Tag Archives: PIP

Anger and fear over change from DLA to PIP

Paralympics stars express concern over losing disability allowance

Medal-winning British athletes say benefit provided them with vital support during training for Paralympic Games

 

Sophie Christiansen celebrates winning one of her three gold medals for dressage at last summer’s Paralympic Games.

British Paralympic stars have voiced anger about the imminent disappearance of the Disability Living Allowance, a benefit they say provided them with vital support during training.

The athletes have expressed concern that they may not be eligible for its replacement – the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) – which will be available to fewer claimants when it is introduced in April with tightened qualification criteria.

Disability Living Allowance (DLA), worth between £20 and £131.50 a week, is designed to help disabled people meet the extra costs of disability-related care and mobility. It is not means-tested and is available to those in or out of work.

The new system is designed to cut payments by £2.24bn annually by 2015-16, resulting in 500,000 fewer claimants. More than 2 million people will begin to be reassessed from this April to gauge their eligibility for PIP.

Sophie Christiansen, who has cerebral palsy, won three gold medals at the Games in dressage. She is worried that under the new criteria, she may find herself no longer eligible for the benefit, depending on how assessors judge her ability to get around.

More concern for the family carer!

Thousands of carers set to lose benefits

 Carers can apply for a weekly allowance of £58.45

Thousands of carers in England, Wales and Scotland are set to lose benefits when new disability-claim rules start.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) says 5,000 carers currently eligible for a £58.45 a week allowance will no longer be when personal independence payments replace the disability living allowance this April.

It says the changes are necessary and 20,000 additional carers should gain.

Charity Carers UK says this is “cold comfort” to those who will miss out.

Disability benefits: Minister to clarify assessment regulations

Ministers are clarifying how mobility disability assessments are carried out following criticism of changes to Personal Independence Payments.

Those unable to walk more than 20m would automatically qualify, rather than the previous distance of 50m.

But peers said the new regulations should include the requirement that tasks be done “reliably, safely, repeatedly and in a timely manner”.

Welfare Minister Lord Freud said he was looking “very actively” at the issue.

Lord Freud came under fire over the new system of Personal Independence Payments, which replaces Disability Living Allowance, during question time in the Lords.

Ministers say the new benefit will be targeted at those who need it most.