Speak up! Proposed changes to the PIP assessment process
The government has published a Green Paper which details the proposed changes to the Personal Independent Payment (PIP) assessment process, eligibility criteria and the type of support it plans to offer.
PoTS UK are extremely concerned about how these changes will affect the PoTS community and urge you to take action.
The Green Paper is guided by three priorities:
- Providing the right support to the people who need it most
- Targeting resources most effectively
- Supporting disabled people to reach their full potential and live independently
The changes that could be made focus on:
- Making changes to the eligibility criteria for PIP
- Redesigning the PIP assessment to better target it towards the individual needs of disabled people and people with health conditions
- Reforming the PIP assessment so that it is more closely linked to a person’s condition
These changes could have a significant impact on the people who need PIP to cover the extra living costs that come with health conditions and disabilities, such as PoTS.
Our concerns
PoTS UK’s concerns include:
- The proposed focus on a medical diagnosis rather than the current assessment of functional needs (with no mandatory requirement for evidence of a specific health condition or disability provided by healthcare providers) is of great concern. People with PoTS often spend years trying to obtain a diagnosis so this particular change could be extremely damaging to them. This will also cause further work to the NHS as evidence would need to be provided.
- The green paper considers whether support should be financial or take a different form, such as improved access to healthcare (such as mental health provision or physiotherapy) or enhanced local authority support (such as care packages, respite or home adaptations). PoTS UK feel people should have access to this sort of care regardless of whether they have undertaken a PIP assessment. Furthermore social and health care reform was promised under the current Government, but this has not yet been delivered.
- The proposed voucher system does not take in to account the full experience of disability and would remove people’s autonomy to make decisions about what they need to spend their money on.
When discussing with our volunteers we felt that Susan summed up the situation perfectly. This is what she said:
” A group of people have been marginalised yet again including not only those with PoTS but those with any kind of disability. They are indeed being marginalised even further! The government is in fact once again disadvantaging those who have a disability. I for one can no longer work due to my disabilities, including PoTS and I rely on my monthly PiP payment to live off. Without it I don’t know how I will manage as I have a fifteen year old to support. I did not give up work because I wanted to I had no choice, yet there are those who ‘know how to play the system’ and yet people within our PoTS community seem to be targeted once again not only financially but mentally as well (if you think of the stress just to get diagnosed yet alone the amount of paper pushing and red tape to cut through to get a payment)! How can a one off payment or vouchers work? My PoTS changes continually and therefore so do my needs, until the government truly understands what a life debilitating illness this can be (let’s face it many medical professionals still don’t understand) we continually face daily battles and struggles to get help, support and guidance except from charities like PoTS UK.”
Have your say!
This Green Paper is part of an open consultation with means everybody in the UK can respond to these proposed changes. PoTS UK will be providing our own response but we would urge that you do the same.
There is power in numbers and this is your chance to have your say and let your voice be heard!!
You have until 22nd July 2024 to submit a response. You do not need to answer all the questions and the responses are anonymous.
You can have your say on the proposals by responding online, by email or by post. The quickest way is via the online form here.
It is important to note that at this stage this is just a proposal, and any changes will not take place until after the general election.