PIP Consultation Update

The ‘Consultation on the PIP assessment Moving around activity’ (to give it its DWP title) is ongoing, with responses due by 5^th August 2013. What this consultation gives disabled people is the chance to tell DWP that the restriction of PIP’s Higher Mobility Component to only disabled people able to walk less than 20 metres does not adequately reflect the mobility restrictions we face in living our lives, in working, and in interacting with the wider community. The consultation itself can be downloaded here (other formats, including large print and easy read, are available, see the consultation page).

Since the release of the detailed consultation document there have been various responses from disability groups and this piece attempts to gather in one place links to all of those that go further than simply reporting its existence. If you are aware of responses not covered here, please post a link or other indication as to where they can be found in the comments section.

We Are Spartacus have a page covering the consultation, with a detailed briefing  (.pdf) on the background to the consultation and why it is important to disabled people with mobility impairments. Spartacus also have a survey to gather data from people affected to feed into their own response, which will be available until Monday 15^th July. They also request that individual responses to the consultation are copied to them at pip20m@janeyoung.me.uk (this is important because of past misrepresentation of disability consultation responses by DWP). 

Disability Rights UK have a brief discussion of the consultation which also asks for people affected to contact them. They also have a report on a relevant exchange between Lord Alton and DWP minister Lord Freud in the House of Lords in which Lord Freud stated that the government ‘has an open mind’, but that their ‘preferred option is not make any amendment to the current criteria’. Obviously this must reflect a slightly different definition of ‘an open mind’ than most people use.

Benefits and Work report on the consultation here, noting that ‘they (DWP) are preparing for the possibility of arguing that in spite of the overwhelming rejection of the new criteria, keeping the current 50 metre limit is not ‘affordable and sustainable’.’

A story at the Disability News Service reports ‘‘Worrying’consultation document brings new PIP concerns’.

Leonard Cheshire Disability have a survey which they would like those affected to complete.

The consultation is also reported by, amongst others, Action for ME, Ekklesia,  Contact a Family, the Papworth Trust, and Disability Wales. Several of these are looking for people to contact them to provide input to their responses.