People who suffer from specific health conditions could be eligible for financial support from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Claimants who are successful could receive up to £627 a month under the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) bracket, reports Somerset Live. This benefit aims to help with daily living or mobility costs.
This news comes as data from October 2022 shows a rise in the amount of people claiming for psychiatric disorders, that include anxiety, stress, learning disorders or depression. This data was provided by the DWP.
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The amount of money you receive in PIP depends on the severity of your condition.
The number of people claiming PIP across the country increased from 3,129,589 to 3,164,551 in just a month, from September to October 2022. This is a rise of 34,962 claimants in just a few weeks.
This also included a rise of 10,200 people who claim for musculoskeletal conditions like arthritis, joint pain, chronic or back pain and hip disorders.
Read on below to find out more about PIP, who is eligible and how you could claim in 2023.
What is a Personal Independence Payment (PIP)?
A Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is a benefit that aims to help with living costs if the person is living with the following:
a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability
have difficulty doing certain everyday tasks or getting around because of your condition.
You can get PIP even if you’re working, have savings or are getting most other benefits.
Who is eligible for PIP?
You can get Personal Independence Payment (PIP) if all of the following apply to you:
- you’re 16 or over
- you have a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability
- you have difficulty doing certain everyday tasks or getting around
- you expect the difficulties to last for at least 12 months from when they started
To claim, you must also be under State Pension age if you have never received PIP before. If you are over State Pension age, you can get Attendance Allowance instead.
Those who have received PIP before can still make a new claim if you were eligible for it in the year before you reached State Pension age.
How much PIP you get depends on how difficult you find the following:
everyday activities (‘daily living’ tasks)
getting around (‘mobility’ tasks)
PIP amounts
- Daily living part: the lower weekly rate is £6, whereas the higher weekly rate is £92.40
- Mobility part: the lower weekly rate is £24.45, whereas the higher weekly rate is £64.50
PIP is tax free. The amount you get is not affected by your income or savings.
The list of conditions and number of UK claimants as of October 2022
Listed below is the main disability categories that people can claim PIP for, where 547 other conditions fall under these categories.
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This list is only an overview of conditions, disorders and diseases and how the DWP lists the main disabilities being claimed for, and how many people are claiming for each one.
- Haematological Disease - 7,300
- Infectious disease - 9,897
- Malignant disease - 9,7426
- Metabolic disease - 4,667
- Psychiatric disorders - 1,166,695
- Neurological disease - 403,469
- Visual disease - 56,351
- Hearing disorders - 33,424
- Cardiovascular disease - 80,815
- Gastrointestinal disease - 27,840
- Diseases of the liver, gallbladder, biliary tract -11,328
- Skin disease - 20,835
- Musculoskeletal disease (general) - 635,450
- Musculoskeletal disease (regional) - 376,965
- Autoimmune disease (connective tissue disorders) - 17,596
- Genitourinary disease - 23,805
- Endocrine disease - 42,264
- Respiratory disease - 135,530
- Multisystem and extremes of age - 1,186
- Diseases of the immune system - 1,028
- Unknown or missing - 10,688
Total - 3,1645,51
The five most commonly recorded disabling conditions
Psychiatric disorder - 37 per cent of claims
- This includes mixed anxiety, stress, depressive and mood disorders, OCD and cognitive disorders.
Musculoskeletal disease (general) - 20 per cent of claims
- This includes muscle or joint pain and arthritic conditions.
Neurological disease - 13 per cent of claims
- This includes muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, headache, multiple sclerosis, neuropathy and other movement disorders.
Musculoskeletal disease (regional) - 12 per cent of claims
- This includes neck, back, shoulders, elbow, wrists, hands, hip, knee and ankle pain.
Respiratory disease - four per cent of claims
- This includes asthma, diseases of the upper respiratory tract, pulmonary fibrosis and cystic fibrosis.
Around 35 per cent of all claims with entitlement to PIP at the end of October 2022 are in receipt of the highest level of award, with both daily living and mobility components received at the enhanced rate.
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