The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) could potentially owe hundreds of thousands of personal independence payment (PIP) claimants thousands in back-payments.
This is thanks to a high court ruling from 2019. Specifically, it found that the DWP should have awarded many disabled claimants the higher rate of PIP. Notably, the court ruling will particularly affect people claiming PIP with mental health conditions – who it has wrongly denied greater disability benefits.
The department is currently in the process of contacting claimants about this potential entitlement. However, already, the DWP has denied this enhanced rate to the majority of claimants – and without claimants taking action, this could be the case for many more.
DWP PIP back-payments
The DWP divides PIP into two separate parts. These are the ‘daily living’ component, and the ‘mobility’ component. Crucially, the 2019 court ruling means that the DWP should have awarded claimants the higher rate for the daily living component of PIP.
As the Big Issue has previously detailed:
The ruling was made following a challenge by a PIP claimant, a 47-year-old man known as MM. It concerned the definition of “social support” when engaging with other people face to face.
The Supreme Court ordered the DWP to clearly define what counts as support and not dismiss the help that many people with mental health problems need in social situations.
Specifically, it means that the department is reviewing hundreds of thousands of cases dating back to 2016. As the Mirror reported, claimants who the DWP may owe this back-dated enhanced rate include:
- People who have regular meetings with a mental health professional, without which they would not be able to manage face-to-face encounters
- People who need the input of particular friends or relatives with experience of supporting them in social situations – rather than just any well-meaning friend or relative – to help them manage face-to-face encounters
The DWP didn’t start looking at claimants’ PIP until late 2021 – two years after the ruling. Since then, it has been reviewing these. But, by 31 August 2023, it had done so for 79,000 claimants – less than 20% of cases it had identified.
DWP denying the higher rate to most claimants
Crucially, despite the fact the ruling means that the department has to review over 400,000 claimants’ benefits, this doesn’t mean it will award all these claimants back-dated pay. Notably, the DWP has so far denied this higher rate to the majority of claimants it has reviewed.
Its most recent progress report in October 2023 showed that:
- It had reviewed 79,000 cases.
- Out of these, it had awarded just 14,000 – under 18% – the higher rate and made back-payments.
- In total, it has paid out £74m to these claimants. This would amount to around £5,285 per claimant, but the DWP owed some less, and others more than this.
Most of the claimants the DWP had denied the uprating to hadn’t challenged its decision. Just 390 people had applied for a mandatory reconsideration of the DWP’s review for their cases. Significantly however, as a result, the DWP had to award 100 claimants – over 25% of these – the higher rate of PIP. It meant the department paid out £420,000 to these claimants.
In other words, the DWP had wrongly denied the higher rate back-payments to a significant proportion of claimants. Naturally, it’s likely to be the case for many other claimants it has dismissed in this review so far too.
DWP could owe 284,000 more people money
On top of this, the DWP isn’t automatically reviewing all claimants that could be entitled to the enhanced payment.
In particular, this applies to people affected by the “timing” element of the court’s judgement. The judge stated that:
In short, I do not consider that descriptor 9c is limited to cases where a claimant needs social support actually during the face to face engagement
This refers to the ruling’s decision that claimants needn’t have social support at the time of a DWP’s assessment to qualify for the higher rate benefits. Former Tory DWP minister Tom Pursglove said in a statement to parliament in October that 284,000 people could be entitled to higher rate PIP because of this.
Instead of reviewing these cases, he said that the DWP will send letters out to these claimants. This letter would encourage them to contact the DWP about this.
Of course, it likely means many more could lose out. This is because the DWP has a notoriously long wait times for its telephone contact lines. Obviously, this makes it hugely inaccessible to chronically ill and disabled claimants. Notably, as the Canary previously reported, its in-house lines had failed to field a third of calls in 2023-2024.
However, given the high rates of awards after mandatory reconsiderations, claimants the DWP has rejected at review should this follow up. The DWP could owe many it has so far denied enhanced PIP to thousands in back-dated payments.
Feature image via Youtube – Tracey Media/the Canary
