The government is reviewing Personal Independence Payment (PIP), a benefit many people with kidney disease rely on to help with the additional costs of their condition. They now want to hear from people with experience of PIP to learn whether it is meeting the needs of people with long term conditions.
The review is co-chaired by the Minister Sir Stephen Timms and the work is being done by a group that includes disability experts and disabled people who have personal experience of claiming PIP. The group’s call for evidence is a great chance to share your experience and help improve the PIP system.
The review chairs have said:
This call for evidence is an important opportunity to listen directly to disabled people, carers, organisations, and others with experience of the system. We want to hear honestly what is working, what is not, and what a fairer and more human system should look like.
How can I get involved?
The call for evidence is looking at four different themes. Not all questions will be relevant to you, but considering the following may help you with your response:
- What living independently means for you, and whether PIP supports you to do this.
- What extra costs you face due to your kidney disease, and whether PIP helps you to pay for these.
- Whether you have accessed other types of support because of your PIP claim, and whether this has helped you (for example, a Motability car or a Blue Badge).
- Whether things the media, politicians and people in wider society say about PIP and benefits affect how you feel claiming it.
- How have you found the process of requesting the form, filling it in, and providing evidence. What improvements could be made?
- What type of evidence do you think best reflects the impact of kidney disease?
- How well do you think the evidence is taken into account during the assessment?
- If you attended a face-to-face assessment or phone assessment, did you face any challenges?
- What do you think about the PIP activities and descriptors? Do you think they reflect the reality of living with kidney disease?
- When applying for PIP, was there good support from the DWP staff or staff at the private assessment providers? What did that good support look like, or what should it have looked like?
- How did you find the assessment itself? How were the assessor and the questions they asked? How well do you think the assessors understood kidney disease and its impact, and what do you think may have been missed in the assessment?
- Did you feel the assessor checked whether you could do activities repeatedly, safely, in a reasonable time and to an acceptable standard?
- Did the assessment report reflect your kidney disease affects you? How accurate was it, and were any assumptions made about you and your condition?
- If you have fluctuating symptoms or issues with mobility due to kidney disease, how well were these assessed? What could have been improved?
- How did you find the reassessment process? For example, were the timelines reasonable and how did this impact on you?
- Are there any issues you’d like to raise about the appeals process and how it could be improved?
How can I respond?
- Submit a written response using the online form
- Email your response to [email protected]
- Post your response to:
The Timms Review
Disability and Health Strategy Directorate
Department for Work and Pensions
Floor Two,
Caxton House
London,
SW1H 9NA
The call for evidence will be open until Thursday 28 May.
You can also find alternative formats for the online form. These include British Sign Language (BSL), Easy Read, audio, braille, large print and Welsh translation. To request a braille version or physical copies email the team on [email protected].
To find out about alternative ways to submit, email [email protected]
Please get in touch with us at [email protected] if you have any other questions.