Tim Farron – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2014-03-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to tackle delays faced by people waiting for a medical assessment following their application for personal independence payment.

Mike Penning

We are committed to ensuring Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claimants receive high quality, objective, fair and accurate assessments. Since the introduction of PIP new claims in April, we have been closely monitoring all aspects of the process.

Our latest analysis is telling us that the end-to-end claimant journey is taking longer than expected. We are working closely with the assessment providers to ensure that they are taking all necessary steps to improve performance, speed up the process and ensure claimants receive a satisfactory experience. We are also seeking to ensure that all the steps in the process run as smoothly as possible and that there are no barriers in our processes and systems that contribute to claims taking longer than necessary to progress.