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PIP: second revised draft of proposed assessment

Following feedback it received through its summer consultation, the DWP has published a second, revised draft of its proposed Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment criteria.

Building “heavily on the views of disabled people and their organisations” the Department maintainsthat this second draft enables “a fairer assessment of an individual’s ability to participate than the initial draft”.

From 2013, PIP will replace DLA for people of working age (between 16 and 64 years of age).

The initial proposals for the PIP assessment criteria were published in May 2011 to provide an opportunity for disabled people and their organisations to comment and help to shape the development process. Between May and August the DWP says it met with around 60 disabled people and their organisations as well as receiving 173 written submissions from both organisations and individuals as part of an informal consultation. In addition, a testing exercise across the UK between May and September was carried out using the proposed assessment involving about 1000 volunteers across the UK.

Proposed PIP assessment changes

As a result of this feedback and engagement, among the key proposed PIP assessment changes are:

• to ensure that the assessment adequately takes account of where the presence of another person is needed, the criteria now refer to supervision from another person where this is required to enable an individual to carry out an activity safely (similar to the DLA approach);
• while PIP activity descriptors continue to be considered in light of whether they apply for the “majority of the time” (the majority of days), to ensure that the impact of a fluctuating conditiom is accurately captured, where two or more descriptors in an activity apply on less than 50% of days individually but reach this threshold when combined, the descriptor which applies for the greatest proportion of time will apply;

• to ensure a broader assessment of ability to make everyday decisions, the previous “Planning and buying food and drink activity” has been replaced with the new activity ”Making financial decisions” – one of DA’s suggestions which we’re pleased to see included;

• the previous “Communicating with others” activity has been split into two new activities: “Communicating” and “Engaging socially” with the former focusing on expressive and receptive communication and accessing written information while the latter assess ability to interact with others in a contextually and appropriate manner, understand body language and establish relationships;

Down load Disability Alliance's longer review of the new PIP changes via the link below (together with lots of useful other useful stuff!).  The debate and discussion about teh new PIP benefit if still far from over.

Disability Alliance Update Dec 2011

Tags: pip, personal-independence-payment