The DWP have recruited additional PIP case managers and are now aiming to increase the number of PIP review decisions made without the need for the claimant to attend an assessment. But detailed “evidence/information”, though not necessarily medical evidence, will be vital for claimants who wish to be spared an assessment.
The move to catch up on the massive backlog of PIP reviews was revealed by the minister for disabled people, Stephen Timms, in a parliamentary written answer this week.
Asked about what steps the DWP are taking to improve the length of time taken for a PIP review, Timms stated:
“We have been actively recruiting additional Case Managers to meet increased demand for PIP, which means we are now in a position to begin to deploy additional resource onto award reviews. This will increase the number of review cases we can complete ‘in house’.”
He went on to say that the new health assessment providers who began work this month will “be taking steps to ensure they have sufficient capacity to deliver the required volume of assessments” but that it will take time to train new healthcare professionals.
In the meantime, the DWP hopes to move cases through the system more quickly because:
“Where sufficient evidence/information is available, Case Managers can make decisions on reviews, avoiding the need for a functional assessment, which means many customers receive a decision faster.”
In other words, DWP staff will be making more decisions on reviews without the need for the claimant to be assessed by a healthcare professional, even on paper.
Benefits and Work can also reveal that the DWP carried out pilots in February and June of this year in which DWP case managers made decisions on fresh claims without the claimant having to attend an assessment.
In the first pilot the case managers only contacted a health professional for advice about a claim if they felt they needed to.
In the second pilot the case manager had to consult with a health professional in every case.
The claimant was not involved in the consultation in either pilot.
As a result of the pilots, the DWP concluded that the system worked best if consultation with a health professional took place in every case.
They also concluded that case managers “could potentially make more decisions without a health assessment if they had more information.”
The next step in the project, which may be happening now, was to look at allowing case managers to also contact claimants to gather more information.
The news underlines the importance of giving detailed information when making a fresh claim or a review claim, especially if you hope to avoid having an assessment.
In relation to reviews, in particular, it seem less likely that claimants who simply tick the ‘No change’ boxes and do not provide further up-to-date information about the difficulties they experience will avoid an assessment.
But it is also unlikely that case managers will only look at review cases where there is new medical evidence, as this is not available to the vast majority of claimants. Instead, current information including recent examples of difficulties that you have experienced is likely to be of considerable importance.
We have updated our members’ “Guide to PIP Claims and Reviews” to highlight the planned increase in decisions without assessments.
You can read the full response by Stephen Timms here.
