Independent Review of Adult Disability Payment: consultation

Section 5 – Fluctuating Conditions

This section asks about how the application form for Adult Disability Payment asks about fluctuating conditions, rather than the rules. If you would like to comment on the rules for fluctuating conditions, you can see information about these in section 4 of the consultation paper.

What is meant by a fluctuating condition?

By this, we mean the way a disability or condition affects a person can change frequently. This may affect whether or not a person is entitled to receive Adult Disability Payment.

Fluctuating conditions might include:

• asthma
• epilepsy
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
• bipolar disorder
• post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

We appreciate that these conditions may not fluctuate for everyone.

How the application form asks about fluctuating conditions

The application form includes guidance on how the rules for Adult Disability Payment are applied for people with a fluctuating condition. This helps to support people in providing relevant information about how they feel after completing an activity and how long the impact lasts for.

You can see a copy of the Adult Disability Payment application form here (please note this file opens in PDF format). Page 43 provides an example of how the impact of a fluctuating condition affects a person’s ability to prepare food.

The following questions will ask about the fluctuating conditions section of the application form.

Question 10

How effective do you think the fluctuating conditions sections of the application form are at helping people to describe their daily living needs?

Please only answer in relation to the fluctuating conditions sections of the application form that are outlined on Page 19 in the consultation paper.

• Very effective
• Effective
• Somewhat effective
• Not very effective
• Not effective at all

Please give reasons for your answer.

Question 11

If there was an opportunity to change any specific parts of the rules around fluctuating conditions as part of the daily living activities, what changes would you make (if any)?

Please provide detail about:

• Why you think changes are necessary
• What changes you would suggest
• If there could be any unintended consequences

(a) If you proposed changes, what positive impacts could these have, and for who?

(b) If you proposed changes, what negative impacts could these have, and for who?