Welfare Reform

Disability Living Allowance, the most important benefit for many disabled people, is under threat as a result in Government cuts.

In June 2010 the UK Government announced that they were cutting £11 billion from spending on benefits.  In October 2010 a further £7 billion of welfare cuts were announced at the time of the Comprehensive Spending Review.  That's £18 billion of cuts from welfare benefits.

In order to implement the cuts the Government has drafted a Welfare Reform Bill, which was introduced to Parliament on 16 February 2011.  One of the main elements of the Bill is the replacement of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) with Personal Independence Payment (PIP).

At the moment, disabled people can claim DLA if they have certain mobility or care requirements. However by 2014, the Government wants to get rid of DLA altogether and replace it with a new benefit called Personal Independence Payment (PIP). PIP will differ from DLA in the following ways:

At the moment, to make a claim for DLA most people fill out a form detailing their impairment or condition and the effect it has on their lives. In some cases the Government will ask for evidence to be provided from the claimant's GP or health professional. Under the new benefit (PIP), all people making a claim would have to be examined and assessed by an independent medical officer. In some cases they would have to visit an assessment centre and in some cases they would be visited in their home. All claimants would be assessed in this way, even those with the most severe impairments and conditions such as people with complex learning disabilities, severely visually impaired people, double amputees and Deaf people.

• People claiming PIP could also be called in for another assessment/review at any time if the Government thought their condition may have changed.
• Currently, people who have trouble walking can claim the mobility component of DLA. The amount a claimant receives will vary according to how much or how little they are able to walk. The Government wants to change this. Instead of looking at a person's ability to walk, they will assess their ability to 'get around' more generally. This might include their ability to get around using a wheelchair or to plan and make a journey on public transport. This means that someone who currently claims the highest rate of mobility component DLA because they cannot walk might receive less money under PIP because they can get around using their wheelchair.
• At the moment, people can claim DLA once they have been eligible for at least three months (ie. a person who becomes disabled needs to wait three months before they can claim DLA). The UK Government wants to change this so that a person will only receive the new benefit (PIP) once they have been eligible for at least six months.
• At the moment people who live in residential care can receive the mobility component of DLA if they have trouble walking. The Government wants to change this so that people in residential care will receive no PIP at all.

Capability and the Margaret Blackwood Housing Association asked the Strathclyde Centre for Disability Research to look into the impact of the removal of DLA/PIP from people living in residential care homes.  The report, published in April 2011, shows that the removal would have a devastating effect on the independence of people in residential care homes.  You can access the report on this page (above right).