The Government has announced that from this spring disabled pensioners will no longer have to have their Personal Independence Payments (PIP) awards repeatedly reviewed unless their circumstances change. The Work and Pensions Secretary also announced her plans to merge the work capability assessment process for PIP, Employment and Support Allowance and Universal Credit from 2021. You can read more about the changes here.
However, I am seriously concerned that simply merging these assessments will not deal with their underlying problems. The current system clearly has serious flaws. More than 70% of all PIP assessments that are appealed have that assessment overturned by a tribunal, rising to 83% for people with multiple sclerosis.
On 6th March I questioned the Minister for Disabled People about what the Government would do to address these worrying failures in the assessment process.
