Personal Independence Payment
Rob O’Carroll, Nick Smith, Claire de Banke, Craig Isherwood
Department for Work and Pensions
nawra
national association of welfare rights advisers
10th June 2011
The need to reform DLA
• Not fundamentally changed or updated since it was introduced in
1992
• Lacks consistency in decisions – around half of DLA decisions are
made without any additional medical evidence
• Complex and confusing – many people have told us claim forms are
too long
• Lacks some of the basic checks fundamental to state benefits – no
structured approach to reviews
• Not sustainable in its current form, in the long term
The new benefit – key proposals
• Replace DLA with a new benefit to be introduced for working age
people from 2013 called Personal Independence Payment, that will:
– continue to help contribute to the extra costs of living independently
– recognise changes to individuals’ situations
– be simpler to administer and easier to understand; and
– have a new fairer, more objective and more transparent assessment
• Two components:
– Mobility component
– Daily-living component
– Each component will have two rates – standard and enhanced
Retains key features of DLA – what stays the same
• Personal Independence Payment will –
– remain an extra-costs cash benefit
– not be means tested or taxable
– be available to people in or out of work; and
– support those in the most difficult circumstances by maintaining
special rules for people who are terminally ill
Overview of the new assessment – what’s different
Assessment:
• Focus is on assessing ability to participate in society – with priority in
the benefit going to those least able to do so
• Assessment criteria identifies key everyday activities – providing a
more assessment of the impact of a health condition or impairment on
an individual’s ability to participate
• Individuals will be able to advise us on the best sources of supporting
evidence
• Ensure the award continues to reflect the individual’s changing needs
over time
Working with disabled people to test the draft criteria:
• Seeking views from disabled people and stakeholders
• Now carrying out testing involving 1000 sample assessments (May to
Sept)
• Will publish second draft of criteria in autumn
Implementing Personal Independence Payment
Getting ready …
• Work underway in advance of introduction in 2013:
-
arrangements for taking new claims and reassessing
existing customers
-
changes to our processes and systems (including IT)
-
new commercial contracts
-
guidance and training for our staff (including Decision
Makers)
Implementing Personal Independence Payment
Getting better …
• Opportunity to:
-
improve delivery arrangements and customer experience
-
differentiate our service, recognising our customers’ wide
variety of needs
-
provide better information about the new benefit and
clearer notifications
-
achieve different customer behaviour and attitudes
Implementing Personal Independence Payment
Getting it right …
• Committed to involving disabled people and their representatives
in our design and development:
-
PIP Implementation Consultation Group set up
-
finalising programme of involvement activity and research
-
seeking views on wide range of issues including migration
strategy, claims process and forms and communications
-
key issue to talk about is how we support you to support
disabled people …
Introduction of Personal Independence Payment 2013
• A high number of people who claim DLA do so with the support
of a customer representative and we expect that this support will
continue to be sought by people claiming Personal
Independence Payment
• We expect the introduction of Personal Independence Payment
to present a challenge for customer representative groups
• Personal Independence Payment is a new benefit which will
replace working age Disability Living Allowance (DLA) from 2013
• There are significant differences between DLA and the Personal
Independence Payment
• DLA will still exist for people age 16 and under and 65 and over
Preparing for the introduction of Personal
Independence Payment
We want to do all we can to support customer representatives by
providing accurate information so that:
• Customer representative groups understand Personal
Independence Payment rules of entitlement and the
administrative process
• You can support our shared customers in understanding Personal
Independence Payment and their decision to make a claim, and
• we can help remove any confusion around managing 2 different
systems with potentially different administrative rules eg. Personal
Independence Payment for working age customers and DLA for
children and those currently on DLA aged over 65
How can we support welfare rights advisers to prepare
for the introduction of Personal Independence Payment?
To help us support you, we would like to ask:• What information do you need?
• How can we provide this effectively and efficiently?
• Is there anything else we need to consider?
Contact Details
If you would like to get in touch, we can be contacted as follows:Rob O’Carroll, DWP DCB Policy
Email – rob.o'[email protected]
Nick Smith, DWP DCB Policy
Email - [email protected]
Claire de Banke, PDCS Personal Independence Payment Programme
Email - [email protected]
Craig Isherwood, PDCS Customer Consultation Manager
Email – [email protected]