.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Table 1: Median end to end Clearance time in working days of PIP advanced claims awarded following a fixed term award due to end after 2<sup>nd</sup> October 2020.</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Normal Rules Median Clearance Time*</p></td><td><p>Special Rules for The Terminally Ill Median Clearance Time</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>-</p></td><td><p>7</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p>*Please note that for Normal Rules advanced claims, there were 20 claimants who were awarded a Personal Independence Payment (PIP) fixed term award at initial decision due to end after 2<sup>nd</sup> October 2020 who have had their advanced Claim awarded up to 31<sup>st</sup> October 2020 (the latest data available).</p><p> </p><p>Because of the small number of claims in this category we are unable to provide an average for the clearance time in this instance. 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.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Notes</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Source: </strong>PIP ADS</p><p> </p><ul><li>The end dates here are recorded as of the initial decision for a New Claim or Reassessment from DLA. This data excludes instances where end dates have been updated following this initial decision.</li><li>PIP data includes both new claims and reassessment claims from Disability Living Allowance.</li><li>This is unpublished data. It should be used with caution and it may be subject to future revision.</li></ul><ul><li>Data on the number of clearances has been rounded to the nearest 10. Medians are rounded to the nearest working day</li></ul><ul><li>Data includes advanced claims registered following either a Normal Rules Short term award with no review or a claim registered following a Special Rules for Terminally Ill claimants that was due to end after 2<sup>nd</sup> October 2020.</li><li>Advanced claims are defined as a New Claim or Reassessment from DLA registration made by a claimant with an existing award either less than 6 months prior to the end date or any time after the end date of an existing award.</li></ul> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 25/02/2021 17:45:05 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	4467 label Biography information for Drew Hendry