People on PIP may be due £5,000 back pay after recent DWP change to assessment rules
29.02.2024 - 13:49
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
Tens of thousands of people in receipt of Personal Independence Payments (PIP) may be due arrears going back as far as April 2016, following a change to the assessment rules for the Daily Living component around the definition of ‘social support’. Around 284,000 existing PIP claimants and those who might have had heir claim rejected, are being urged to contact the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), if they think they may have been affected.
In July 2019, the Supreme Court handed down a judgment following an Upper Tribunal (UT) decision which changed the way the DWP considers the definition of ‘social support’ for Daily Living activity number nine. The ‘MM’ judgment concerns the definition of ‘social support’ when engaging with other people face to face and when ‘prompting’ should be considered ‘social support’ in the PIP assessment, and how far in advance social support can be provided.
In September 2016, the DWP began an administrative exercise, looking at PIP claims since April 6, 2016 to check whether claimants may be eligible for more support. In a recent update published online, the DWP says it has identified around 326,000 cases to be reviewed.
The new report shows at the end of August 2023, the DWP has reviewed around 79,000 cases against the MM judgment. This includes cases where claimants have previously been assessed as needing ‘prompting’.
Some 14,000 arrears payments, totalling around £74 million have been made. It's important to be aware how much someone receives may be higher or lower for each individual case, but on average, that works out at around £5,285 per PIP claim.
In a written statement to Parliament in December, the DWP explained that due to the “complexity of the exercise we started at a