Mind responds to new PIP assessment

Posted Wednesday 16 November 2011

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has released a second draft of the new assessment for the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) which will replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA) from 2013.

Mind has expressed serious concerns about the overall reforms since they were announced last year and we have also raised specific issues with the original assessment proposals.

Although there are some improvements in this second draft in response to our comments, we are still very worried about the impact the introduction of the new assessment will have on people with mental health problems.

The new draft of the assessment has reinstated supervision as a measure of the support people may require, rather than just looking at assistance and prompting.

We welcome this along with a new a specific section on ‘engaging socially’, which will be vital for people with mental health problems and ‘managing financial decisions’, which can be an area of difficulty for many people with mental health problems.

However, we remain unconvinced that the breadth and detail of activities to be considered is sufficient to properly capture the barriers to participation faced by people with mental health problems.

We are also very concerned that the thresholds for scoring points in these areas are very high and that people with substantial needs will not be eligible for the new benefit.

We hope that the DWP will release details soon about how many points people will need to score in order to qualify for the different levels of PIP.

We will continue to push for a fairer and more effective assessment and call on the Government to reconsider their current approach, in particular the aim of achieving a 20 per cent saving on the projected costs of DLA.

Find out more about our work on benefits and welfare reform.

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