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 MM
Supreme Court judgment.
The MM judgment concerns the definition of “social support” when
engaging with other people face to face (and when “prompting”
should be considered “social support”) in the PIP assessment, and
how far in advance that social support can be provided.
On 20 September 2021, the department started an administrative
exercise, looking at PIP claims since 6 April 2016 to check
whether claimants may be eligible for more support under PIP.
This is a complex exercise. We have identified around 326,000
unique cases we need to review.
Given the complexity of the exercise we started at a relatively
small scale, prioritising terminally ill and recently deceased
claimants, testing our processes and communications with
claimants, to ensure they are effective before ramping up.
The department has today published an ad hoc release of
management information on the administrative exercise. As at 31
August 2023, we have reviewed around 79,000 cases against the MM
judgment. This includes cases where claimants have previously
been assessed as needing “prompting”. All reviews have been
carried out by a case manager within the department.
Around 14,000 arrears payments, totalling around £74 million,
have been made. No one should have seen their PIP reduced because
of this exercise.
We are monitoring the numbers of, and reasons for, revised awards
closely and making regular quality checks to ensure our
decision-making is accurate and fair.
We have listened to feedback and engaged with disability
organisations, to develop our processes and communications, being
sensitive to claimants who need help to provide any further
information we need to decide if they are affected.
Confident that reviews are achieving the right outcomes for
claimants, we have completed upskilling additional staff
available for this exercise and expect to complete the review of
all cases available to the exercise by the end of 2025.
We are committed to making backdated payments to all claimants
affected by this judgment as quickly as possible. So, as well as
continuing to review claims affected by the definition of “social
support”, we are also testing a more proportionate approach for
claimants who might be affected by the timing element only.
We will be inviting around 284,000 claimants in this group to
contact the department, if they think their claim is affected by
this judgment and they were not previously identified as needing
help to engage with other people face to face because any help
they received was in advance.
I believe that prioritising cases where claimants are more likely
to be entitled to more support is the correct approach.
Further information on how the administrative exercise is being
undertaken is set out in a Frequently Asked Questions document. I
will deposit a copy of this document in the library.
The department plans to publish a further update next year.
