• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / News Archive / Government silent on ‘draconian’ PIP mobility plans

Government silent on ‘draconian’ PIP mobility plans

By John Pring on 10th January 2013 Category: News Archive

Listen

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has refused to admit that it plans to tighten eligibility for support for people with the highest mobility needs, despite proof in its own documents.

Last month, DWP published the final assessment criteria that will decide eligibility for the new personal independence payment (PIP), the replacement for working-age disability living allowance (DLA).

The documents showed the government has tightened eligibility for the top – “enhanced” – rate of the mobility component of PIP.

Previous drafts of the criteria stated that a claimant who could not walk at least 50 metres would be entitled to the enhanced rate, making them eligible to lease a Motability vehicle. But this has now been slashed to just 20 metres.

Sir Bert Massie, who chaired the former Disability Rights Commission, has described the change as “extremely disturbing” and “draconian”, while Helen Dolphin, of Disabled Motoring UK said the “last minute” changes were “pretty outrageous”.

Jane Young, coordinator of the WeAreSpartacus network, has described how she and fellow campaigners were “shocked and stunned” when they saw the final PIP criteria and realised how many more people would lose the cars they lease through the Motability scheme.

These and other changes will – by 2015 – see 20,000 fewer disabled people eligible for the enhanced rate than under the previous version of the PIP regulations, with this gap rising to 51,000 by 2018.

But DWP insisted last month that it was merely “clarifying” the regulations and that the number of people receiving the enhanced rate as a result of the change from 50 metres to 20 metres will remain “broadly the same”.

When Disability News Service attempted this week to confirm the impact of the changes, DWP refused to add to its original statements.

A DWP press officer said: “You have put your point-of-view forward and we have put ours. It is for those organisations and the public to make up their minds.”

He refused to comment further on the new criteria.

10 January 2013

Share this post:

Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on Reddit
Groundhog Day at the Old Vic, access performances, with icons for audio description, captions, relaxed performances and British Sign Language, and a picture of a groundhog

Related

‘Muddled’ blue badge reforms ‘are to blame for renewal delays’
6th February 2015
UN debate will be reminder of true inclusive education
6th February 2015
IDS breaks pledge on PIP waiting-times, as tens of thousands still queue for months
30th January 2015

Primary Sidebar

Access

Latest Stories

Watchdog receives hundreds of complaints over Telegraph’s ‘toxic’ benefits article

Government’s ‘unacceptable’ response hides winter blackout plans

Report for Labour rules out early end to care charges

DWP criticised in parliament for ‘hiding’ information on starvation death

Evidence to inquiry exposes ‘inadequate’ consequences of transport discrimination

Guidance ‘will boost confidence’ of employers who want to recruit disabled people

DWP hands hundreds of millions more to firms linked to claimant deaths… but not Atos

Review finds multiple agencies failed over Whorlton Hall abuse scandal

Regulator tells government’s access advisers to act on unlawful secrecy

Government breaks pledge to consult on improvements to housing adaptations

Advice and Information

Groundhog Day at the Old Vic, access performances, with icons for audio description, captions, relaxed performances and British Sign Language, and a picture of a groundhog
Readspeaker

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2023 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web