Time to read
People living with HIV are not getting the support they need from Personal Independence Payment (PIP), according to new research from the National AIDS Trust.
PIP replaces Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and is supposed to promote independence and participation by helping pay for the extra costs of living with a disability.[2]
Not everyone living with HIV in the UK has benefitted equally from modern treatments – for example, long-term survivors and people diagnosed late – and some will have life-long health problems as a result of HIV.
At the time that DLA was abolished, 10% of all people accessing HIV care in the UK needed support from the benefit.
Compared to people with other disabilities, though, people living with HIV who had DLA awards are less likely to be successful in claiming the new benefit.[3] Those who are successful in moving from DLA to PIP are more likely to receive a decrease in financial support with their new benefit, than people with other conditions.[4]
Deborah Gold, Chief Executive of NAT, says:
“The evidence so far is that PIP is not working for people living with HIV who need extra support.
The assessment is not fit for its stated purpose, to identify the disability-related barriers to participation and independence experienced by people living with HIV. The tick-box eligibility criteria describe only the most basic aspects of existence, such as physical capacity to consume food and bathe, without any understanding of the social context of life with a serious long-term condition.
The two independent reviews of PIP only looked at questions of implementation – the assessment rules and criteria have not been subject to review since they were introduced in 2013.
It is not too late to improve PIP for people living with HIV: so far only around 1 in 8 DLA claimants with HIV have been through the assessment.[5] It is time to look again at PIP.”