Welfare reform: impact report on benefits for disabled people

Footnotes

1 This is the second Welfare Reform Report to focus on the impact of reforms on disabled people. The first report is available from Scottish Government (2017), UK welfare policy: impact on disabled people.

2 Department for Work and Pensions (2019), Stat-Xplore

3 Department for Work and Pensions (2019), Disability Living Allowance for adults

4 Department for Work and Pensions (2019), Stat-Xplore

5 Department for Work and Pensions (2019), Personal Independence Payment: April 2013 to July 2019

6 Statistics referring to DLA to PIP reassessment outcomes by age, gender and health condition are available from Department for Work and Pensions (2018), Personal Independence Payment: April 2013 to October 2018.

7 Mandatory Reconsideration and tribunal decisions data is available from Department for Work and Pensions (2019), Personal Independence Payment: April 2013 to July 2019.

8 Experience Panels findings are drawn from the publications “About your benefits and you” and “Personal Independence Payment health assessments”, both of which are available at Scottish Government (2017), Social Security Experience Panels: publications.

9 Department for Work and Pensions (2018), Personal Independence Payment: claimant experiences of the claim process

10 Department for Work and Pensions (2019), DWP claimant service and experience survey 2017 to 2018

11 Hansard (2018), PIP Back Payments

12 Department for Work and Pensions (2019), PIP administrative exercise: progress on cases cleared, at 14 June 2019

13 Department for Work and Pensions (2019), Stat-Xplore

14 National Audit Office (2018), Investigation into errors in Employment and Support Allowance

15 Department for Work and Pensions (2019), ESA underpayments: progress on checking July 2019

16 Scottish Government (2019), Disability assistance in Scotland: analysis of consultation responses

17 This refers to the proportion of people with the Housing Benefit bedroom tax applied who also claim ESA, taken from DWP Stat-Xplore. Statistics are not published on the number of UC claimants who are subject to the bedroom tax.

18 Scottish Government (2017), UK welfare policy: impact on disabled people

19 Scottish Government (2019), Equality Evidence Finder

20 Scottish Government (2018), A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People: employment action plan p. 33 and p. 23

21 Equality and Human Rights Commission (2017), The disability pay gap p. 44

22 Scope (2019), Disability Price Tag policy report 2019, p. 9

23 Social Metrics Commission (2019), Measuring Poverty 2019 p. 32 and 33

24 Scottish Government (2019), Poverty and income inequality in Scotland: 2015-2018 associated tables

25 For new claimants, PIP is a working-age benefit, meaning people can no longer make a new claim to it when they reach pension age. However, DLA claimants who were under pension age when PIP was first rolled out in 2013 are still in the process of being moved onto the benefit. Some of these people were close to state pension age in 2013, meaning that they were, or will be, pensioners by the time they move on to PIP. Because of this, and because PIP entitlement does not automatically end when a claimant reaches pension age, over time the number of pension-age PIP claimants is continuing to increase. Disability benefits for pensioners are discussed in more detail in section 4.2

26 The state pension age has changed over recent years. To ensure comparability of results across the multiple years we examine, the 16-64 age group has been selected as a proxy for working-age households. Scottish Government analysis throughout this report therefore treats people aged 16-64 as working-age, and people aged 65 or over as pension-age.

27 Scottish Fiscal Commission (2019), Scotland’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts May 2019

28 Office for Budget Responsibility (2019), Welfare trends report – January 2019 p. 63

29 Combined 2018/19 UK-wide spending on PIP and working-age DLA, taken from Department for Work and Pensions (2019), Benefit expenditure and caseload tables 2019 Outturn and forecast: Spring Statement 2019, table 2a

30 Scottish figures in this section are based on Scottish Government calculations made using background data from Office for Budget Responsibility (2019), Welfare trends report – January 2019.

31 Office for Budget Responsibility (2019), Welfare trends report – December 2019, p. 30

32 Calculations in this section are made using official figures from Department of Work and Pensions (2019), Stat Xplore. This data refers to initial decisions at the assessment centre. Official data is unavailable to determine how many of these cases resulted in an appeal which overturned the initial decision.

33 Department for Work and Pensions (2019), Disability Living Allowance for adults.

34 Statistics in this section are based on DLA to PIP reassessment outcomes October 2018 data available from Department for Work and Pensions (2018), Personal Independence Payment: April 2013 to October 2018. Breakdowns of claim success rates by age, gender and health condition are available at Great Britain level only. Statistics in this section refer to the cumulative total of all reassessment outcomes between October 2013 and October 2018.

35 Awards which have decreased include awards which were disallowed before and after visits to assessment centres, as well as withdrawn claims.

36 This chart examines categories of disease for which at least 5,000 reassessments have taken place across Great Britain. The categories of disease included in this chart represent around 94% of all PIP reassessment outcomes.

37 It is noted that within this category, there are some types of neurological disease where people have been more likely to gain that to lose. This includes people with Parkinson’s disease, of whom 40% saw their entitlement increase and only 26% decrease, and multiple sclerosis (33% gained while 32% lost). However, this is outweighed by the impact of epilepsy sufferers, who are among the claimants most likely to lose entitlement. Of claimants with epilepsy, 63% lost entitlement (representing 24,000 people), while only 28% gained. This means that, as a category of disease, neurological disease had more losers (41%) than gainers (35%).

38 Within this category, people with learning difficulties or dementia were substantially more likely to gain entitlement than lose it. However, the effect of this is outweighed by people with other categories of psychiatric disorder, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder being much more likely to lose entitlement as a whole

39 These figures relate to unique cases, not unique people. It is possible that one person could make more than one claim to PIP, and therefore appear more than once.

40 Statistics in this diagram are taken from Department for Work and Pensions (2019), Personal Independence Payment: April 2013 to July 2019. The statistics here refer to PIP decisions that have reached the assessment stage, i.e they exclude claims which DWP disallowed before the assessment stage. They also exclude award reviews and change of circumstance decisions.

41 Quantitative statistics around the Experience Panels in this section refer to the “About Your Benefits and You” survey conducted between July and September 2017. 1,144 people with experience of social security completed the survey. However the composition of respondents is not representative of the wider Scottish population, so the results here should only be considered as representing the views of the respondents themselves.

42 Department for Work and Pensions (2019), DWP claimant service and experience survey 2017 to 2018, p. 33

43 Department for Work and Pensions (2018), Personal Independence Payment: claimant experiences of the claim process.

44 Experience Panels findings are drawn from the publications “About your benefits and you” and “Personal Independence Payment health assessments”, both of which are available at Scottish Government (2017), Social Security Experience Panels: publications.

45 Findings are taken from the final and technical reports available from Department for Work and Pensions (2018), Personal Independence Payment: claimant experiences of the claim process.

46 A brief explanation of the background of this decision is available at Department for Work and Pensions (2019), PIP administrative exercise: progress on cases cleared, at 14 June 2019

47 More information on the decision is available from Child Poverty Action Group (2018), PIP and psychological distress.

48 The High Court’s decision can be read in full at British and Irish Legal Information Institute (2017), RF v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, case number [2017] EWHC 3375.

49 More information on the decision is available from Child Poverty Action Group (2018), ‘Safely’ in Personal Independence Payment

50 British and Irish Legal Information Institute (2017), RJ, GMcL and CS v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, case number [2017] UKUT 105 (AAC), paragraph 24.

51 Hansard (2018), PIP Back Payments

52 Department for Work and Pensions (2019), PIP administrative exercise: progress on cases cleared, at 14 June 2019

53 The full list of qualifying benefits which offer entitlement to an SDP is available from UK Government (2019), Disability premiums.

54 These estimates are taken from the Income Support and Employment and Support Allowance tables available from Department for Work and Pensions (2018), Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up: financial year 2016 to 2017. It is noted that this figure represents an estimate of take-up across both Income Support and income-related Employment and Support Allowance in 2016/17, rather than referring to income-related Employment and Support Allowance alone. Since 2016/17, Universal Credit rollout has progressed significantly, reducing the caseload of both ESA and Income Support. This means it is possible that current take-up of ESA deviates significantly from this estimate.

55 Official UC statistics do not currently distinguish between which claimants are entitled to a limited capability for work element and which are entitled to the limited capability for work & work related activity element. The UC figures presented above therefore represent people eligible for either.

56 National Audit Office (2018), Investigation into errors in Employment and Support Allowance

57 UK Parliament (2018), Employment and Support Allowance inquiry, p. 5

58 UK Parliament (2017), Employment and Support Allowance: Written statement - HCWS356

59 Child Poverty Action Group (2018), CPAG legal action leads to full arrears for disabled claimants

60 Department for Work and Pensions (2019), ESA underpayments: progress on checking July 2019

61 The Scottish share of people repaid may be more or less than this for several reasons. For example, only certain categories of claimants were underpaid and the Scottish share of these categories may be different to the Scottish share of the overall ESA caseload.

62 Scottish Government (2019), Disability assistance in Scotland: analysis of consultation responses

63 National Archives (2018), Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018

64 More information on the size criteria used by the DWP is available at Citizens Advice (2019), Housing Benefit size restrictions in social housing.

65 This refers to the proportion of people with the Housing Benefit bedroom tax applied who also claim ESA, taken from DWP Stat-Xplore. Statistics are not published on the number of UC claimants who are subject to the bedroom tax.

66 Scottish Government calculations, based on DWP Stat-Xplore.

67 Scottish Government (2018), A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People: employment action plan

68 Scottish Government (2019), Recruitment and retention plan for disabled people: 2019