Adult Disability Payment: Independent Review - interim report

Note on Terminology

In this report I use the terms ‘disabled people’ and ‘disabled people and people with long term conditions’, to refer to people who have lived or living experience of Adult Disability Payment. I acknowledge that to be eligible for Adult Disability Payment a person may not necessarily see themselves as a disabled person. They may have a terminal illness, a mental health condition or a condition such as Autism or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

A medical diagnosis is not what is important when decisions are made about a person’s eligibility. It is the impact of that disability or long-term condition on daily life that is important.

I also welcome consideration of a social rather than a medical model of disability (more on this later in the report) recognising that people are disabled by barriers that arise because society is not designed to accommodate them.

There are many people who are disabled by societal barriers who do not regard themselves as disabled or identify as a disabled person. Others choose to identify in a different way, for example people may identify as a member of the hearing loss community, or as having a mental health condition.

For the purposes of this report, I use the Equality Act 2010 definition which defines a disabled person as someone who has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on your ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities^[1].