PIP Proposals Consultation

The UK Government are currently consulting on proposals to change the PIP entitlement criteria. The full consultation can be found here. We think the title of the consultation should instead of “Modernising” be “Reducing Support for Independent Living” as the aim is to reduce the number of disabled people who qualify for PIP and also to change the support offered from payments to support in kind (For Example: Aids and Adaptations)

This might not seem important to disabled people in Scotland who can now claim Adult Disability Payment instead. However, if these proposals were acted on they could have very serious knock on consequences for the Scottish disability benefits budget and also restrict Scots disabled people’s access to the health related part of Universal Credit.  That in turn would reduce the amount of benefits they receive and make them subject to full conditionality and sanctions if they did not look for work.

We’ve prepared a Members’ Briefing on these proposals which you can find here.  In addition we have produced letters which you can adapt and send to your MSPs and candidates in the General Election.  You can find the letters here and here.