Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she will review the rules on the suspension of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) after 28 days in hospital; and if she will introduce provisions to allow the exercise of discretion where a claimant’s stay is prolonged due to delays in discharge and where they continue to incur disability-related expenses during that period.

Where an adult age 18 or over is maintained free of charge while undergoing medical or other treatment as an in-patient in a hospital or similar institution funded by the NHS, payment of (but not entitlement to) Personal Independence Payment (PIP) ceases after 28 days.

This is on the basis that the NHS is responsible for not only the person’s medical care but also the entirety of their disability-related extra costs and to pay PIP in addition would be a duplication of public funds intended for the same purpose. Once someone is discharged from hospital, payment of PIP recommences from the date of discharge. These are statutory arrangements, common to the extra costs benefits.