Neil Coyle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2015-10-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 23 October 2015 to Question 12674, what his Department is doing to ensure that people provide sufficient written medical information for their initial Personal Independence Payment decision to prevent the need for reconsiderations and appeals.

Justin Tomlinson

Claimants are invited to provide any evidence that they have to hand when they submit their "PIP2 How your disability affects you" questionnaire. We also ask them who assessment providers can approach to seek further evidence.

We have worked with organisations representing disabled people to improve our communications; we now provide additional information to claimants outlining more specifically the types of evidence which are most helpful in enabling us to carry out an assessment.

In every case the health professional conducting the assessment will consider any evidence that the claimant has provided, and will also consider whether further evidence will help them in providing advice on the claim to the Department’s decision maker. Ensuring that the claimant is able to tell us who is best placed to provide supporting evidence forms a core part of our approach. Such evidence can come from a variety of sources, including GPs, hospital consultants, community psychiatric nurses and social workers, as well as family members and carers.

We would urge all advisors and advocates to encourage claimants to provide relevant evidence at the earliest opportunity to avoid the need for reconsiderations and appeals, and minimise consequent costs for the tax-payer.