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The DWP has also just announced plans to update the way it carries out assessments for Universal Credit and ESA from 2025, meaning thousands more people will be offered support to find a job rather than being ruled unfit for work. PIP is being overhauled with a simpler application process, including an option to apply online, improved evidence gathering and "a more tailored journey for customers."
"Once the new contracts are in operation, customers will experience more consistency, interacting with the same Health Assessment Service provider regardless of which benefit they are being assessed for," the DWP states.įurther changes will happen at the same time as part of this streamlining. Then the new Health Assessment Service will be rolled out nationally from 2029. Joint services for all benefit assessments will be supplied under a single contract for each geographic area. The DWP is procuring new assessment provider contracts, which will start operating from 2024. In an evaluation document posted on GOV.UK, the DWP further explains how it is developing a new single Health Assessment Service for all benefits.Īround two million health assessments are carried out each year and the DWP says the new shake-up is "complex and ambitious." The document adds that the new service represents a major change to how the Department manages assessments so it will first try out the changes on a small scale. The approach will allow us continually to improve the new service in a controlled way, before expanding and ultimately rolling the service out nationally." The new service is being gradually developed in a safe environment known as the health transformation area. "That will transform the delivery of health assessments to provide an improved, clearer and more joined-up experience for claimants. That provides a stepping stone to our longer-term aim to create, from 2029, a single new health assessment service for all benefits that use a health assessment. "Claimants will need to interact only with their local health assessment provider, regardless of which benefit they are applying for.
Once new arrangements begin in 2024, one provider will deliver health assessments in a given area. We currently use a range of providers, depending on the benefit in question. Mr Pursglove, who is also Conservative MP for Corby, said: "We are improving the way health assessments are delivered.
Responding to the criticisms, Tom Pursglove, DWP Minister of State for Disabled People, Health and Work, explained that the whole process is changing from next year. This can lead to claims being wrongly refused, the debate was told, and from October to December 2022, a staggering 69 per cent of PIP cases that went to a tribunal were overturned in favour of the applicant. One petition called for a "complete overhaul" of PIP, describing the process as "inhumane and degrading."Īt the parliamentary debate, ministers heard that people applying for PIP are being assessed by healthcare professionals who are not experts in their medical condition. The news follows criticism of the current assessments for PIP in a debate that was triggered by a number of petitions.
The Department for Work and Pensions says all sickness and disability benefits will be assessed by the same provider in any given area of the UK, with the new service rolled out nationally from 2029. They will be merged into a single service starting from 2024, it has been confirmed. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has announced a major shake-up of Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Universal Credit, and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) assessments.
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