More recently, Mr Tomlinson also confirmed PIP assessment rules will also face an overhaul. In September, the DWP was questioned on the assessment process for PIP by the Work and Pensions Committee.

During this hearing Steve McCabe the Labour MP for Birmingham, Selly Oak, raised concerns on the assessment processes facing disabled claimants.

“I was struck by a sentence in the National Strategy,” he said.

“I don’t know if you’re responsible for this, but it says, what you’re doing is reducing the need for repeated assessments for the individual’s needs [while they] remain the same.

“Why shouldn’t you apply that same principle to people on PIP and Work Capability Assessments (WCA)? I dealt with a blind constituent of mine who’s constantly called up to the office on the other side of town for his PIP assessment. Well his sight is not going to come back. If we’ve got the principle for this, why don’t we apply it to other benefits?”

Mr Tomlinson responded: “We couldn’t agree more.

“It’s a key part of the green paper, we have a firm commitment to remove unnecessary assessments and reassessments. That’s not a completely new concept, we’d already brought into WCA a severe disability criteria.”