Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Ecdp - PIP Reference Group: Meeting Notes 24 May 2011
Ecdp - PIP Reference Group: Meeting Notes 24 May 2011
Page 2 of 15
Disability Living Allowance
DLA (Disability Living Allowance) is a benefit is paid to
children (under 16) and working age disabled people (under
65).
DLA is a tax free benefit and you can receive it if you are in
work or if you are unemployed.
Page 3 of 15
The Welfare Reform Bill
In February this year, the Welfare Reform Bill was introduced
by the coalition Government.
According to the DWP (Department for Work and Pensions)
the Bill will deliver the commitment to make the benefits and
tax credits systems fairer and simpler by:
Page 4 of 15
Personal Independence Payment
After consultation, it has been decided that DLA will be
replaced with PIP (Personal Independence Payment) for
working age adults (16 to 65).
Like DLA, PIP will have two components. These are the daily
living component and the mobility component.
Page 5 of 15
ecdp PIP reference group
Two weeks ago, the government published a number of
documents, called Policy Briefing Notes, which talk about how
PIP is going to be introduced, who will be entitled to it and
how people will claim it.
We will look at the briefing notes and discuss the plans for
implementing PIP and how it will work for people in practice,
once it is in place.
Throughout the process there are three key areas that we will
consider; transparency, the meaningful involvement of
disabled people and communications.
Page 7 of 15
1. Finding out about DLA/PIP
How did you find out about DLA?
Page 8 of 15
2. Qualifying Period
‘PIP will be available only to those with a long term health
condition or impairment, rather than short term conditions
where other financial and in-kind support mechanisms exist.’
‘The combined effect if the six month qualifying period and the
six month prospective test will align our definition of long-term
disability with that generally used for the Equality Act.’
In the short-term, was it the case for you that other support
was in place?
Did you face any problems while waiting to qualify for DLA?
Page 9 of 15
3. Application
‘We want to ensure that Personal Independence Payment will
be simple for the claimant and efficient for the Department to
administer.’
Are there any parts of the form that you feel are
unnecessary?
Page 10 of 15
4. Assessment
‘The new assessment will include advice provided by a
trained assessor who will collect evidence from a wide range
of sources… In many cases this will involve a face-to face
consultation… but in some cases a paper based consultation
may be more suitable.’
Page 11 of 15
of sources – which sources do you think it would be useful
to include?
Page 12 of 15
5. Change of circumstances
‘Individuals are not clear on how and when they should report
changes in their circumstances.’
Is it easy to do so?
Page 13 of 15
6. Review
‘We will [make] awards for a fixed term, except in exceptional
circumstances. The length of the award will be based on the
individual’s needs and the likelihood of their health condition
or impairment changing.’
Page 14 of 15
7. Appeals
“Claimants who disagree with decisions will have the same
formal disputes process as other social security benefit.”
Page 15 of 15