After being made available to claimants in the north of England earlier this year, Personal Independence Payment (PIP), a replacement for Disability Living Allowance (DLA), is now being rolled out across the UK.

Although existing DLA claimants will have to wait until October, or later, to be reassessed under the PIP process, all new claims will now be made entirely under the new system.

PIP is aimed at those who are aged between 16 and 64 and for those who suffer from a long-term disability or health condition that affects their ability to live independently. It differs from DLA in that part of the assessment of whether or not an individual qualifies is also carried out by a health professional, rather than just via self-assessment questionnaires. The assessment of eligibility is not based on the condition that a disabled person has, but on how their individual condition affects their ability to live their own daily lives.

There are two main components to PIP; the daily living component and the mobility component. Both can be paid at either the standard rate or the enhanced rate. The PIP assessment is made on the basis of 12 activities and how able the claimant is to carry out those activities. These activities include getting around, washing and bathing, understanding signs, symbols and words, and planning and following journeys.

The impact of the new PIP system is likely to be mixed for those who are already claiming the DLA. According to estimates produced by the government, some 510,000 recipients will get a higher payment under the new system and the same number are likely to see their PIP payment drop to below what they were receiving under the DLA.

For 450,000 recipients of the DLA, there will be no PIP payment, meaning that this income stream will stop altogether. The charity Scope puts this figure at more like 600,000 but it will not be possible to accurately identify the numbers until everyone has transferred over to the new benefit.

Existing DLA claimants will not be automatically transferred across to the PIP system, but will have to undergo an entirely new assessment, as eligibility for PIP is not automatic.

The Department of Work and Pensions has already begun sending out invitations to those who already receive DLA payments inviting them to apply for new PIP benefit and those who do not do so within four weeks risk having their DLA payments suspended and then completely stopped, so the switchover is not a voluntary arrangement.

The changes being made are intended to remove the previous system of lifetime disability benefit awards and to save money by reducing the amount of benefits being paid out. As a result, the criteria for PIP are much stricter, for example, the DLA offered a higher rate of mobility component where the claimant was ‘virtually unable to walk,’ which was assessed as not being able to more than 50 metres. The mobility criteria in PIP has been shortened to just 20 metres.

Although at the moment it is hard to tell how many people will be negatively affected by the switch to PIP, by 2015 all of those who are currently receiving DLA payments should have been invited to make a PIP claim, with all DLA claimants being moved over to PIP by 2018. It will only be at this point that we will begin to see what the implications of PIP for those with a disability really are.