DWP launches PIP change trial which are set to affect thousands of claimants

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has confirmed it launched a pilot scheme changing how Personal Independence Payment assessments are handled after details emerged from an anonymous whistleblower.

The trial affects around 150,000 people, representing approximately four per cent of all PIP claimants across Britain.

Under the existing system, healthcare professionals, including nurses, paramedics and physiotherapists, carry out assessments before recommending how points should be allocated across mobility and daily living categories.

Claimants who score highly in both areas can receive payments worth up to £194.60 per week.

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The pilot scheme transfers responsibility for allocating points from healthcare professionals to DWP case managers.

Assessors will continue gathering evidence and conducting interviews, but final decisions on point allocation will now rest with departmental staff.

If the trial proves successful, similar changes could later be introduced to universal credit health assessments.

The whistleblower who disclosed details of the pilot raised concerns about removing clinical expertise from the decision-making process.

The source told Disability Rights UK: "Decisions on complex, fluctuating, and especially mental health conditions require clinical insight and direct assessment experience."

They warned that excluding healthcare professionals from determining points would remove important medical understanding from assessments.

"Removing health professionals from the decision-making process will strip out essential medical nuance, leading to poorer quality, less accurate, and less fair outcomes," the group added.

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Fazilet Hadi, head of policy at Disability Rights UK, criticised the timing of the pilot while disability minister Sir Stephen Timms conducts a wider review of the benefit system.

PIP is currently claimed by around four million people, making it Britain's largest health and disability benefit.

Ms Hadi said: "Stopping health professionals from making recommendations on the basis of their assessment and requiring them to solely pass information to DWP case managers to make the determination, is a recipe for disaster, which will result in thousands of poorly informed and inaccurate decisions."

She said claimants were often required to discuss highly personal details about their medical conditions and daily lives during assessments.

Ms Hadi argued people stood a better chance of having their circumstances properly understood when recommendations came from the professionals who carried out the assessment directly.

The DWP defended the pilot and insisted case managers had always held ultimate responsibility for final PIP decisions.

A department spokesman said: "Case managers already make all final PIP decisions - that has not changed."

The department described the pilot as an attempt to streamline processes rather than fundamentally alter the benefit system.

The spokesman added: "This small-scale trial is about re-balancing roles so that assessors focus on what they do best, freeing up capacity by reducing duplication, and empowering case managers to apply their own judgement based on all the evidence."

The pilot comes alongside separate reforms to reassessment timings for PIP claimants.

Under the updated system, new claimants are guaranteed at least three years before reassessment, increasing to five years at future reviews for those who continue to qualify.

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