(Minister of State for Disabled People, Health and
Work): I would like to update the House on the
department’s progress in making backdated payments to Personal
Independence Payment claimants who are benefitting from the MH
and RJ decisions of the Upper Tribunal.
The MH decision changed how overwhelming psychological distress
is considered when assessing someone’s ability to plan and follow
a journey. The RJ decision concerned how we decide whether
someone can carry out everyday activities safely or not, and
whether they need supervision.
We are committed to ensuring everyone with a health condition or
disability gets the support they are entitled to. This is why we
have dedicated substantial resource to checking claims, so that
we can pay eligible people as quickly as possible. We remain on
track to finish this exercise in 2020.
Thanks to our continuous monitoring of the exercise, we know
which claimants are most likely to benefit. This now allows us to
focus on those cases and to make backdated payments to eligible
claimants more quickly. We will write to all other claimants in
scope of the exercise, explaining the Upper Tribunal decisions
and how they can get in touch with us if they think they may
benefit and want to ask us to review their case.
We have said that we will keep the House updated and I can
announce that the department has today published the third ad hoc
release of Management Information on this exercise: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pip-administrative-exercise-progress-on-cases-cleared-at-5-january-2020
Since the exercise began on 25 June 2018 (HCWS793) up to 05
January 2020, we have cleared 720,000 cases against the MH
decision and 820,000 cases against the RJ decision, with most
cases being cleared against both Upper Tribunal decisions. In
total, we have paid £28 million in arrears to 5,900 claimants.
We are continuing to monitor the numbers of revised awards
closely and have a comprehensive quality assurance framework in
place to ensure we make the right decisions. In addition, my
officials and I are always happy to hear of any specific feedback
on the exercise.
We have set out new and updated information on the administrative
exercise in the updated Frequently Asked Questions. I will
deposit a copy of this document in the Library.
I will continue to update the House.
