Personal Independence Payment

(asked on 26th January 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the impact of her Department's policy to suspend Personal Independence Payments when claimants are hospitalised for more than 28 days on the likelihood of recipients seeking medical care.


Answered by
Tom Pursglove Portrait
Tom Pursglove
Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
This question was answered on 30th January 2023

Where an adult aged 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.

We have no evidence that the policy may affect an individual’s decisions to seek medical care.

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