Overwhelming psychological distress and journeys: changes to PIP law from 28 November 2016
Updated 4 April 2022
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Background
In Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) considers your ability to plan and follow a journey.
Change to PIP law
From 28 November 2016 there was a change to the way DWP considers how overwhelming psychological distress affects your ability to plan and follow a journey.
DWP will now consider how this affects your ability to plan and follow a journey when it decides whether to award the mobility part of PIP. DWP will also consider this when it decides whether to award:
- the standard rate of the mobility part
- the enhanced rate of the mobility part
What this means for you
We are looking at all current PIP claims to check if this change means you may be eligible for more support under PIP.
We are also looking again at claims we decided on or after 28 November 2016 where we did not award PIP.
We will not look again at your PIP claim if you have been getting the enhanced rate of both the daily living and mobility parts of PIP since 28 November 2016.
Once we have looked at your claim again we will write to you to let you know the outcome. Because of the large number of cases that DWP will need to review, it may take some time for you to get this letter.
You may not get more PIP under this change. If we decide that you should get more PIP then your award will usually be backdated to 28 November 2016, or if you claimed PIP after 28 November 2016, backdated to the date you started getting PIP.
We are not planning to invite you to a face-to-face assessment as part of this review.
The change to how overwhelming psychological distress is considered is a result of an Upper Tribunal judgment on overwhelming psychological distress and journeys.
You can apply for PIP again if you think you may now be eligible. The change to PIP law will apply to all new claims.
Help with PIP
You can contact a local support organisation or Citizens Advice to get help understanding PIP.