Over a third of PIP claimants feel unable to explain things they want to at their assessment

Tue,2 January 2018
News Benefits Equality & Rights

Over a third of personal independence payment (PIP) claimants (39%) feel unable to explain things they want to at their assessment, according to new DWP commissioned research.

The DWP commissioned Ipsos MORI to quantitative and qualitative research with PIP claimants designed to give an in-depth understanding of claimants’ experiences of the various stages of the PIP process.

The new interim report presents headline findings from the quantitative strand comprising of 1,203 telephone interviews with claimants during February 2017 that focused on the assessment and decision stage of the PIP process

An area where the process was reported to be working well was around key communications from the DWP. In particular, nearly all claimants agreed that the DWP made it clear that they might need to have a face-to-face assessment consultation.

However, areas where communication was felt to be less clear included why they might need the assessment, how long they could expect to wait for a face-to-face assessment, and what happens at a face-to-face assessment.

Among the report’s other findings are that -

  • although 82% said they understood what was written in their decision letter, just 66% said they understood how their decision had been reached; and
  • a quarter of respondents did not know who was responsible for collecting supporting evidence and about a third believed the DWP was responsible.

The research showed that while 58% said that DWP had made it clear that they could take additional supporting evidence to the assessment, there was a lack of clarity over who was responsible for collecting it.

One quarter of claimants did not know who was responsible for collecting supporting evidence and about a third believed DWP was responsible. Nearly half of claimants reported taking no evidence to their assessment and one in five said there was evidence they wanted to take to their face-to-face assessment but did not.

Final research findings from will be published in early 2018 and will include further analysis exploring the end-to-end claimant journey plus qualitative findings from the claimant interviews.

Personal Independence Payment Claimant Research – interim headline findings is available @ https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/personal-independence-payment-evaluation-wave-2-claimant-research-interim-findings