Arthritis Care

Arthritis Care has submitted evidence, based on people with arthritis' experiences, to the independent review of the implementation of Personal Independence Payment (PIP). We said:

o The process of claiming PIP is difficult and very frequently plagued by huge delays, causing serious financial hardship and stress. We called for assessor companies to be financially penalised for delays to claims.

o The face - to - face consultations frequently fail to take account of how people's arthritis conditions fluctuate, and make it hard to reliably carry out daily tasks. We call for assessors to have better training and guidance on assessing fluctuating conditions.

o We cited examples of people with very substantial mobility needs being denied the upper rate of mobility payment, resulting in serious hardship: we have previously predicted as much to government, and called for the "20 metre rule" denying entitlement to the upper rate of mobility allowance to those who can able to walk more than 20 metres, to be scrapped.

o Arthritis Care will follow up with the Department of Work and Pensions to establish if they will make changes to the assessment process following the consultation. If satisfactory changes are not made we will continue to raise this matter with parliamentarians and in the national media.