Burdens of proof: How difficulties providing medical evidence make PIP harder to claim

Burdens of proof: How difficulties providing medical evidence make PIP harder to claim 224 KB

The full briefing by Simon Collerton and Maddy Rose, on how difficulties around providing medical evidence within Personal Independence Payment claims, is available using the link above. There is a summary below.

• Providing medical evidence to support a Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claim is something many of the people we help find difficult. Long waiting times, charges for evidence, digital exclusion and confusion about the rules can all cause significant problems.

• The medical evidence people can provide isn’t always useful for PIP claims. Some medical evidence doesn’t demonstrate the functional impact of a condition, and health professionals don’t always know what information is relevant to include.

• When medical evidence is provided, our advisers say the DWP don’t treat it consistently when making decisions about PIP claims.

Our main policy asks are:

1. The government should not increase requirements for claimants to provide medical evidence and/or formal diagnoses as part of upcoming plans to reform disability benefits.

2. Medical evidence must be used consistently and reliably when making decisions about PIP claims.

3. The process for collecting medical evidence should be reformed. This could involve reducing the barriers that claimants face when gathering evidence, or having the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) take responsibility for collecting medical evidence on behalf of claimants.