Are assessments and PIP transforming?

Background

The DWP’s Health Transformation Programme was announced in 2019 with the promise of ‘transitioning the currently separate work capability assessment (WCA) for employment and support allowance and universal credit (UC) and PIP [personal independence payment] assessment services into one unified, integrated service from 2021’.1
After delays and reviews, September 2024 saw the launch of an interim assessment service, with contractors Serco, Ingeus, Capita and Maximus all now delivering both WCAs and PIP assessments.

A unified, integrated service has become a much longer-term ambition, currently being tested in small areas (see below) and unlikely to be carrying out the majority of assessments until 2029 or later.2

As well as changes to the delivery of assessments, the transformation programme is working on broader changes to the administration of PIP, most notably the development of an option to claim PIP online. A claims platform was announced in January 2021 and gradually introduced from January 2022, but at time of writing was only available to a small percentage of claimants.3

The programme in action

Alongside concerns about its slow progress, hopes that the Health Transformation Programme might deliver ‘transformation' have been tempered by evidence that it does not expect to change outcomes for claimants –or, more strongly, that such changes would not be tolerated.4

Even the programme’s broader goal to improve claimant experiences has been called into question, with the DWP rejecting many of the Work and Pensions Committee’s 2018 and 2023 recommendations for improving the assessment process5 and the Public Accounts Committee questioning the programme’s ability to ‘[achieve] the important transformational change in the experience of claimants on which the wider benefits of the programme rely’.6

With these limitations in mind, what practical consequences should advisers expect from the Health Transformation Programme over the next few years?

Health Transformation Areas

Health Transformation Areas are pilot areas in London and Birmingham where PIP assessments and WCAs are already being carried out by the DWP’s integrated assessment service.7

If a claimant lives in a Health Transformation Area, you might see some differences in how they are assessed. These could include:

• a shorter wait for an assessment and then a shorter wait for a decision;
• more use being made of evidence from previous claims and other benefits;
• more information about having an assessment audio-recorded;8
• being seen by a condition focused assessor – ie, one with particular clinical experience in the claimant’s main condition(s);9
• being sent a copy of the PIP assessment report, without asking, before getting the entitlement decision.10

There is no guarantee that these changes will be incorporated when the integrated assessment service rolls out to other geographical areas – and, as discussed, for most claimants this roll-out is reserved for 2029 or later.

Other changes to assessments

Outside the Health Transformation Areas, the DWP is trialling other changes that might potentially be made sooner than 2029. These include:9

• a new Severe Disability Group which would exempt claimants from WCAs and PIP assessments;
• a ‘health impact record’ for claimants with fluctuating conditions, to present evidence in a way that shows changes in their conditions over time;
• more claimant choice over the assessment ‘channel’ – ie, telephone, video, home or assessment centre.

Again, these proposed changes are all still at the trial stage.

Claiming PIP online

As mentioned, the Health Transformation Programme also has responsibility for reviewing the broader administration of PIP. Its clearest goal to date has been to develop a fully online PIP claims platform, which it has branded ‘PIP Apply’.
PIP Apply is now available at apply-for-pip.dwp.gov.uk for new PIP claimants in a small list of postcode areas, including the Health Transformation Areas.11

Welfare rights advisers have raised some concerns about the online claims platform, including about a set of pre-application eligibility questions that advisers say might wrongly deter people from claiming. The DWP has not accepted these concerns, confirming that ‘there are no current plans to remove the optional eligibility questions from the online service, but we will keep this under review.’12

There is no published timetable for expanding PIP Apply to new areas or groups.13 The DWP has indicated that PIP Apply is only the first step in digitalising the PIP ‘journey’, and that it intends to introduce other features like online progress tracking, payment checking and messaging. However, again, there is no known timetable for these changes.14

Conclusion

Advisers and claimants may be underwhelmed by the impact of the Health Transformation Programme, at least so far. The programme’s recent evaluation strategy emphasises its ‘gradual and careful’ approach, rather than confirming what concrete changes are to be made and by when. In the long term, the Public Accounts Committee and National Audit Office have highlighted risks around the £1 billion programme’s efficacy and overall value for money.15

Questions about the future of PIP and the WCA also have an obvious bearing on the Health Transformation Programme. Any major changes – such as going ahead with proposals to scrap the WCA16 or to reinvent PIP as a diagnosis-based benefit17 – would undermine key aspects of the programme. Whether the new government intends to do any of this remains to be seen.