Hundreds of thousands of disabled benefit claimants will soon face intrusive reassessments despite claiming for over a decade, as the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) restarts a changeover scheme.
As part of the closure of adult Disability Living Allowance (DLA) claims, these individuals will be moved to the Personal Independence Payment (Pip) – the benefit currently at the centre of a government review.
Although still open for child claimants, adults have not been able to claim DLA since 2013, when Pip was introduced as its replacement.
The DWP began inviting adult DLA claimants of the benefit to move over to the newer benefit in the same year, but this lengthy process was paused in 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Around 153,000 adult DLA claimants still remain, the DWP has said, all of whom will be invited to move to Pip following a smaller-scale trial of the changes.
If they fail to respond to this invitation and make a claim, they will lose their current benefit entitlement.
It is understood that most of these DLA claimants received lifetime awards, meaning there was an acknowledgement that their conditions would not change and so they would not be subject to further assessments.
Most adult DLA claimants post-2013 have had to move to Pip when their award comes up for review, but this does not happen for these claimants.
But they will now instead be assessed under Pip rules, meaning a new form must be filled out, likely followed by a health assessment to determine eligibility.
This process is often described as “dehumanising”, “soul-destroying”, and “degrading”, disability minister Sir Stephen Timms recently found in his interim report into Pip.
The authors add that applicants are often required to share “intimate details” with assessors only for them to feel these are later “misrepresented or dismissed”.
Although the final report and recommendations are not expected until the autumn, the review team added that “bold changes” will be made to the benefit which was at the centre of Labour’s welfare fallout last year.
These will not be implemented before the DLA to Pip transfer scheme resumes, however. The DWP has said it will begin with 3,000 randomly-chosen cases from September before any wider rollout.
James Taylor, director of strategy at disability equality charity Scope, said: “The DWP needs to make sure they don’t penalise disabled people whose extra costs are only likely to rise.”
Current DLA claimants need to “make sure they respond when the DWP gets in contact,” he added.
“Disabled people know that the current system for PIP is not working and too many have to endure assessments that feel dehumanising and confrontational.”
A DWP spokesperson said: “The transfer of adult DLA claimants to PIP has been paused since 2020. A reassessment only occurs if a recipient reaches 16, reports change in circumstance or voluntarily claims PIP.
“We are reviewing a random sample of 3,000 cases, and the findings will help determine any additional support needed when active transfer resume.”
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