Earlier this week, a Written Statement was published by the Minister for Disabled People about Personal Independence Payments (PIP). PIP is an issue that I receive a lot of correspondence from constituents about and I have made representations to both DWP Ministers and PIP assessment providers about the difficulties by constituents have faced going through the PIP assessment process.
One of the changes I have been urging the DWP to consider is the introduction of video recording of assessments to address concerns about the transparency of the process. Far too many of my constituents have said they dispute the assessor’s report and believe it contains factual inaccuracies about what took place during their assessment and having access to a recording of the session would ensure such claims can be investigated fairly.
I am therefore pleased that the Government has confirmed video recordings will become a standard part of the process and following an initial pilot phase, it will be rolled out across Great Britain.
Further improvements to the assessment process are still needed but this is a very welcome development and I know it will make a huge difference to constituents of mine applying for PIP.