Source · Select Committees · Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 2
2
Acknowledged
For most people, disability and health-related benefit assessments go smoothly.
Recommendation
For most people, disability and health-related benefit assessments go smoothly. But in a sizable minority of cases, things continue to go very wrong. This has implications for claimant trust in the systems that extend beyond those directly affected by poor decision-making. Our predecessor’s inquiry focused on improving technical aspects of PIP and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) assessments. There is a remarkable similarity between the recommendations made in evidence to this inquiry, and those made by our predecessor Committee in 2018. The Department has recognised that fundamental change is needed, but this will take time. The Department has taken some welcome and significant steps to improve health- related benefit assessments, but nearly five years on from the previous inquiry, important changes that could greatly increase transparency, improve trust in the process among claimants, and ensure more accurate assessments and fewer appeals, have still not been made. While it develops plans to replace the Work Capability Assessment, we urge the Government to make the changes we and our predecessor have called for to improve the current system for claimants. We recommend that the Department provide, in response to this Report, a list of actions it will take to improve the claimant experience of PIP assessments and Work Capability Assessments, while they remain in use. (Paragraph 16) The impact of assessments on claimants
Government Response Summary
The Department highlights ongoing initiatives, tests, and the Health Transformation Programme aimed at improving the claimant experience, building trust, and modernizing benefit services, without committing to specific new actions in response to the report's recommendations.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
In the White Paper the Department set out its intention to take forward a series of initiatives to ensure disabled people, people with health conditions and their carers have a better experience when applying for, and receiving, health and disability benefits. A number of tests and trials are already in train. The Department continually works with providers to make improvements to the PIP and WCA claimant experience. Longer term, through the Health Transformation Programme, the Department is modernising benefit services to improve the claimant experience, build trust in its services and create a more efficient service for taxpayers. The new Functional Assessment Service health and disability benefit assessment contracts will drive improvements in the claimant experience by providing a platform that allows for greater sharing of information across benefits and reducing the amount of evidence that claimants have to provide. The Health Transformation Programme is developing a new Health Assessment Service to integrate and automate processes and information technology across all benefits that use a functional health assessment. The new service will reduce the burden on claimants by providing a more joined-up service, allowing for easier sharing of medical evidence and greater opportunity to re-use information that claimants have already provided, with simpler and clearer processes for claimants. The Health Transformation Programme is also transforming the entire PIP service, from finding out about benefits and eligibility through to decisions and payments. This includes improvements to existing ways to claim and the introduction of an optional online application service. As part of its test-and-learn process, the Department has created a small-scale Health Transformation Area where it can engage with claimants and receive feedback on changes to existing processes. The Department is currently testing a variety of potential options to improve the service in its Health Transformation Area. Some of the key areas of change currently being developed: • Automating clerical processes, reducing the manual steps to speed up claimant journeys; • Looking to reduce the burden on claimants by exploring opportunities to draw evidence from different sources including previous applications; • Making the claimant journey more consistent, with the steps and actions within claims consistent across different benefits, rather than each having their own language and approach.