DWP error could mean thousands of PIP claimants are owed £5,000

Thousands of Personal Independence Payment claimants could be owed over £5,000 after a major Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) error. Thousands of disabled people may be entitled to payouts worth over £5,000 each following a series of severe administrative blunders. PIP claimants have been incorrectly refused essential support or short-changed due to mistakes spanning several years.

Some applications were wrongfully turned down from people who lacked a National Insurance number, despite the fact that one is not necessary to qualify for PIP. The DWP has examined 455 of these cases and distributed £500,000 in back payments over the past 12 months alone, reports Birmingham Live.

In July 2019, a Supreme Court ruling followed an Upper Tribunal decision that changed how the DWP interprets the term 'social support' for Daily Living activity number nine. This 'MM' judgment relates to the definition of 'social support' when engaging with others face-to-face and when 'prompting' should be considered 'social support' in the PIP assessment, as well as how far in advance social support can be provided.

Ayla Ozmen, director of policy at anti-poverty charity Z2K, warned that benefits underpayment errors could cause "significant financial hardship" for disabled people. "We are calling on the DWP to do everything it can to ensure that these errors are corrected as soon as possible," Ozmen said.

Former Liberal Democrat DWP minister Sir Steve Webb suggested that the review of PIP cases related to social support "could perhaps have been processed more promptly". The creator of the Triple Lock stated that addressing all underpayment issues in benefits was "the right thing to do".

Ozmen stressed it was "vital" for ministers to engage with disabled people regarding reforms "instead of making a bad system even worse". A spokesperson for the DWP said the department was "fully committed to identifying claimants that are owed money and providing the financial support to which they are entitled as quickly as possible".

They added that the DWP would place the views of disabled people "at the heart of a ministerial review of PIP, to ensure the benefit is fit and fair for the future".