Benefit claimants have been urged to contact the DWP as they could get higher payments
The DWP has made an urgent appeal to benefit recipients to ensure they receive their full entitlements. The department is making major changes in on-going efforts to make sure all claimants get the full amount they deserve.
Senior department officials have urged claimants to “please let us know” when your situation changes, as this could mean you get higher payments. Speaking to an MP committee, the department warned that disability benefits, particularly PIP (Personal Independence Payment), constitute the largest area where people miss out on their rightful payments.
A primary reason that benefit claimants miss out on payments is simply because they neglect to inform the DWP when their circumstances alter. DWP permanent secretary Peter Schofield said: “For most of our benefits, we do rely on the claimant letting us know about a change in circumstance.
“One of the key things we are increasingly trying to do more of is to remind people to let us know, to make it easier for people to let us know.” The department has rolled out a new campaign urging people to notify the DWP when their life situations change.
Mr Schofield said: “We’re running a new campaign called ‘Tell us too’. When something has changed in your circumstance, you might tell a friend about it, but can you also tell DWP.
“Please let us know about a change of circumstance, and we can make a difference. That is about adjusting up and adjusting down [payments].”
Further improvements are coming in that will impact anyone who claims a DWP benefit. Mr Schofield said the department is creating a ‘customer account’ system to bring together all your DWP benefits in a single place.
Mr Schofield said: “The idea is we will get to a point where you can make a change of circumstance on that system and that will then be replicated across all the DWP benefits that you might be receiving. There’s a load of work we are doing on that.”
PIP ‘higher premiums’ on offer
Mr Schofield emphasised that one particular group of claimants often miss out on higher payments. He said: “The biggest area of unfulfilled eligibility is around disability benefits, particularly PIP. There’s a number of things we are doing on that front.”
He pointed to one group who often miss out are current PIP recipients whose worsening health means they are eligible for a “higher premium within PIP”.
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assists with extra costs associated with living with a long-term health condition, illness or disability. The amount you receive depends on the severity of your condition, with lower and higher rates offered for both a daily living component and a mobility component.
It’s definitely worth checking if you qualify, as the benefit isn’t means tested – meaning your income and savings won’t influence your eligibility. These are the current weekly rates, with the benefit usually paid in four-weekly instalments:
Daily living part
- Lower – £73.90
- Higher – £110.40
Mobility part
- Lower – £29.20
- Higher – £77.05
Your eligibility for either part is decided separately. So you might receive nothing for one component while claiming either the lower or higher rate for the other.
This means the minimum a current claimant gets is £29.20 weekly, or £116.80 per four-week payment cycle. Should your condition regrettably worsen and you then meet the requirements for both higher rates, your payment would leap to £187.45 weekly, or £749.80 per payment period. This would mean a considerable £633 increase to your income.
Mr Schofield said his team is looking at how to “encourage people to come forward and let us know about a worsening in their health condition”. He said the department acts quickly to help claimants secure the correct amount.
He said: “We prioritise those requests when they come in, to make sure that they get access to a health assessment quickly, so we can put that right quickly. So they are towards the top of the queue, in that heath assessments process for PIP, alongside new claims.”
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