Claimant experience of the Personal Independence Payment process

This debate pack contains background information, parliamentary material, press articles, and suggested further reading which Members may find useful.

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is replacing Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for people of working age. Like DLA, PIP is non-means-tested and is intended to help with the extra costs arising from ill health or disability. It has two components: a mobility component, based on an individual’s ability to get around; and a “daily living” component, based on ability to carry out activities necessary to be able to participate in daily life. Each component has two rates.

PIP was introduced for new claims from April 2013, and DWP is reassessing all existing working age DLA claimants for the benefit. The PIP assessment is intended to provide “a more holistic assessment of the impact of a health condition on an individual’s ability to participate in everyday life.” It covers sensory impairments, developmental needs, cognitive impairments and mental conditions, as well as physical disabilities. PIP was intended to target support more closely on those most in need and significantly fewer people were expected to qualify for PIP than would have qualified for DLA, but the Office for Budget Responsibility believes that PIP will not in fact deliver savings relative to DLA.