Millions of UK residents have one of the 19 conditions that make people eligible to claim Personal Independence Payments (PIP) worth over £600 a month.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) pays the money to claimants to help cover costs incurred by having long-term physical or mental health conditions or disabilities.
Despite the essential support the benefit provides, the application process dissuades many from claiming it as it is notoriously strict and takes up to five months to make a new claim.
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Roughly seven in 10 applications are rejected, according to disability equality charity Scope, which encourages people to continue applying if they think they're eligible, LancsLive reports.
Around 2.8 million people claimed PIP as of October 2021.
The majority of disabling conditions recorded in claims were either psychiatric disorders or musculoskeletal diseases (general).
Your eligibility for the welfare payment comes down to the impact of your disability or illness has on your life, regardless of your job, savings or circumstances.
If you need help with daily living, such as household and personal tasks like eating, making money decisions or socialising, you could get a weekly rate of £60 at the lower end, or higher rate of £89.60.
A second mobility part of the benefit sees eligible claimants paid a lower rate of £23.70 per week or a higher rate £62.55 if they need help leaving their home, or navigating outside or within their home.
You do not need to have a physical disability to claim the mobility aspect of PIP.
To be eligible to claim PIP, you must:
have a long-term condition expected to last for a minimum of 12 months
be 16 years old or older, and younger than the State Pension age
generally be living in England, Scotland or Wales
have lived in England, Scotland or Wales for two of the last three years, unless you have recently returned from the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein
Numerous conditions make people eligible to claim PIP, with the top claims coming in at £608 a month.
A range of general categories that the DWP lists as the main disabilities being claimed for:
- Haematological Disease - 5,877
- Infectious disease - 4,718
- Malignant disease - 79,073
- Metabolic disease - 4,279
- Psychiatric disorders - 995,774
- Neurological disease - 352,701
- Visual disease - 50,852
- Hearing disorders - 28,677
- Cardiovascular disease - 66,474
- Gastrointestinal disease - 21,879
- Diseases of the liver, gallbladder, biliary tract - 8,902
- Skin disease - 16,955
- Musculoskeletal disease - 882,904
- Autoimmune disease (connective tissue disorders) - 18,155
- Genitourinary disease - 18,942
- Endocrine disease - 30,083
- Respiratory disease - 116,479
- Multisystem and extremes of age - 928
- Diseases of the immune system - 851
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