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16 November 2011
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The reform of disability living allowance (DLA) will mean that DLA will be replaced by a personal independence payment (PIP) for those of working age from April 2013.
As yet there are no plans to extend PIP to children under 16 or claimants who are over 65. However migration from DLA may apply to these groups at a later date.
Part 4 of the Welfare Reform Bill 2011 currently going through Parliament contains proposals to introduce PIP.
Disability Alliance has produced Factsheet F60 - personal independence payments which gives a basic introduction to the proposed personal independence payment (PIP) based on what we know so far. This will be updated as we get more information.
You can find out more about welfare reform and the progress of of the Bill from our Welfare Reform Bill page.
There is now a second draft of regulations on the proposed new disability test for PIP. These will be subject to further development and consultation. They are available at www.dwp.gov.uk/policy/disability/personal-independence-payment/.
DA is considering a potential legal challenge of Government DLA plans. To read more about our letter of claim to the Department for Work and Pensions and Government proposals on DLA click here.
On 22 June 2010 it was announced in the Emergency Budget that the Government would reform disability living allowance (DLA) and introduce an ‘objective medical assessment’ for all claimants from 2013-14
In December the DWP published a consultation document on the reform of DLA which sought views on the Government‘s proposals to replace working age DLA with a new benefit – Personal Independence Payment. The closing date for responses to the consultation was 18th February 2011.
Disability Alliance responded to this consultation. You can view this at www.disabilityalliance/r68.htm.
Prior to closure of the consultation the Welfare Reform Bill was introduced on 17 February 2011. This set out the main outline of PIP in Part 4 of the Bill:
Personal Independence Payment will have two components - a daily living component and a mobility component
Each component has two rates:
On 4 April 2011 the Government published its response to the DLA reform consultation. The response maintains the Government committment to the introduction of personal independence payments for working age claimants.
With regard to the Daily living component the response says that the activities are:
The mobility component should involve planning and following a journey and moving around.
When considering aids and adaptations PIP will only consider aids and adaptations that are "available and are successfully used by an individual".
The response also confirms a commitment to a six months "backwards test".
With regard to Children and people aged over 65 the response says:
"27. We do not plan to extend Personal Independence Payment to new or existing claims for children from 2013/14. The needs of children are very different to those of adults and we would want to build on our experience of developing the objective assessment for claimants of working age before applying it to children. We would also consult before extending any objective assessment to children.
28. Individuals already in receipt of Personal Independence Payment will continue to receive the benefit past the upper age limit of 65, provided they continue to meet the eligibility criteria. We will use the experience of reassessing the working-age caseload to inform any future decisions on the treatment of this customer group."
With regard to mobility payments in care homes the response says:
" 29. The Government has listened to the strong concerns raised by individuals and organisations about the Spending Review proposal to withdraw the DLA mobility component from people in residential care. The Government will not now introduce this measure as planned in October 2012. We are both reviewing existing and gathering further evidence to inform how best to proceed. Meeting the mobility needs of people in residential care will now be considered as part of the wider reform of DLA. The Government is committed to ensuring that residents of care homes are able to get out and about, and is therefore looking to remove overlaps in funding, not mobility."
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