Social Security Benefits: Terminal Illnesses

(asked on 2nd September 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 3 February 2022 to Question 112701 on Social Security Benefits: Terminal Illnesses, what plans her Department has to bring forward further legislative proposals to implement changes to the Special Rules for Terminal Illness in Attendance Allowance, Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence Payment.


Answered by
Victoria Prentis Portrait
Victoria Prentis
Attorney General
This question was answered on 16th September 2022

The Department introduced the Social Security (Special Rules for End of Life) Bill into the House of Lords on 11th May 2022. The Bill will enable people who are thought to be in the final year of their life to get fast-tracked access to Disability Living Allowance (DLA), Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Attendance Allowance (AA). The measures will amend the definition of end of life in existing legislation, which is based on the claimant having six months or less to live, by replacing it with a new twelve-month definition that aligns with the end-of-life approach taken across the NHS.

The Bill has completed all Lords stages and the Commons stages took place on 8th September 2022. This follows similar changes the Department made by secondary legislation to implement the 12-month approach in Universal Credit and Employment and Support Allowance in April 2022.

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