Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations
(asked on 11th September 2017) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will ensure that personal independence payments claimants who suffer from a condition for which there is not yet any medication are not disadvantaged by that fact in their assessments.
The assessment for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is designed to treat people as individuals, considering the impact of their impairment or health condition on their everyday life and how each claimant has personally adapted to living with a disability, whether or not medication is prescribed or used. The PIP assessment is not a medical assessment, requiring the Health Professional to diagnose a condition or its severity and recommend treatment options; instead it focuses on the claimant’s functional ability.
There is no automatic entitlement to PIP by virtue of a health condition (except in terminal illness cases), either for new claimants or those claimants who were in receipt of Disability Living Allowance and who are being reassessed under PIP.
The PIP Assessment Guide for Health Professionals includes guidance on the assessment criteria and how they should be applied. This guidance can be accessed on the gov.uk website: