Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of removing mobility payments from former disability living allowance recipients reassessed for personal independence payments on the ability of those people to sustain employment.

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is a non-means tested disability benefit that is available to people regardless of whether they are in or out of employment and is intended to help people with the additional costs of their disability. Therefore, the employment status of the claimant is not collected at point of claim and no ongoing monitoring is made of employment status.

A proportion of claimants who were previously entitled to the higher rate mobility component of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) did not receive the enhanced rate mobility component of PIP following reassessment. However, by October 2016 56,000 claimants who were not previously entitled to the higher rate mobility component of DLA were now receiving the enhanced rate mobility component of PIP.

In addition to DLA and PIP, Access to Work is also available, which can provide practical and financial support with the additional costs, beyond reasonable adjustments, faced by individuals whose health or disability affects the way they do their job. The type of support is tailored to an individual’s needs and can include travel to work, support workers and specialist aids and equipment.