The payment rates for PIP recently changed
People receiving PIP (Personal Independence Payment) are being urged to check whether they qualify for more DWP support. This is particularly timely to find out now following the April uplift in benefit rates.
Welfare specialists are concerned that certain people may be losing out on the benefit entirely despite meeting eligibility criteria, while others might qualify for enhanced payment levels. PIP is designed to assist with the additional expenses associated with living with a long-term health condition or disability. These payments are not means-tested, meaning your entitlement is unaffected by your income or work status. Payment amounts vary according to how significantly your condition impacts you.
Therefore, if you’re currently receiving the benefit and your circumstances deteriorate, you may qualify for increased support. Rebecca Lamb, external relations manager at finances support group Money Wellness, warned that existing claimants might be missing out on more financial assistance through the programme.
A common problem
She explained: “A common issue is people being awarded a lower rate of PIP than they may be entitled to, simply because they don’t fully explain the day-to-day impact of their condition. PIP assessments focus on how your condition affects you in practice, not just your diagnosis.
“So if people only describe their condition medically, or downplay their difficulties, they can miss out on higher awards. We often see people who are used to ‘coping’ understate their struggles, but that can mean missing out on significant financial support – in some cases more than £4,000 a year between standard and enhanced rates.”
The benefit comprises both a daily living component and a mobility component, each offering lower and higher rates depending on how severely your condition affects you. It’s possible to receive nothing for one element while claiming either rate for the other.
How much is PIP worth?
Payments rose by 3.8 per cent in April, in line with inflation. Here are the current weekly payment rates:
Daily living component
- Lower – £76.70 a week
- Higher – £114.60 a week
Mobility component
- Lower – £30.30 a week
- Higher – £80 a week.
This means if you were receiving the lower rate for the daily living component and successfully moved to the higher rate, you’d pocket an additional £37.90 weekly, or £151.60 every four-week payment period. That works out to an extra £1,970.80 annually.
The financial boost is even more substantial if you upgrade from the lower mobility rate to the higher rate. You’d gain an extra £49.70 per week, or £198.80 in your four-weekly payment. That translates to an additional £2,584.40 each year.
Ms Lamb warned that another risk is people with health conditions that vary in their symptoms could also lose out on their entitlements. She said: “We often see people with conditions like chronic pain, mobility issues, heart or lung conditions, neurological conditions, and fluctuating health conditions ruling themselves out too early, when they may still qualify for support.
“One of the biggest misconceptions is that you need to be unable to work or extremely unwell to qualify for PIP, but that’s not the case.”
