Personal Independence Payment (PIP)
A briefing sheet about how PIP will replace Disability Living Allowance from April 2013From April 2013 onwards, Personal Independence Payment (PIP) will start to replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
This briefing will help you know when changes are planned, and how to help people through them. It gives details as we know them at the moment, but consultation is still underway so there may be tweaking to the system as it finally comes out.
PIP replaces Disability Living Allowance (DLA) next year for people of working age (16 – 65). After a pilot in April 2013, it is envisaged that all claims from June 2013 onwards will be for PIP.
Existing DLA claimants will be moved over to the PIP system from October 2013 onwards.
PIP:
- is not means-tested nor taxable.
- is not payable to people in care homes after 28 days.
- comes in 2 components - Daily Living Component & Mobility Component. Both these are paid at a Standard and an Enhanced rate.
There is no specification of day and night care needs.
Claimants have to meet the “required period condition” - i.e. you have to have met the disability conditions for three months and expect to do so for a further nine months.
The only automatic qualifier for PIP is terminal illness (death expected within 6 months).
How will PIP be assessed?
There are 11 key activities:
- Preparing food and drink
- Taking nutrition
- Monitoring a health problem
- Bathing and grooming
- Managing toilet needs or incontinence
- Dressing and undressing
- Communicating
- Engaging socially
- Making financial decisions
- Planning and following a journey
- Moving around.
You must score a minimum number of “points” as laid out in the criteria to get PIP. You get these points by being unable to undertake specified activities reliably, within a reasonable time and repeatedly.
The intention is that there will be more emphasis on evidence rather than a simple medical examination.
Who gets the money?
The standard rate applies where your ability to carry out daily living activities/ mobility activities is limited by your physical or mental condition.
The enhanced rate applies where your ability to carry out daily living activities/ mobility activities is severely limited by your physical or mental condition.
A score of 8 points for either component means you should get the standard rate of that component. A score of 12 points should get you the enhanced rate.
How is PIP different to DLA?
These are the main differences:
- There are no lower rates of PIP, unlike DLA.
- PIP will not affect the amount you get from Universal Credit.
- You will be re-assessed for PIP from time to time, unlike DLA where indefinite or lifetime awards can be given.
- Someone can get Carer’s Allowance for you whichever component of PIP you receive.
- The key activities take into account difficulties posed by learning disabilities more than the DLA system did.
However, PIP is not changing the whole system. Attendance Allowance is staying as it is, as is DLA for people under 16. Claimants of DLA over 65 will not be affected by these new rules.
How can family or support workers help people?
It is useful to have someone to help collect evidence about problems they have with daily living or mobility, especially if these problems fluctuate.
They may need someone to help you ask for a Review or an Appeal. This is particularly important if you have been on one of the low rates of DLA and want to try to get PIP.
Anyone helping people with PIP will need to know exactly how PIP claims will be “scored” so that they can ensure that the appropriate difficulties are brought to the assessor’s attention when making a claim.
More information
A lot of the detail about PIP is subject to consultation and so there may be changes between now and the final system in place when people either claim for the first time or are transferred from their existing benefits.
A full explanation of the changes as they are anticipated can be found at
here.
Although we try to ensure that statements as to the law and other facts are accurate this report gives general guidance and does not aim to cater for individual cases. The Housing and Support Alliance and its sponsors cannot accept responsibility for any loss incurred as a result of relying on such statements, specific advice should always be obtained on individual cases
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