Pardon me for not blogging after such a long time. Also, pardon me for launching straight into a raging subject that have worked up Twitter into a moral outrage and people with disabilities up in arms. Pardon me for quickly putting together this post.
In the light of the current Welfare Reform, currently being brutally pushed through the House of Lords without so much scrutiny and analysis, one of the most contentious aspects of it is to replace Disability Living Allowance with PIP (Personal Independence Payment) for spurious reasons. (I hope I can have the opportunity to explain why later).
Last night, DWP have published the proposed thresholds points to guide the re-assessment part of the new PIP. This can be found here.
Below is taken from Benefits and Work website of how each claimant will be scored.
Daily living component
To get an award of the daily living component, a claimant needs to score:
8 points for the standard rate
12 points for the enhanced rate
For daily living, the points need to be scored from activities 1-9 below.
You can only score one set of points from each activity, if two or more apply only the highest will count. So, for example, if:
4 d. Needs assistance to groom. 2 points
4 g. Needs assistance to bathe. 4 points
both apply you will receive 4 points for the ‘Bathing and grooming’ activity.
If, for example:
d. Needs assistance to manage toilet needs. 4 points
also applies to you, then you will have scored 4 points for the ‘Bathing and grooming’ activity and 4 points for the ‘’Managing toilet needs or incontinence’ activity. This is a total of 8 points which means you would be entitled to the standard rate of the daily living component.
Mobility component
To get an award of the mobility component you need to score:
8 points for the standard rate
12 points for the enhanced rate
For mobility, the points need to be scored from activities 10-11 below.
As with daily living above, you only score the highest points that apply to you from each activity, but you can add points from activities 10 and 11 together to reach your final total.
PIP ACTIVITIES AND POINTS
1. Preparing food and drink.
a. Can prepare and cook a simple meal unaided. 0 points
b. Needs to use an aid or appliance to either prepare or cook a simple meal. 2 points
c. Cannot cook a simple meal using a conventional cooker but can do so using a microwave. 2 points
d. Needs prompting to either prepare or cook a simple meal. 2 points
e. Needs supervision to either prepare or cook a simple meal. 4 points
f. Needs assistance to either prepare or cook a simple meal. 4 points
g. Cannot prepare and cook food and drink at all. 8 points
2. Taking nutrition.
a. Can take nutrition unaided. 0 points
b. Needs either –
(i) to use an aid or appliance to take nutrition; or
(ii) assistance to cut up food. 2 points
c. Needs a therapeutic source to take nutrition. 2 points
d. Needs prompting to take nutrition. 4 points
e. Needs assistance to manage a therapeutic source to take nutrition. 6 points
f. Needs another person to convey food and drink to their mouth. 10 points
3. Managing therapy or monitoring a health condition.
a. Either –
(i) Does not receive medication, therapy or need to monitor a health condition; or
(ii) can manage medication, therapy or monitor a health condition unaided, or with the use of an aid or appliance. 0 points
b. Needs supervision, prompting or assistance to manage medication or monitor a health condition. 1 point
c. Needs supervision, prompting or assistance to manage therapy that takes up to 3.5 hours a week. 2 points
d. Needs supervision, prompting or assistance to manage therapy that takes between 3.5 and 7 hours a week. 4 points
e. Needs supervision, prompting or assistance to manage therapy that takes between 7 and 14 hours a week. 6 points
f. Needs supervision, prompting or assistance to manage therapy that takes at least 14 hours a week. 8 points
4. Bathing and grooming.
a. Can bathe and groom unaided. 0 points
b. Needs to use an aid or appliance to groom. 1 point
c. Needs prompting to groom. 1 point
d. Needs assistance to groom. 2 points
e. Needs supervision or prompting to bathe. 2 points
f. Needs to use an aid or appliance to bathe. 2 points
g. Needs assistance to bathe. 4 points
h. Cannot bathe and groom at all. 8 points
5. Managing toilet needs or incontinence.
a. Can manage toilet needs or incontinence unaided. 0 points
b. Needs to use an aid or appliance to manage toilet needs or incontinence. 2 points
c. Needs prompting to manage toilet needs. 2 points
d. Needs assistance to manage toilet needs. 4 points
e. Needs assistance to manage incontinence of either bladder or bowel. 6 points
f. Needs assistance to manage incontinence of both bladder and bowel. 8 points
g. Cannot manage incontinence at all. 8 points
6. Dressing and undressing.
a. Can dress and undress unaided. 0 points
b. Needs to use an aid or appliance to dress or undress. 2 points
c. Needs either –
(i) prompting to dress, undress or determine appropriate circumstances for remaining clothed; or
(ii) assistance or prompting to select appropriate clothing. 2 points
d. Needs assistance to dress or undress lower body. 3 points
e. Needs assistance to dress or undress upper body. 4 points
f. Cannot dress or undress at all. 8 points
7. Communicating.
a. Can communicate unaided and access written information unaided, or using spectacles or contact lenses. 0 points
b. Needs to use an aid or appliance other than spectacles or contact lenses to access written information. 2 points
c. Needs to use an aid or appliance to express or understand verbal communication. 2 points
d. Needs assistance to access written information. 4 points
e. Needs communication support to express or understand complex verbal information. 4 points
f. Needs communication support to express or understand basic verbal information. 8 points
g. Cannot communicate at all. 12 points
8. Engaging socially.
a. Can engage socially unaided. 0 points
b. Needs prompting to engage socially. 2 points
c. Needs social support to engage socially. 4 points
d. Cannot engage socially due to such engagement causing either –
(i) overwhelming psychological distress to the claimant; or
(ii) the claimant to exhibit uncontrollable episodes of behaviour which would result in a substantial risk of harm to the claimant or another person. 8 points
9. Making financial decisions
a. Can manage complex financial decisions unaided. 0 points
b. Needs prompting to make complex financial decisions. 2 points
c. Needs prompting to make simple financial decisions. 4 points
d. Cannot make any financial decisions at all. 6 points
10. Planning and following a journey.
a. Can plan and follow a journey unaided. 0 points
b. Needs prompting for all journeys to avoid overwhelming psychological distress to the claimant. 4 points
c. Needs either –
(i) supervision, prompting or a support dog to follow a journey to an unfamiliar destination; or
(ii) a journey to an unfamiliar destination to have been entirely planned by another person. 8 points
d. Cannot follow any journey because it would cause overwhelming psychological distress to the claimant. 10 points
e. Needs either –
(i) supervision, prompting or a support dog to follow a journey to a familiar destination; or
(ii) a journey to a familiar destination to have been planned entirely by another person. 15 points
11. Moving around.
a. Can move at least 200 metres either –
(i) unaided; or
(ii) using an aid or appliance, other than a wheelchair or a motorised device. 0 points
b. Can move at least 50 metres but not more than 200 metres either –
(i) unaided; or
(ii) using an aid or appliance, other than a wheelchair or a motorised device. 4 points
c. Can move up to 50 metres unaided but no further. 8 points
d. Cannot move up to 50 metres without using an aid or appliance, other than a wheelchair or a motorised device. 10 points
e. Cannot move up to 50 metres without using a wheelchair propelled by the claimant. 12 points
f. Cannot move up to 50 metres without using a wheelchair propelled by another person or a motorised device. 15 points
g. Cannot either –
(i) move around at all; or
(ii) transfer unaided from one seated position to another adjacent seated position. 15 points
RT @Deaf: UK: PIP Eligibility @Saltbar has blogged on this http://t.co/VOvAhm29 see e.g. on page 24 http://t.co/Gc1calQ7 for Deaf BSL user scoring.
To qualify for PIP, you need 8 points. i.e. Deaf people need to satisfy, “f. Needs communication support to express or understand basic verbal information. 8 points”.
The key word in that sentence is BASIC verbal information. If you compare to ESA, basic communication means understanding the location of the fire escape.
Otherwise the DWP will have you down as, “e. Needs communication support to express or understand complex verbal information. 4 points”. This is not enough to qualify for PIP, and what many will fall under. In life, communication is never simple – it does not consist of simple sentences.
Whether that will mean understanding verbal without the aid of visual information, i.e. lipread – remains to be seen. Either way, what’s going to happen, most deaf people will lose their DLA and will not qualify for PIP. Thus the government meets the target of 20% cut in benefit. Deaf people will be labelled by the media as fraudalent claimers.
The other thing, they want to move it towards the “Bio-Psycho-Social Model of Disability” so if you’re not doing enough to mitigate being deaf(!) See: http://wheresthebenefit.blogspot.com/2012/01/models-of-disability.html
And where are deaf organisations in all this?