DWP: 650,000 disability benefit claimants have their money cut under new system

More than 650,000 people on disability benefits had their payments cut or stopped totally after moving to a new Tory system.

Official figures – slipped out hours after the election result on Friday – show 46% of all those who have moved from old system DLA to Personal Independence Payments (PIP) lost out financially.

Some 351,000 former DLA claimants had payments stopped altogether since PIP launched in 2013. A further 306,000 had payments decreased.

Meanwhile 200,000 people had their award unchanged and 556,000 saw it rise after moving from DLA to PIP.

It comes after years of complaints about the privatised assessment system – which is overruled in almost three quarters of appeals.

The figures were highlighted by journalist and campaigner Alex Tiffin yesterday and prompted a storm from charities today.

Geoff Firmister of the Disability Benefits Consortium, which represents more than 100 groups, said: “These figures are very worrying and we suspect many of the decisions are wrong.

“We would urge the new Government both to commission research to determine the extent of incorrect decisions and step up its efforts to get things right in the first place.

“The criteria for PIP should also be reviewed, in full consultation with disabled people.

“These are often life-changing amounts of money being withdrawn from people with disabilities and long-term health conditions.”

MS Society spokeswoman Georgina Carr said 100,000 people live with multiple sclerosis and “the PIP process is failing many of them at every stage”.

She added: “Over the course of the election more than 21,000 of us called on the new PM to fix PIP once and for all.

“The fact nearly half of those relying on the benefit have had their award reduced or stopped when moving from DLA to PIP shows just how desperately this needs to happen.

“We need a system that recognises what life with a fluctuating condition is like, without arbitrary and unfair measures like the PIP 20m rule, and we need it soon. People with MS can’t wait any longer.”

James Taylor of disability equality charity Scope said the figures were “extremely worrying”. He added: “Consistently high levels of PIP decisions are being overturned, which demonstrates the assessment is not fit for purpose.

“The new government urgently needs to set out how it will overhaul the PIP assessment to make sure it works for disabled people, not against them.”

Marc Francis of the welfare advice charity Z2K Trust added: “These statistics lay bare the devastating impact of ‘welfare reform’ on hundreds of thousands of disabled people.

“The new Government must make it an absolute priority to reform the discredited assessment processes for both PIP and ESA.”

Meanwhile Mind slammed separate figures which showed 185,838 people with mental health problems saw their disability benefits stopped between June 2016 and October 2019.

Mind spokesman Paul Spencer said: “The impact of financial instability can be devastating for those of us with mental health problems.

“Issues with the current benefits system are in turn leading to huge surges of working poverty and the appalling increase of foodbanks across the UK.

“This is yet another example of how the current system is devastatingly letting down the people it is meant to support.”

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been contacted for comment.