Personal Independence Payments (PIP) Update

In December 2017 the High Court ruled that recent restrictions to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) discriminated against people with mental health problems.

All the people receiving the personal independence payment benefit (1.6million) will have their claims reviewed and some of them may have their payments increased if their initial assessments are found to be discriminatory.

New regulations introduced last year stated that if a claimant could not make a familiar journey by themselves then they would be eligible for a bigger payment, however if they could not make such a journey due to psychological distress then they would not be entitled to this payment. This has now been ruled as “blatantly discriminatory” against people with mental health conditions

If psychological distress affects your ability to make familiar journeys, then there is a chance that you could be entitled to more support. The Government has stated that it will write to everyone who has been affected and that if you are now entitled to these extra payments then it will be backdated to when you had your original decision or to December 2016 (which is when a court first ruled that people should be entitled to more support).

More information Click the link to visit the BBC article BBC News Article