DWP 'reviewing' people on PIP under Labour and could hand them £5,000 each

A change to the assessment rules could see existing Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claimants receive extra money and a backdated lump sum.

The Department for Work and Pensions is reviewing 320,000 PIP claims for back payments worth around £5,000 after a rule change. A change to the assessment rules could see existing Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claimants receive extra money and a backdated lump sum.

The DWP was found to have got the law wrong in relation to two descriptors in the PIP process: "needs prompting to be able to engage with other people - 2 points" and "needs social support to be able to engage with other people - 4 points."

If the support a claimant needs consisted just of prompting, then the DWP argued it was only worth 2 points, regardless of who gave it. However, in a case known as MM, the Supreme Court decided that where the prompting needs to be given by someone ‘trained or experienced in assisting people to engage in social situations’, then it may count as social support and score 4 points.

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Hundreds of thousands of people receiving PIP may be due arrears as a result. The DWP estimates that it will review 632,286 PIP cases during the course of the corrections exercise this year and by March 31 had already looked at 219,080 awards, paying out a total of £142 million in arrears payments.

DWP said it will contact 279,903 claimants who may have been affected by the assessment rule change. Last year it was estimated that the average payout was around £5,200. Benefits and Work explained: "More than one in five claimants who have been reviewed have received a back payment.

"So far, around 14,000 payments have been made to claimants, totalling £74 million. Overall, the average payment is around £5,285 per claimant. We have covered this issue extensively in the past." People who wish to dispute a decision on the review of their PIP claim under the MM judgment can ask DWP to reconsider the decision.