Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 8 September 2020 to Question 81701 on Personal Independence Payment, how many of the 18,290 people who registered to claim personal independence payment since April 2018 and who died within six months of making a claim (a) had their application rejected under Normal Rules and (b) were subsequently awarded benefits after appeal; and what primary condition those claimants had.
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is claimed by people with a range of health conditions and disabilities, many of which are degenerative or life limiting and the Department treats the death of any claimant sympathetically.
New Claims made under Special Rules for Terminal Illness (SRTI) are fast tracked and were being cleared in 4 working days on average in April 2020. This is compared to an average of 16 weeks for New Claims cleared under Normal Rules in April 2020, down by 62% from their peak of 42 weeks in July 2014.
The cause of death of claimants to PIP is not collated centrally by the Department. There is no evidence in this data to suggest someone’s reason for claiming PIP was the cause of their death and it would be misleading to suggest otherwise.
Of the 18,290 people who registered a claim to PIP between April 2018 and October 2019 and had died within 6 months of registering a PIP claim:
Table 1 below shows a breakdown of the 1,860 claimants who had their claim disallowed at initial decision under Normal Rules by main disabling category:
Table 1: Breakdown by Disability Category of claimants who died within 6 months of registering a PIP claim from April 2018 – October 2019 and who had their claim disallowed under Normal Rules
Disability Category | Number of claimants |
Autoimmune disease (connective tissue disorders) | - |
Cardiovascular disease | 30 |
Diseases of the liver, gallbladder, biliary tract | 10 |
Endocrine disease | 10 |
Gastrointestinal disease | 10 |
Genitourinary disease | 10 |
Haematological Disease | - |
Hearing disorders | 10 |
Infectious disease | - |
Malignant disease | 50 |
Musculoskeletal disease (general) | 30 |
Musculoskeletal disease (regional) | 20 |
Neurological disease | 30 |
Psychiatric disorders | 100 |
Respiratory disease | 30 |
Skin disease | - |
Unknown or missing | 1,540 |
Visual disease | - |
Total (ALL) | 1,860 |
Notes
Sources: PIP ADS, Customer Information System
Under the Social Security (Notification of Deaths) Regulations 2012 and s125 of Social Security Administration Act 1992 date of death is provided to the Department for all registered deaths. Additionally next of kin also provide information on the date of death of an individual and this information is used appropriately in the administration of Departmental benefits.
Of the 18,290 people who registered a claim to PIP between April 2018 and October 2019 and had died within 6 months of registering a PIP claim, there were 280 claimants who had their claim disallowed following a PIP assessment under Normal Rules up to March 2020. This does not include disallowance decisions made prior to an assessment being completed.
Appeals information for these 280 claimants show that there were 0 Appeals where the DWP decision was overturned or upheld and there were fewer than 5 appeals withdrawn/struck out or lapsed.
Due to small numbers, figures on appeal outcomes by primary disabling condition are not shown.
Notes
Under the Social Security (Notification of Deaths) Regulations 2012 and s125 of Social Security Administration Act 1992 date of death is provided to the Department for all registered deaths. Additionally next of kin also provide information on the date of death of an individual and this information is used appropriately in the administration of Departmental benefits.