Guidance

PIP statistics: background quality and methodology report

Updated 17 December 2024

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/personal-independence-payment-statistics-background-and-methodology/pip-statistics-background-quality-and-methodology-report

This background quality and methodology report gives:

This document helps:

  • users to understand the strengths and limitations of published statistics
  • allows users to make the best decisions about how to use the data
  • to reduce the risk of misusing data

It is designed to be read in conjunction with the statistics release document.

This is version 4.5 of this document (released December 2024).

1. Contact

The PIP Official Statistics are published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Lead Analyst: Jess Arrowsmith

If you would like to offer feedback or require further information, please contact [email protected]

2. Statistical Presentation

2.1 Data Description

PIP is a benefit administered by the Department for Work and Pensions. It was introduced on 8 April 2013 to replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for adults. Read more about PIP.

PIP statistics cover many different parts of the customer journey which are released as separate series in:

The PIP customer journey can be complex and has many different stages from when a claimant first registers for a claim.

2.1.1 Summary of Customer Journey

A typical customer journey is as follows:

  1. Claimant registers their claim to PIP.

  2. DWP issues the “How your disability affects you” (PIP2) form, for completion by the claimant.

  3. Claimant completes and returns PIP2 form – this can lead to: a) automatic referral to the Assessment Provider (AP); b) disallowance of the claim based on the information in the PIP2 form; or c) disallowance of the claim if the claimant fails to return the PIP2 form without being identified as having additional support needs.

  4. Under normal circumstances, the claimant may have their claim assessed based on the paper evidence already submitted, or may be called for a telephone, video, or face-to-face assessment conducted by the AP. The claimant may: a) attend and participate in their assessment; or b) fail to attend or participate in the assessment, which can lead to disallowance.

  5. DWP makes a decision based on the AP advice and any additional evidence received. The outcome may be: a) an award (including a monetary amount of the award for both Daily Living and Mobility components, the award type and, if appropriate, the period of time that should be allowed before a review of the award takes place); or b) a disallowance due to failing the assessment.

  6. Payment commences.

  7. When the claim is in payment, a claimant must report any changes of circumstance relating to the claim, and this may lead to a review of the award.

  8. Claims may undergo a planned award review when they reach the end of their review period (unless they received an ongoing award, where they will receive a light touch review after 10 years).

  9. In the case of a reported change of circumstance or a planned award review, an “AR1” form is issued.

  10. If the claimant disagrees with a decision on their claim, including where an award has been given, they can ask for a Mandatory Reconsideration (MR).

  11. After the MR has been completed, if the claimant still disagrees with the decision they are able to lodge an appeal with His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS).

  12. Some appeals are cleared without a tribunal hearing, where the following outcomes are possible: a) withdrawn by the customer, or struck out by the tribunal; or b) lapsed – where DWP change the decision in the customer’s favour.

  13. Some appeals are cleared at a tribunal hearing, where the following outcomes are possible: a) DWP decision upheld by the tribunal; or b) DWP decision overturned by the tribunal.

From 27 July 2023, DWP has introduced a new process to allow customers to apply online for PIP. The online service is an additional optional route to apply for PIP and is not replacing existing methods for claiming. A digital version of the PIP2 health questionnaire has already been introduced which is now offered to the majority of those making a claim. As at September 2023, people in selected postcode districts may be able to apply online if they:

  • live in England
  • are claiming for themselves or helping someone with their claim
  • are not already claiming PIP or Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or have a previous PIP/DLA claim
  • are not claiming under SREL

Published PIP statistics include all claims regardless of the method used to apply.

2.1.2 Special Rules for End of Life

DWP has provided support to people nearing the end of their life through the Special Rules for Terminal Illness since 1990. A recent evaluation has shown that the clinical community has moved away from using ‘terminal illness’ and has instead adopted phrases like ‘End of Life’.

Until 3 April 2023, ‘Special Rules’ for PIP applied to people who were likely to have 6-months or less to live. From this date, the criteria was changed to a model which considers whether an individual is likely to be within their final year of life, that is within a 12-month time frame. These rules ensure claims are dealt with quickly and sensitively. See The ‘Special Rules’: how the benefit system supports people nearing the end of life for more detail on the Special Rules.

PIP Official Statistics formerly referred to Special Rules for Terminal Illness (SRTI) but from June 2022 have been updated to use the term Special Rules for End of Life (SREL) instead. This change has been made for all commentary, tables, and Stat-Xplore, with footnotes added to explain the amendment.

2.1.3 COVID-19 provisions for PIP

In response to COVID-19, DWP made a number of changes to its benefit processes to ensure people who need financial help have access to the benefit system in a timely way:

  • DWP decided to temporarily suspend face-to-face health assessments. This was to reduce the risk of exposure to coronavirus and safeguard the health of those claiming health and disability-related benefits, many of whom are likely to be at greater risk due to their pre-existing health conditions. New claims and changes of circumstances were still accepted and payments continued to be made. In some cases, face-to-face contact for assessments or disputes (including tribunal hearings) were replaced by telephone or video methods, alongside paper-based responses

  • DWP also suspended all routine re-assessments and reviews of disability benefits – i.e. DLA to PIP reassessments and routine award reviews for those already claiming PIP. All PIP award reviews and DLA to PIP reassessments which had not yet had an assessment booked were delayed and existing awards due to expire were automatically extended to ensure continuity of financial support

  • planned award reviews and some DLA reassessment activity resumed during July 2020 (for cases where a DLA claimant reports a change of circumstances, reaches the age of 16 or voluntarily claims PIP). New invitations to claim PIP for working age DLA claimants are not currently being sent out

  • COVID-19 provisions were put in place in March 2020 and the Department continues to review and amend working practices where appropriate

2.1.4 Status of PIP statistics

Published PIP statistics are Accredited Official Statistics and are produced in accordance with Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 and the Code of Practice for Statistics meeting high standards of trustworthiness, quality and public value. This was confirmed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in September 2024 following a review of the PIP Statistics which began in Summer 2023.

Until September 2023, the status of the PIP customer journey statistics was Experimental to reflect the fact that the series was relatively new and included data that had not been used previously within DWP statistics (published for the first time in September 2019) and further developments were planned (introduced in September 2023). The new methodology has been reviewed and additional change is not expected, thus the status of statistics has been changed to Official.

PIP statistics are derived from data stored and processed on DWP administrative systems. While every effort is made to collect data to the highest quality, as with all administrative data it is dependent on the accuracy of information entered into the system. Checks are made throughout the process from collection of the data to producing the statistics but some data entry or processing errors may filter through. A full description of the evaluation of the data quality is published in the PIP Statistics: Quality Assurance of Administrative Data (QAAD) report. PIP official statistics are assessed as being assured to level A2 (enhanced assurance) as outlined by the UK Statistics Authority QAAD toolkit. This means that the statistical producer has evaluated the administrative data QA arrangements and published a fuller description of the assurance.

2.2 Reference Area

The PIP statistics published are available to view at the following geographies:

  • Devolution
  • Great Britain
  • Country
  • Region
  • Local Authority
  • Middle Layer Super Output Area
  • Lower Layer Super Output Area
  • Census Output Area
  • Ward
  • Westminster Parliamentary Constituency

The statistics represent PIP claims administered by DWP within Great Britain only. PIP statistics relating to Northern Ireland are produced by the Department for Communications (DfC).

2.2.1 PIP in Scotland

The Scotland Act 2016 gives Scottish Parliament powers over a number of social security benefits which had been administered to Scottish clients by the Department for Work and Pensions. From 1 April 2020, PIP became one of the benefits to have executive competency transferred from the DWP to Social Security Scotland, the executive agency of Scottish Government which is responsible for delivering social security benefits for Scotland. From 1 September 2020, young people in Scotland can choose to remain on child DLA until the age of 18. From Autumn 2021, clients who live in Scotland and receive Disability Living Allowance for children will have their benefit replaced by Child Disability Payment. For more information see Disability Living Allowance for children in Scotland.

There has been a transitional period to allow administration of PIP to be transferred to Scotland, during which time DWP continued to administer PIP on Social Security Scotland’s behalf.

The Scottish Government is now replacing PIP with Adult Disability Payment (ADP), a new benefit launched in 2022. Depending on where new claimants live, they have applied for ADP rather than PIP on or after these dates:

  • 21 March 2022, for those who live in Dundee City, Perth and Kinross or the Western Isles (Na h-Eileanan Siar)
  • 20 June 2022, for those who live in Angus, North Lanarkshire or South Lanarkshire
  • 25 July 2022, for those who live in Fife, Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Moray, North Ayrshire, East Ayrshire or South Ayrshire
  • 29 August 2022, for those who live elsewhere in Scotland

For existing PIP claimants who live in Scotland, Social Security Scotland began to move clients to ADP from Summer 2022. PIP claimants in Scotland will be sent a letter telling them what will happen when they transfer, but will not have to do anything to start an ADP claim or end a PIP claim as this will be managed for them. DWP will continue to pay a PIP claim until the transfer is complete.

While Official PIP Statistics will continue to be produced and published for all claims administered by DWP, from September 2022 the following changes have been made to reflect the change in Scotland from PIP to ADP

  • commentary in the main body of the release bulletin focusses on statistics for England & Wales, with a new separate section covering Scotland
  • Stat-Xplore continues to hold figures for Scotland alongside England & Wales. A new high level geography breakdown has been added to allow users to easily select people with “DWP policy ownership” (England, Wales, plus abroad/unknown cases) or “Policy devolved to Scotland” (those residing in Scotland but with their PIP claim still administered by DWP). Footnotes have been added to alert users to the changes in Scotland
  • static tables published as ODS/Excel files were split to give an England & Wales version and a Scotland version, containing Clearance Times, Outstanding Times, MR Clearance Times and Customer Journey Statistics
  • from the December 2023 release onwards, publication of Scottish tables has been discontinued since activity volumes have decreased to low levels and results for any remaining residual claims could be misleading. Between March 2023 and September 2023 the Scottish Tables only contained MR Clearance Time and Customer Journey Statistics, since activity for initial registrations and clearances had already reduced, and it was announced at that time that these too would be stopped at some future point

This approach allows users to access statistics for all PIP cases administered by DWP, but focuses commentary on trends affecting cases in England & Wales, while also showing the depleting caseload in Scotland.

Official PIP Statistics do not include anybody who is claiming ADP and residing in Scotland, and there are no plans to incorporate ADP statistics into the DWP publication, although they can be found as part of the Social Security Scotland statistics: publications collection published by the Scottish Government. In addition, Scotland publish PIP statistics based on PIP claims within Scotland only.

2.3 Classification System

2.3.1 Data published on Stat Xplore

All Stat Xplore datasets can be tabulated by:

  • Residential Geographies (Great Britain, Country, Region, Local Authority and Westminster Parliament Constituency and Wards)
  • Month
  • Gender
  • Reassessment Indicator
  • End of Life Rules Indicator

The “Policy Ownership” geographical breakdown allows users of these statistics to include/exclude claims in Scotland, where trends are expected to follow different patterns to the rest of Great Britain due to Scottish devolution:

  • retrieving “DWP Policy Ownership” will return claims administered by with England, Wales, abroad and unknown addresses. The next level of geographical breakdown allows these four categories to be viewed separately
  • retrieving “Policy Devolved to Scotland” will provide users with the residual claims in Scotland
  • making no geographical selection at the “Policy Ownership” level will return all claims administered by DWP

Where a disability classification is available, these statistics classify medical conditions or disabilities in the following ways:

  • Disability groupings based on DWP data standard (as at 13 February 2023)
  • International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) categories and groupings

Disability groupings were updated from the 7 March 2013 version by:

  • the addition in 2021 of Coronavirus COVID-19 (within the Infectious disease category/Viral diseases subgroup)
  • the movement in 2024 of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) to the Neurological disease category/Other neurological disorders subgroup (formerly in Musculoskeletal disease (general) category/Chronic pain syndromes subgroup)

The DLA to PIP reassessment statistics published on Stat Xplore have main disability condition sourced from both the original DLA claim and from the subsequent PIP claim, and categorisations differ in structure. A claimant may also be re-categorised if their main disabling condition has changed between their DLA and PIP claims based on the information given during the claim process.

The following table lists the datasets and measures that are available within Stat Xplore and the additional breakdowns available within specific datasets.

PIP Dataset Measures Breakdowns Available
PIP registrations Count of registrations to PIP where the claimant has completed the initial PIP claim process, either by phone or, in exceptional circumstances, via a paper form. Age (bands and single year) and State Pension Age Indicator
PIP clearances Count of clearances - where cases are awarded, disallowed and withdrawn. It reflects outcomes prior to any mandatory reconsideration or appeal. Average Financial Award Amount where a claim has been awarded PIP. Clearance Type Detail, Award Type, Daily Living Award Level, Primary Disability Category and Subgroup, ICD Summary Code, Mobility Award Status, Age (bands and single year) and State Pension Age Indicator
PIP cases with entitlement to 2019, PIP cases with entitlement from 2019 Count of PIP cases with entitlement (formerly referred to as PIP claims in payment or caseload), as at a point in time. Claimants are considered to have entitlement to PIP even if payments are suspended – for example, because they are in hospital or in prison. Average Financial Award Amount for all cases with entitlement at a point in time. Daily Living Award Status, Duration of claim, ICD Summary Code, Mobility Award Status, Primary Disability Category and Subgroup, Age (bands and single year) and State Pension Age Indicator
PIP Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) registrations Count of MR registrations where a claimant initiates an MR to dispute a decision made on their claim. Excludes claims made under Special Rules for End of Life (SREL). Primary Disability, Category and Subgroup, ICD Summary Code, Age (bands and single year) and State Pension Age Indicator
PIP Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) clearances Count of MR clearances where an MR has a decision made, is withdrawn or cancelled. Excludes claims made under SREL. MR decision, Primary Disability, Category and Subgroup, ICD disease code summary group, Age (bands and single year) and State Pension Age Indicator
DLA to PIP Reassessments Count of people with DLA reassessment claims where a claimant had an existing claim to DLA and has been reassessed for PIP. It reflects outcomes prior to any mandatory reconsideration or appeal. Claimants are excluded if they were under 16 years of age when PIP was first introduced (8 April 2013). Average Financial Award DLA and PIP Amounts. PIP Reassessment Outcome, Number of clearances, Time between first and latest clearance, PIP Daily Living Award Status, PIP Mobility Award Status, PIP Disabling Condition, DLA Care Award Type, DLA Mobility Award Type, DLA Disabling Condition, Age (bands and single year), Age, Month of first clearance, Outcome of first clearance
Child DLA to PIP Reassessments Count of people with DLA claims where a claimant had an existing claim to DLA as a child and has been reassessed for PIP. It reflects outcomes prior to any mandatory reconsideration or appeal. Claimants (sometimes known as “Rising 16s”) are included if they were under 16 years of age when PIP was first introduced (8 April 2013). From 1 September 2020, claimants in Scotland who are claiming Child DLA prior to their 16th birthday can choose to remain on Child DLA until the age of 18. For more details see Scotland government page on DLA. Average Financial Award DLA and PIP Amounts. PIP Reassessment Outcome, Number of clearances, Time between first and latest clearance, PIP Daily Living Award Status, PIP Mobility Award Status, PIP Disabling Condition, DLA Care Award Type, DLA Mobility Award Type, DLA Disabling Condition, Month of first clearance, Outcome of first clearance
PIP Planned Award Reviews and Changes of Circumstance Registrations Count of planned award review registrations where a claim has reached their scheduled review date and the Department has initiated a review.
Count of change of circumstance registrations where a claimant informs the Department of a change in their circumstances which may lead to a change in award.		 Age bands plus single year, State Pension Indicator, and Intervention Indicator (Award Reviews or Changes of Circumstance).
PIP Planned Award Reviews and Changes of Circumstance Clearances to 2016 Count of clearances for planned award reviews and changes of circumstance where an outcome of the review has been recorded. The process for recording the outcome of both planned award reviews and changes of circumstance changed on 25 June 2016 for more information view section 3.4.18. Planned award reviews and changes of circumstance which are opened and subsequently cancelled due to user or system error are excluded from the registration and clearance statistics. Age (bands plus single year), State Pension Indicator, Intervention Indicator (Award Reviews or Changes of Circumstance), Disability, ICD Summary code and Outcome (Changed, Unchanged)
PIP Planned Award Reviews and Changes of Circumstance Clearances from 2016 Count of clearances for planned award reviews and changes of circumstance where an outcome of the review has been recorded. The process for recording the outcome of both planned award reviews and changes of circumstance changed on 25 June 2016 for more information view section 3.4.18. Planned award reviews and changes of circumstance which are opened and subsequently cancelled due to user or system error are excluded from the registration and clearance statistics. Age (bands plus single year), State Pension Indicator, Intervention Indicator (Award Reviews or Changes of Circumstances), Disability, ICD Summary code, Outcome (Disallowed, Increased, Decreased, Maintained), Award Before and Award After

2.3.2 Data published in Summary Tables

Data is available within ODS and XLS format data tables:

From September 2022 to September 2023, two versions of the tables were provided, split based on policy ownership to cover England and Wales (containing all claims administered by DWP in England and Wales plus abroad or unknown cases) or Scotland.

From the December 2023 publication onward, there are no tables for Scotland. These have been discontinued since results for any remaining residual claims after the introduction of ADP could be misleading. Clearance and Outstanding Time data for Scottish claims up to August 2022 is available in the December 2022 publication, and Scottish MR clearance times and Customer Journey Statistics up to July 2023 are available until the September 2023 publication.

PIP Tables Measures Breakdowns Available
PIP Clearance and Outstanding Times (England & Wales tables only from March 2023) Median of Clearance times (in working days) showing the time taken to clear the relevant stage of the PIP journey.

Median Outstanding times (in working days) for normal rule claims which are in progress at the end of the reporting month. This shows the time which has passed since the relevant stage of the PIP journey up until the end of the reporting month.

The separate stages of the PIP journey made under normal rules are:
Registration to Issue of Part 2, Issue of Part 2 to Return of Part 2, Referral to Assessment Provider (AP) to Return from AP, Return from AP to DWP decision, Registration to DWP decision (end-to-end measure), Referral to AP to DWP decision (end-to-end measure) where Part 2 is also known as the “How your disability affects you” (PIP2) form.

The separate stages of a PIP journey made under the special rules for those at the End of Life: Registration to Referral to AP, Referral to AP to Return from AP, Return from AP to DWP decision (end-to-end measure), Registration to DWP Decision (end-to-end measure).		 Month, Reassessment Indicator, for Normal Rule Claims Clearance times only: Geography (Region)
PIP Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) Clearance Times Median of MR clearance time (in calendar days) for normal rules. This shows the time between an MR registration and MR clearance date. Excludes claims made under SREL and withdrawn/cancelled MRs. Month, Reassessment Indicator, Financial Year, Geography (England and Wales only - Region, Local Authority and Westminster Parliament Constituency)
PIP Customer Journey Statistics: Initial Decisions Volumes of initial decisions following a PIP assessment, Mandatory Reconsiderations, Appeals and their outcomes. An Appeal can be lodged with with His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal System (HMCTS) when a claimant wishes to dispute their MR decision. Excluded from customer journey statistics: cancelled MRs, PIP claims which have had a decision made prior to an assessment Initial decision following a PIP assessment, Financial Year, Quarters, Reassessment Indicator, Geography (England and Wales tables only – Region, Local Authority and Parliament Constituency)
PIP Customer Journey Statistics: Review Outcomes Volumes of award review outcomes following a PIP assessment, Mandatory Reconsiderations, Appeals and their outcomes. This includes planned Award Reviews and those arising from a Change of Circumstance. An Appeal can be lodged with His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal System (HMCTS) when a claimant wishes to dispute their MR decision. Excluded from customer journey statistics: cancelled MRs, PIP claims which have had a decision made prior to an assessment, review outcomes prior to July 2016. Award review outcome following a PIP assessment, Financial Year, Quarters, Reassessment Indicator, Geography (England & Wales tables only – Region, Local Authority and Parliament Constituency)

2.4 Statistical Concepts and Definitions

Three different measures are used within the PIP statistics as follows:

  • Count: a count of the number of PIP claims within a dataset. This is specific to the dataset, for example Registrations data set shows a count of claims registered
  • Median Measure: Where the PIP statistic reported is a period of time – clearance times, outstanding times, mandatory reconsideration clearance times – the median measure is used. The median time is the middle value if all times are ordered from lowest to highest. The median is used rather than an arithmetic mean to avoid extreme values skewing the data
  • Average financial award amount: This measure is available within the Cases with Entitlement and clearances datasets. It is calculated as the mean of all individual financial awards. For the Cases with Entitlement dataset, this is equivalent to the mean amount for each claim. For the clearances, DLA to PIP reassessment and child DLA to PIP reassessment datasets, the mean is only calculated for clearances where an award is made – disallowed or withdrawn cases are excluded from all mean financial award calculations

2.5 Statistical Unit

The PIP statistics count PIP claims rather than individuals – one individual could make separate PIP claims at different points in time and these would be counted separately.

For the annual DLA to PIP reassessment statistics specifically, only the latest PIP reassessment clearance details for an individual will be included. For more information see section 3.4.19.

2.6 Time Coverage

From 8 April 2013 DWP started to replace DLA for working age people with PIP. Statistics on PIP are published quarterly in March, June, September and December respectively. The exception to this, is the DLA to PIP reassessment statistics which are published on an annual basis in December. The majority of PIP data have a one and a half month time lag to the quarter the statistics are published in.

Customer journey statistics have a 6-month time lag for initial decisions (clearances) following a PIP assessment and a 3-month time lag for corresponding MRs and appeals data to the quarter it is published in. For example, the December 2019 release covered initial decisions following a PIP assessment up to June 2019, and for MRs and appeals to September 2019.

3. Statistical Processing

3.1 Source Data

The PIP statistics are based on administrative data sourced from the PIP and DLA computer systems (PIP CS, DLA CS), which are used by DWP to administer PIP/DLA claims.

3.2 Data Collection

PIP data are transferred from the live system to PIP Atomic Data Store (PIP ADS) daily with a lag of two to three days from when the live case management system records any changes. Data are extracted from the PIP ADS each quarter to produce the PIP statistics.

3.3 Data validation

DWP staff follow detailed guidance and undergo training to minimise errors during data entry. Further automatic validation checks are carried out after this and they include:

  • personal details checked against Customer Information Systems (CIS) data
  • rule-based checks at different stages of a claims lifecycle

For more detail, see the PIP Statistics: Quality Assurance of Administrative Data (QAAD) report.

3.4 Data Compilation

This section describes the methodology behind the PIP statistics. It explains how data are linked together and how new variables are created.

3.4.1 Geography

DWP CIS data is a central database containing details of individuals who have interacted with any DWP and HMRC systems. CIS is used to provide the geographical data associated with each claim and is linked via the claimants National Insurance Number (NINO). Approximately 0 to 1% of claims have a missing NINO. Records without a NINO are classified as “Unknown” in the geography category.

3.4.2 Disability

The main disabling condition of a claimant is recorded at assessment. A claimant may undergo more than one assessment – an initial assessment at the start of the claim and then further assessments if they report a change of circumstance or undergo a planned award review. The recorded disability may therefore change during the life of a claim. For the clearances, MR clearances, award reviews and changes of circumstances disability is shown as at the relevant date (for example, date of clearance, award review etc.). For the cases with entitlement data, the latest known disability is shown as at caseload date.

3.4.3 Age

The age of a claimant (in years) is derived from their date of birth. Age is calculated as at the relevant time point of interest, for example as at registration date. PIP claimants must be aged 16 or over, so, any records with a date of birth outside of this are classified as an error and are marked as “Unknown or missing”.

3.4.4 State Pension Age

Shows if a claimant is of state pension age at relevant time point as above. Derived using the age and gender variables and the state pension age government criteria. When a claim has missing data within date of birth or gender variables, it will be classified as “Unknown”.

3.4.5 Special rules for End of Life (SREL) Indicator

A claim can be identified as SREL claim at different points in the process, including at the initial registration of the claim or before a claim is cleared. This means that it is possible for SREL clearances to be higher than SREL registrations in a given quarter.

3.4.6 How volumes are counted

Measure of counts for all datasets except DLA to PIP reassessment, the Child DLA to PIP reassessment and Cases with Entitlement, is calculated by counting the number of unique claims. An individual can make a claim more than once and each time a claim is made; it is counted in the relevant dataset.

3.4.7 Award Type

As described in the summary of the customer journey in section 2.1.1, PIP claims may undergo a planned award review when they reach the end of their review period (unless they received an ongoing award, where they’ll receive a light touch review after 10 years). The award type and recommended review date are generally decided at the same time as a decision to award PIP.

The recommended review date of a claim is set to a date at which DWP considers that the claimant’s needs might change sufficiently to warrant a review. An expected end date is the date at which an award will come to an end. The Award Type variable is created using a claimants recommended review date and expected end date as follows:

Award Type Recommended Review Date Expected End Date
Not Awarded N/A N/A
Short Term Award (no review date) N/A Required – 9 months to 2 years after assessment date
On-going award Required – 10 years after assessment date N/A
Awarded under Special Rules for End of Life N/A Required – 3 years after assessment date
Fixed Term award with review Required – within a year of the end date Required – one year anniversary of review date

The review period is calculated by finding the time between a claims assessment date and their recommended review date.

A small number of claims (less than 1% of all award types) have been incorrectly classified as “Short Term Award (no review date)”. These cases should have been recorded as “On-going award”. In addition to these, there are some claimants aged above state pension age who have been incorrectly recorded as having an award with a review date of less than 10 years. Work is underway to fix both these issues.

3.4.8 Award Rate

Award Rate is calculated as claims awarded in the month divided by all clearances in the month and can be viewed including or excluding withdrawn claims, as part of the calculation.

3.4.9 Assessment Award Rate

Assessment Award Rate is calculated as claims awarded in the month divided by all claims which have had an assessment in the month.

3.4.10 Average Financial Award Measure (Mean)

The financial award amount given to a claimant can vary based on their circumstances. The mean is calculated from the weekly financial award amount:

  • of all claims that have been awarded PIP as at clearance date (clearances dataset)
  • or the 28th day of the caseload month (cases with entitlement dataset)

3.4.11 Count of Cases with Entitlement

When a PIP claim begins or ends, “on flow” or “off flow” events are captured in the PIP ADS. To calculate the cases with entitlement measure, for each month all on and off flow events that have occurred are selected and the latest event is retained only if it is an on flow, leading to a dataset that contains one record per claim per month. To ensure historical counts of PIP cases with entitlement are accurate, the data is linked to CIS, using a claimant’s NINO, to identify and remove deceased claimants.

Approximately 0.1% of cases with entitlement are reported “nil” for both award components (daily living, mobility). This is because a review is in process, which means these cases are subject to revision.

3.4.12 Median Clearance Times and Outstanding Times

For each claim, clearance times are calculated by finding the difference between the dates for each customer journey stage. Outstanding times are calculated by finding the difference between the beginning of a customer journey stage and the end of the month in which the next stage is still outstanding.

The median of all clearance and outstanding times are calculated in working days. For normal rules clearance times and outstanding times this median is divided by 5 to report the clearance time in weeks. The median is used instead of an arithmetic mean to avoid the data being skewed by extremely long/short claims.

3.4.13 Median MR Clearance Time

This is calculated by taking the difference between the MR registration date and its clearance date, in calendar days, for claims made under normal rules, excluding all withdrawn/cancelled claims. The median time is calculated by taking the middle value if all times are ordered from lowest to highest. The median is used rather than an arithmetic mean to avoid extreme values skewing the data.

3.4.14 Financial Year

Within the MR clearance times dataset, this is created through defining each financial year as 1st April YYYY – 31st March YYYY+1. For example, the 2013 to 2014 Financial Year took place from 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014.

3.4.15 Customer Journey Statistics

These statistics provide a cohort measure. These data link an initial decision or award review outcome with subsequent MR and Appeal through the claim ID and the date of the occurrence of the claim.

An MR or Appeal can be raised up to 13 months after the initial PIP clearance or MR clearances, respectively. Any registered outside of this timescale are excluded.

3.4.16 MR Award Changed Rate

This is calculated as MRs cleared where the award was changed in the period divided by all MR decisions (excluding withdrawals and cancellations).

3.4.17 Tribunal Overturn Rate

This is calculated as appeals cleared at a tribunal hearing where the DWP decision was overturned in the period divided by all appeals cleared at a tribunal hearing.

3.4.18 Planned Award Review and Change of Circumstances Clearance Outcome

Prior to 25 June 2016, the outcomes of a review or change of circumstances were “Changed” and “Unchanged”.

From 25 June 2016, where a claimant was awarded PIP, the award change is recorded as: “Increased”, “Decreased”, “Maintained”, “Disallowed”, “Award Voluntary Relinquished” or “Withdrawn”. The first three categories aforementioned are derived by comparing the award levels before and after the decision.

Due to this operational change, the clearances dataset is split into 2 series.

3.4.19 Count of people with DLA to PIP reassessment claims (Child and Adult)

Claimants can register multiple reassessment claims to PIP. If a claimant has more than one PIP claim that is classed as a DLA reassessment, the individual will only be counted once, and the data series will include details as at the latest PIP reassessment clearance for that individual, up to and including the point at which a PIP claim is awarded. Any further claims will not be included (for example, if an award is made, comes to an end, and then a further registration is made to start another claim). However, each separate claim will be counted in the PIP registrations and clearances datasets, with the first marked as a DLA reassessment and later attempts marked as either new claims or DLA reassessments depending on individual circumstances.

Until December 2022, published DLA to PIP reassessment figures included only the first PIP reassessment clearance for that individual. As such, users of the statistics should not compare figures published in December 2023 or later with those obtained at an earlier point in time.

3.4.20 DLA Data

To produce the DLA to PIP reassessment statistics a reassessed PIP claim must be matched to its original DLA claim, a claimants NINO is used to do this. The NINO is extracted from the DLA CS, through scanning through data from 2013 onwards and identifying the most recent occurrence of a claimant’s NINO.

3.4.21 DLA Award Level

The claimant’s final DLA award is taken from the most recent quarter that they were on the DLA caseload.

3.4.22 PIP Reassessment Outcome

Award Increased/Unchanged/Decreased values for this variable are calculated through subtracting the DLA award amount from the PIP award amount and then assigning it to the corresponding group based on the result. Results are shown for the most recent PIP clearance for that individual, up to and including the point at which a PIP claim is awarded. Any later change to the level of the award due to MR or appeal, or due to a subsequent review of the award, would not be taken into account. In addition, the field First PIP Reassessment Outcome shows the equivalent result for the first clearance for that individual. Note that differences between PIP Reassessment Outcome and First PIP Reassessment Outcome will occur only when an individual is disallowed at their first clearance but then goes on to make a subsequent reassessment claim which has a different outcome at clearance.

4. Quality Management

4.1 Quality Assurance

4.1.1 Initial quality assurance conducted during data development

During the initial data development various activities took place:

  • Visits to DWP Benefit Centres to assess and understand claim processing activities and shape quality assurance procedures
  • Collaboration with data providers to understand the impact of changes to source data on statistical outputs
  • Collaboration with PIP colleagues from operations, policy and business support to ensure the policy is being delivered as intended.

Checks were performed to assess:

  • Reliability, completeness and level of disclosure of individual variables
  • Levels of duplicate, missing or contradictory information
  • Consistency across computer systems (PIP CS and PIP ADS) and management information
  • Monthly accumulation of data in the system compared to expected patterns
  • Trends and variation in characteristic, time series and geographical breakdowns
  • Whether PIP claims, AP referrals, MRs and Appeals data have been linked together accurately

4.1.2 Quality Assurance Group

This group contains members involved in analysis, operations and policy development of PIP. Their function is to scrutinise figures and commentary in advance of the publication, to ensure its accuracy and robustness.

4.1.3 Routine Quality Assurance Checks

A general quality assurance checklist is provided to all statistical producers in DWP. This checklist conforms to Quality Assurance of Administrative Data guidance. This has been tailored for the PIP statistics production process.

Each quarter a number of checks are made:

  1. Ensuring code has been updated correctly during data extraction.

  2. Comparing figures with the last publication.

  3. Comparing figures with management information.

  4. Comparing trends over time.

  5. Discussing any discrepancies and trends seen within the data with the Quality Assurance group.

  6. Ensuring all figures are correctly cited in the publication (i.e. release document, Stat-Xplore and summary tables).

  7. Ensuring commentary and supporting information is accurate and impartial.

5. Relevance

5.1 User needs

Users of these statistics include:

  • Members of the public
  • External interest groups
  • Academics
  • Internal DWP users (for example, analysts, PIP operations and policy)
  • Local Authorities
  • Parliament, Ministers and officials in other government departments
  • The media and external commentators

Currently the PIP statistics are used for a number of purposes:

  • Monitoring the administration of PIP
  • Answering Parliamentary Questions and Freedom of Information requests
  • Briefings and submissions
  • Informing DWP decision making (policy analysis and development, operational planning, delivery decisions, departmental costings etc.)
  • Supporting the Family Resources Survey’s published methodology tables
  • Supporting transfer of DLA and PIP to Scottish government

5.2 User Satisfaction

Users are invited to provide feedback through a user feedback questionnaire, or by emailing the production team directly on [email protected]. These feedback routes are flagged in both the PIP landing page and the release bulletin.

DWP users are contacted on a quarterly basis:

  • To assess whether their needs are being met
  • To prioritise and create developments
  • To gather feedback on any potential changes

From 1 August 2019 to the 10 October 2019, DWP carried out a consultation to review the frequency of a number of publications, including PIP, with the view to scale down the publication cycle to biannual. Users were against this change in the initial phase of the consultation, so the PIP statistics were removed from the scope of this consultation.

6. Accuracy and Reliability

6.1 Overall Accuracy

PIP statistics are derived from data stored and processed on DWP administrative systems. While every effort is made to collect data to the highest quality, as with all administrative data it is dependent on the accuracy of information entered into the system. Checks are made throughout the process from collection of the data to producing the statistics but some data entry or processing errors may filter through. A full description of the evaluation of the data quality is published in the PIP Statistics: Quality Assurance of Administrative Data (QAAD) report. PIP official statistics are assessed as being assured to level A2 (enhanced assurance) as outlined by the UK Statistics Authority QAAD toolkit. This means that the statistical producer has evaluated the administrative data QA arrangements and published a fuller description of the assurance.

To maintain confidentiality of claimants data within Stat Xplore are perturbed. This means that random error is purposefully introduced.

6.2 Data Revision

6.2.1 Policy on Data Revisions

Planned Revisions

Every quarter, all PIP data series are refreshed. This allows full retrospection of the statistics. The exceptions to this are:

  • PIP Cases with entitlement which are not refreshed prior to January 2019. While historic caseload time series are subject to minor changes due to retrospection within the source data – the impact on the overall caseload is expected to be negligible. Time points from January 2019 onwards are refreshed on a quarterly basis as per the rest of the statistics
  • Planned Award Review and Change of Circumstance clearances which are not refreshed prior to June 2016, as methodology and data sources changed from this date onwards

For customer journey statistics, as time passes, new MRs or Appeals will be raised that are associated with initial decisions that have occurred in past quarters.

Any conceptual or methodological changes are taken through the usual route of; consulting relevant users, checking accuracy, impact, and robustness, of any proposed changes and finally, communicating back to users on the final changes.

Unplanned Revisions to correct errors

When an unplanned error occurs, data is revised and republished as soon as practicable, with measures to ensure any corrections are accurate and robust.

6.2.2 Record of data revisions that have taken place

Date Description Impact on statistics
12 November 2024 Split of PIP Cases with Entitlement series giving a dataset containing time points up to and including December 2018, and a second dataset containing time points from January 2019 to latest available month. The historic series (labelled “to 2019”) will not be refreshed retrospectively in future releases. While historic caseload time series data are subject to minor changes due to retrospection within the source data – the impact on the overall caseload is expected to be negligible. Time points from January 2019 onwards are refreshed on a quarterly basis as per the rest of the statistics.
19 December 2023 Annual DLA to PIP Reassessment statistics methodology extended to include second and subsequent attempts to claim PIP following a DLA claim, rather than just the first attempt as in the previous update (December 2022). This includes a count of the number of attempts, the outcomes of both the first and latest attempts, and the time elapsed between first and latest attempts. Applied retrospectively across the whole time series to avoid any discontinuities. No change to existing measures although fields have been relabelled.
15 December 2020 Excluding withdrawn/cancelled MRs from the median MR clearance times. Applied retrospectively across the whole time series to avoid any discontinuities. Changes median MR clearance times by +1 to -4 days, with the exception of June 2014, where figures changed by -8 days.
15 December 2020 A correction was made to the methodology for capturing MR clearances which had an undercount for cancelled MRs. A further 8,000 cancelled MRs included. This meant a 7% increase in the Withdrawn/Cancelled MR clearances to July 2020. Overall, this resulted in a 1% increase for total MR clearances.
15 December 2020 Planned Award Review methodology changed to correctly capture planned award review clearances where a planned award review has been paused and re-instated due to COVID-19. A small number of clearances may show up as disallowed. Statistics continue to reflect the first clearance a claimant has once they have completed the planned AR and CoC journey. This issue only affects reviews re-instated on specific dates during July – September 2020.
15 September 2020 Count of Registrations in March 2020 had an undercount due to a technical issue. This was corrected. All missing cases (approximately 1% of registrations in March 2020) were added to the Registrations dataset.
15 September 2020 Planned Award Review methodology changed to correctly capture planned Award Review Clearances where the planned Award Review had been paused due to COVID-19, and then reinstated. No impact on existing published statistics, this issue only affected cases reinstated from July 2020 onwards.
11 June 2020 and 30 June 2020 An error was found affecting the Average Financial Award Amount for April of each year (2013 to 2020), within the cases with entitlement dataset. Due to this, the measure that was initially published was suppressed and a corrected version, reinstated on the 30th June. The average financial award amount was unavailable to users within the cases with entitlement dataset for 2.5 weeks.
12 September 2019 Between March and June 2019 a technical problem with the PIP computer system servers resulted in the number of registrations and the number of disallowances due to failing the assessment being undercounted, whilst the number of disallowances prior to assessment were over counted. Registrations data was not released in the June 2019 publication, whilst this issue was investigated. This technical problem was resolved in mid-June 2019 and the data affected was released in the next quarter. Between March to June 2019, 1) Registration figures increased 2) Disallowances due to failing the assessment in the clearances dataset increased 3)Disallowances prior to an assessment decreased in the clearances dataset.
September 2019 A correction was made to the cases with entitlement dataset to correctly identify claims entitled under ‘special rules for terminally ill people’. Approximately 5,000 cases per month were reclassified as a special rules for terminally ill claims. The percentage of cases under special rules for terminally ill remained at 1%, after this change.
2019 DLA award level methodology changed. See section 3.4 for current methodology. Previously, DLA award level was taken from a fixed point in time (October 2013). This change occurred due to the development of the rising 16s DLA to PIP reassessment statistics. No significant changes in the figures arising from this new methodology.
December 2018 MRs arising from planned award reviews were excluded from MR registrations (see below, June 2017). In December 2018, they were reinstated into the statistics to align with planned award review data. The number of MR registrations increased for the whole series.
September 2018 Cases had been incorrectly categorised as “not reassessment” (new claims) were corrected to “reassessment” within PIP cases with entitlement data on Stat Xplore. Less than 4% of cases per month were reclassified to a reassessment claim. Overall totals were unaffected by this revision.
June 2018 Within the clearances dataset, claimants aged 60-69 were being incorrectly categorised as “Unknown or missing” age. The count of claimants within the age category 60-69 increased, and equally an adjustment to the “Unknown or missing” category.
June 2017 MRs arising from award reviews were removed from MR registration volumes to align with the other statistics in this publication which did not contain award reviews. The MR registration volumes decreased.
June 2016 Cases were added retrospectively to the source data following an IT issue. Count of clearances in September 2015, and of registrations and clearances in December 2015 and January 2016 increased.

7. Timeliness and punctuality

7.1 Timeliness

The PIP statistics have a lag of one and a half months from the publication date and the data reference period, except customer journey statistics and annual DLA reassessment statistics. This enables transfer of data from PIP CS to the PIP ADS up to the end of the reference period and allows time for the statistics to be produced. This means we publish in the following quarters:

  • March (data to January)
  • June (data to April)
  • September (data to July)
  • December (data to October) including annual DLA reassessment statistics

All data begins from April 2013, when the service of PIP began.

The customer journey statistics have a time lag of:

  • Five and a half months for initial decisions and award review outcomes
  • Two and a half months for MRs
  • Two and a half months for appeals

This additional lag is to allow more time for cohorts to progress through the customer journey from initial decision through to MR and Appeal.

7.2 Punctuality

All PIP statistics have been delivered on time, in line with preannouncement dates.

8. Coherence and comparability

Quarterly PIP statistics originate from the same data source, and therefore are comparable over time. However, care should be taken if users decide to compare figures published at different time periods.

PIP geographical data is updated annually to reflect any geographical changes which may have occurred (for example a merging of a parliamentary constituency).

Award Review and Change of Circumstances clearance data consist of two data series (pre- and post-June 2016), which can only be compared once data categories of the latter series are aggregated. This is because the outcome variable changed in June 2016 to provide more detailed categories.

Where a series has undergone methodological changes (as detailed in section 6.2.2) such as the changes made to the Annual DLA to PIP Reassessment statistics methodology in December 2023, changes are generally applied retrospectively across the whole time series to avoid any discontinuities. This means that comparisons should not be made between current figures with the changed methodology and those published prior to the introduction of the change.

Since the introduction of Adult Disability Payment in Scotland, trends in Scottish PIP cases are expected to diverge from the rest of the country. See section 2.2.1 for more details of Scottish Devolution. From March 2022 onwards, care should be taken to examine Scottish data separately to England & Wales (plus abroad & unknown cases).

The volume of MRs and Appeals within the PIP customer journey statistics will differ to other published sources, such as figures in Stat Xplore, and published tables within the quarterly Ministry of Justice tribunal statistics. This is due to customer journey statistics:

  • publishing information on one MR and appeal per initial PIP decision
  • excluding decisions prior to an assessment completed
  • excluding Award Reviews and Changes of Circumstances decisions
  • lag of recording data
  • methodological differences

Appeals data published within PIP customer journey statistics are not comparable to appeals data published in the quarterly Employment Support Allowance (ESA): Work Capability Assessments (WCA), Mandatory Reconsiderations and Appeals release. PIP statistics appeals data covers appeals lodged and their outcomes, whereas ESA: WCA, MR and Appeals is based on appeals cleared at a hearing.

The average clearance times for individual parts of the claimant journey may not sum to the end-to-end times. The end-to-end median time is based on all cleared or in progress cases taken together, whereas the volume of cases and distribution of clearance times for individual stages will differ from stage to stage.

The PIP MR clearance times are based on the clearance times from the point of registration to the date the MR was cleared (excluding those withdrawn or cancelled). This is different to the ESA WCA MR clearance times. The ESA WCA MR clearance times is derived using calendar days by calculating the median of the time taken from the date the Benefit Centre (BC) has decided the MR to be valid, having considered any new information, until the date the decision is cleared by the decision maker at the Dispute Resolution Team (DRT).

8.1 Retrospection

Due to the refreshing of the statistics each quarter, the data are subject to some minor retrospection. This is due to the time it takes for claimants to provide evidence at different stages of the customer journey, and for new information to be input to the PIP Computer System. The timing of the statistics production has been chosen to maximise the timeliness and accuracy of the publication while minimising the impact of retrospective changes. For example:

  • when a claim is first registered, it is assumed to be a new claim unless there is evidence to suggest that it is a DLA reassessment. If evidence is presented between registration and clearance, the claim will then show as a DLA reassessment clearance and will move from being a new claim registration to being a DLA reassessment registration
  • some claims may not be marked as claims under SREL at the point of registration but become an SREL claim prior to the point of clearance, and vice versa. This may lead to the figures showing fewer SREL registrations than clearances
  • if a customer is unable to provide their National Insurance Number (NINO) at the point where they register for a new claim, it may take a few days for this information to be added and verified, and in the meantime geographical details will show as “unknown” since the NINO is needed for address matching / geographical coding within the statistics
  • if an administrative correction or update takes place regarding the details of a claim (which can include the date on which an activity occurred) this can lead to a specific record appearing or disappearing out of the data relating to a particular point in time. This most commonly occurs for the latest available month of the PIP Claims with Entitlement series, where the difference in the figure published three months later tends to be not of material impact (less than 0.1%)

There are two series (PIP Cases with Entitlement, and Award Review Clearances) where it has been necessary to split the series into two time periods. In each case, the early part of the series is not refreshed as part of a standard quarterly update, having the effect of “freezing” the earlier section and not showing any further retrospection. Since the point at which updates stopped is several years after the date up to which data is frozen, it has been determined that any further retrospective change missing from the frozen period would be negligible.

9. Accessibility and clarity

PIP statistics are published on the gov.uk website, and they endeavour to meet the following guidelines:

Since June 2020 the PIP statistical release and accompanying documentation is published in HTML, improving accessibility to meet the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. Additionally, the clarity of the release is evaluated quarterly.

9.1 Publication

The current and historical publications of the PIP statistics are published on the GOV.UK website.

9.2 Online databases

Stat Xplore is the online database used to publish some of the PIP datasets.

To assist users, the following documents are available:

Metadata available within Stat Xplore informs users of any data quality or technical issues, as well as this background quality and methodology document

Additionally, some PIP statistics data not available through Stat Xplore can be accessed via ODS and XLS tables.

10. Confidentiality

Our statistics are guided by the Code of Practice for Statistics Principle T6: Data Governance.

To minimize the risk of identification of individuals:

From To Rounded to nearest
0 1,000 10
1,001 10,000 100
10,001 100,000 1,000
100,001 1,000,000 10,000
1,000,001 10,000,000 100,000
10,000,001 100,000,000 1,000,000

11. Glossary

Appeal

If the claimant wishes to dispute an MR decision they can lodge an appeal with HMCTS.

Appeal Lapsed

Where DWP changed the decision (in the customer’s favour) after an appeal was lodged but before it was heard at a tribunal hearing.

Appeal Overturned

Where the DWP decision is revised in favour of the customer at a tribunal hearing.

Appeal Upheld

Where the DWP decision is upheld at a tribunal hearing.

Appeal Withdrawn and Struck Out

Where an appeal is brought to an end, or cleared, without a determination on the issue in dispute. Struck out appeal is where the proceedings have been brought to an end by the Tribunal Judge.

Appeals Clearance

Where there is a final outcome in relation to the appeal.

Appeals Cleared at a Hearing

Where an individual has completed the appeals process and a decision is made at a tribunal hearing in regards to their award.

AR1 Form

The form sent out to claimants undergoing an Award Review post 25 June 2016.

Assessment Centre

A claimant may have their claim assessed based on the evidence already submitted, or may be called for a telephone, video or face-to-face assessment conducted by the Assessment Provider (AP). During an assessment, the claimant is seen by an independent health professional who assess a claimant’s ability to carry out tasks. For more information on the PIP customer journey see section 2.

Award Level

There are 2 components to PIP:

  • mobility
  • daily living

These can be awarded at 3 levels; enhanced (highest financial amount), standard or nil (not awarded).

Awarded

Claimant has been awarded PIP.

Awards under SREL

See Special Rules for End of Life

Central Information System (CIS)

CIS is a central database containing details of individuals who have interacted with any DWP and HMRC systems.

Change of Circumstance

Claimant reports a change in their condition or needs arising and the award is reviewed to ensure that they continue to receive the correct entitlement.

Change of Circumstance Registration

The claimant informs DWP of a change in their circumstances and is sent a PIP2 form (prior to 25 June 2016) or an AR1 form (post 25 June 2016), for normal rules cases.

Clearance

Signifies the completion of a PIP claim: DWP makes a decision on the entitlement or the claim is withdrawn/cancelled.

Clearance Time

The time taken to complete the relevant stages of the PIP customer journey. See section 2 for more information about this.

Daily Living Award

The component of PIP awarded in recognition of the claimants daily living needs.

Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)

DWP is responsible for welfare, pensions and child maintenance policy. It administers the State Pension and a range of working age disability and ill health benefits to around 20 million claimants and customers.

Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for adults

A benefit to help with the some of the extra costs arising from having a long term physical or mental health condition or disability. DWP began replacing this benefit with PIP, for people who were aged between 16 to 64 on 8 April 2013.

Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for children

A benefit to help with the extra costs associated with looking after a child (under 16 years) whom has a disability and needs more care than a child of the same age who does not have a disability.

Disallowed – Failed assessment

The claimant did not score enough points at assessment to receive entitlement to PIP.

Disallowed – Failed to attend

The claimant was disallowed for not attending their assessment.

Disallowed – Pre-assessment

The claimant was disallowed for not returning their PIP2 or AR1 form or they failed the eligibility criteria.

DLA Reassessment

When an adult claimant has an existing claim for DLA and has been reassessed for PIP.

England and Wales

PIP in England and Wales (plus abroad or unknown cases) - referred to as England and Wales for simplicity - is not affected by Scottish Devolution. In Stat-Xplore, retrieving data for the geographical area “DWP Policy Ownership” will provide users with claims administered by DWP with England, Wales, abroad and unknown addresses.

Expected End Date

This is set to 12 months after the review date and is the day on which the award will come to an end unless it is extended by the review. Ongoing awards do not have an expected end date, but will be subject to a light touch review at the 10 year point. The Department aims to complete the award review prior to this date.

Fixed Term Award with Review

Awards with a review period up to a maximum of 10 years.

His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS)

HMCTS is responsible for the administration of criminal, civil and family courts and tribunals in England and Wales. HMCTS is an executive agency, sponsored by the Ministry of Justice.

Initial decisions following a PIP assessment

DWP records the outcome of the initial decision following a PIP assessment on the PIP CS. It does not include initial disallowance decisions made before a referral to the AP that have been disallowed due to failure of basic eligibility criteria or non-return of the PIP 2 form within the time limit and have not been marked as requiring additional support. Nor does it include initial decisions after referral to the AP that have been disallowed due to the claimant failing to attend the assessment without good reason.

Initial PIP claim

The initial PIP claim signifies the first part of the PIP customer journey from registration to clearance, before any subsequent Mandatory Reconsiderations, Award Reviews, Change in Circumstances and Appeals.

Light-touch Review

This review is for ongoing claimants. It occurs 10 years after PIP is awarded. The first light touch reviews took place after April 2023, 10 years after PIP was first introduced.

Mandatory Reconsiderations (MRs)

DWP re-evaluates the decision of a PIP claim on request of the claimant.

Mandatory Reconsideration (MRs) Award Unchanged

A new decision has been issued but the award remains unchanged. This may include claims where the reconsideration resulted in a change in the claim (for example, revision to an assessment score) but this change did not affect the level of the award.

Mandatory Reconsideration (MRs) Clearance

Signifies the completion of when DWP has made a decision in regards to an MR. This includes MRs that are withdrawn or cancelled.

Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) Clearance Time

The time taken from when an MR is registered to the clearance date.

Mandatory Reconsideration (MRs) Decision Not Revised

The initial decision is not revised after reviewing the evidence, at the MR stage.

Mandatory Reconsideration (MRs) Registration

A claimant or third party representative, registers to have their PIP outcome reconsidered.

Mandatory Reconsideration (MRs) Withdrawn or Cancelled

This includes all reconsiderations that were withdrawn or cancelled prior to an MR decision being made.

Mobility Award

The monetary component of PIP that is awarded to claimants in recognition of their mobility needs.

New Claim

A claim made by a member of the public to PIP who is not in receipt of the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) benefit. On Stat Xplore these claims appear as “Not reassessment”.

Normal Rules

Claimants who are not approaching the end of their life due to a progressive disease claim under normal rules. These appear as “Not End of Life Rules” on Stat Xplore.

On-going Award

An on-going award has no end date but has a light-touch review after 10-years. It is generally awarded where the claimant’s needs arising are unlikely to improve.

Outcome of initial PIP claim

The initial decision made for a PIP claim. The outcomes can include: disallowed (pre or post attending an assessment), withdrawn or awarded.

Outstanding Time

The amount of time remaining relative to the last event in the PIP customer journey to the end of the reporting month. This is for claims which have not yet received a decision.

For more information see the table in section 2.

Personal Independence Payment (PIP)

A benefit administered by DWP to help towards extra living costs if you have both: a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability; and difficulty doing certain everyday tasks or getting around because of your condition. See the PIP page on GOV.UK.

PIP Assessment

A claimant may have their claim evaluated based on the paper evidence already submitted or may be called for a telephone, video or face-to-face assessment conducted by the Assessment Provider (AP). Here, they will be seen by an independent health professional who will assess their ability to carry out tasks. See the summary of the customer journey in section 2.

PIP Claims with Entitlement

Claimants entitled to PIP at the end of a given reporting month. This includes a number of claimants whose award is suspended, including those in hospital, for example. These were formerly referred to as “PIP claims in payment” or “caseload”.

PIP Customer Journey

The journey a claimant takes from when they first register to claim PIP. See the summary of the customer journey in section 2.

PIP Reassessment Outcome

A comparison of the first or latest award given on PIP versus the claimants final DLA award. See Stat-Xplore metadata on this variable.

PIP2/Part 2 Form

A form given to claimants to fill out upon registration to PIP or when a change of circumstances occurs. Before 25 June 2016, this form was also used for claimants undergoing an Award review.

Planned Award Review (AR) or Change of Circumstance (CoC) Clearance

DWP records the outcome of a planned award review or change of circumstances on the PIP Computer System (PIP CS).

Planned Award Review (AR) and Change of Circumstance (CoC) Clearance: Withdrawn by Claimant

The claimant asked to withdraw their change of circumstance review and the Department agreed to this request after reviewing the circumstances.

Planned Award Review (AR) and Change of Circumstance (CoC) Clearance: Increased, Maintained or Decreased

DWP records an award in the PIP CS. The amount the claimant received increased, remained the same or decreased when compared to the initial PIP claim.

Planned Award Review Registration

When a claimant reaches their scheduled review date, the Department issues them with a PIP2 form (prior to 25 June 2016) or an AR1 form (from 25 June 2016).

Planned Award Review

Planned review points, at set intervals, ensure a claimant continues to receive the correct award. The review point is selected based on the claimant’s individual circumstances.

The review date is set to reflect the point at which DWP considers that the claimant’s needs might change sufficiently to warrant a review.

Registration

Claimant makes an application to claim PIP.

Review Period

The length of time between the assessment award date and the review date is called the review period.

Rising 16 DLA reassessment

A reassessment which occurs when a child receiving Disability Living Allowance DLA reaches 16 years of age and is invited to claim PIP. From 1 September 2020, young people in Scotland can choose to remain on child DLA until the age of 18.

Scotland

PIP in Scotland is affected by Scottish Devolution and data trends are expected to diverge from patterns in England and Wales following the gradual introduction of Adult Disability Payment from March 2022 onwards. In Stat-Xplore, retrieving data for the geographical area “Policy Devolved to Scotland” will provide users with the residual claims in Scotland.

Short Fixed-Term Award without Review

These awards can be for a minimum of 9 months and up to a maximum of 2 years. They are given this award where it is likely that the needs arising identified will not be present by the end of the award.

Special Rules for End of Life (SREL)

Claimants who are are approaching the end of their life due to a progressive disease and likely to have 12 months or less to live claim under a process known as Special Rules for End of Life, formerly referred to Special Rules for Terminal Illness (SRTI). Until 3 April 2023, this was 6 months or less. These rules ensure claims are dealt with quickly and sensitively.

Working Age DLA reassessment

In the annual PIP to DLA reassessment statistics, DLA recipients who were aged 16 to 64 years on 8 April 2013 are referred to as “working age” reassessments.

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