The
following details have been supplied by PCS
DWP Group:
Personal
Independence
Payment - Update
Personal Independence Payment replaces Disability Living
Allowance over a phased introduction scheduled to be completed by 2017. It is
designed to reduce the existing DLA
expenditure by 20%.
The Departmental Trade Union Side has been meeting the PIP
Programme and PIP Operations management on a regular basis. PCS is opposed to the replacement of DLA by PIP because PIP is designed to reduce the numbers
of people able to claim it by a massive 25% in order to meet the Treasury
imposed saving. The phased introduction of PIP began with new claims being
taken on a limited basis on 8
April 2013 and then all new claims being taken nationally from 10 June 2013.
Recent
developments
DTUS met with the Programme on 17 October. It is clear that
the claiming process is taking longer than was originally predicted. This is
due to a number of factors including claimants taking longer to return the
claim form and delays in assessment provider performance. There has also been a
judicial review of the mobility criteria.
This led to the Programme deciding to postpone Phase 2 of
the roll-out schedule. Phase 2 begins the conversion of existing DLA claims to PIP. It includes changes to condition
cases and natural DLA
reassessments. Phase 2 was originally postponed from 7 October to 28 October.
However, it has now further been decided that, rather than
have a full-blown national implementation of Phase 2 on 28 October, there will
now be a more limited, controlled start to Phase 2.
From 28 October PIP reassessment will only be undertaken
from claimants residing in Wales,
parts of the Midlands and East Anglia.
This amounts to 25% of the national workload. Claims in other areas will remain
DLA claims. This will require some
additional manual processes and contact centres will need to differentiate
claims on a geographical basis. Although the same number of staff will still be
required to deliver PIP the residual DLA
work is likely to continue for longer than originally planned. DTUS raised the
problem of training decay and management are equally concerned and will put in
place arrangements to mitigate the risk.
The timetable for the start of managed reassessments remains
unchanged. This is still timetabled to run from October 2015 to 2017.
Conclusions
