Government to review 1.6 million people’s disability benefits claims The Government is going to review 1.6 million people’s disability benefit claims after the High Court ruled that changes to Personal Independence […]

The Government is going to review 1.6 million people’s disability benefit claims after the High Court ruled that changes to Personal Independence Payments (PIP) were unfair to people with mental health conditions.

The changes, which could cost £3.7bn by 2023, will not affect all PIP claims but they will all be reviewed as an administrative exercise. Around 220,000 people are expected to receive higher payments backdated to November 2016.

Ministers made changes to PIP last year which reduced the amount of money people with mental health conditions could receive. People who were unable to travel independently because of psychological distress were no longer entitled to the enhanced mobility rate of the benefit.

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Last week the Department for Work and Pensions said it would not challenge the High Court ruling that said the changes “blatantly discriminate” against people with mental health conditions and were a breach of their human rights.

‘This will be a complex exercise’

In a written parliamentary question, shadow work and pensions secretary Debbie Abrahams asked if there was a timetable for when claimants will be told if they will get their payments backdated.

Disabilities minister Sarah Newton said on Monday: “We are working with stakeholders to change the PIP assessment guide so that we can implement the judgment.

“Once we have completed this exercise we will be carrying out an administrative exercise to review cases that may be eligible and ensure that claimants receive the correct award.

“This will be a complex exercise and of considerable scale, as we will be reconsidering approximately 1.6 million claims.

“Whilst we will be working at pace to complete this exercise it is important that we get it right.”

Ms Abrahams said: “Today’s admission that the department will have to reconsider 1.6 million PIP claims to ensure that all claimants receive the correct award is shocking.

“The disabilities minister has refused to publish a timetable of how many months or even years it will take for this ‘complex exercise’ to be completed.

“The Government was wrong to cut PIP benefits in the first place, wrong to bring in the PIP regulations last year and it was wrong to repeatedly ignore the views of the courts.”

‘Failures of the assessment process’

Philip Connolly, policy manager at Disability Rights UK, said: “Many disabled people have lost out because of (the) changeover from DLA (disability living allowance) to PIP, and we welcome the announcement that the Government is going to review 1.6 million cases.

“We hope this doesn’t mean that some disabled people are going to have to attend yet more assessments.

“This review highlights the ongoing and persistent failures of the assessment process, which is badly designed and implemented.

“Huge amounts of taxpayers’ money is being wasted on poor quality assessments which deny disabled people benefits that they qualify for – that’s one of the reasons the success rate at appeal is so high.

“We urge all disabled people who are turned down for benefits they believe they should get to use the independent appeals process if their claim is turned down.”