Move from DLA to PIP

Thanks for highlighting this Grunkle.

We provide HIV support in Calderdale & Kirklees and have a number of service users who were given special rules and/or indefinite awards of DLA, sometimes donkeys years ago. We are anticipating that many of them will be looking at much reduced PIP awards when the changeover rolls out in earnest. Undoubtedly this will cause hardship but there is a logic to it given the way that Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) drugs have transformed HIV treatment since the 1990s. We don’t tend to see DS1500 claims for HIV as such anymore but we do see a few with associated complications - brain tumours, cancers, etc. We also regularly see HIV Associated Dementia, which can often be treated but is a life threatening condition.

Our area was one of the earlier DLA - PIP random selection postcodes (since 01.09.15) allegedly because of capacity to do the huge numbers of consultations needed. This despite there being not a single PIP assessment centre in Kirklees (population 420,000). However, we have not seen much evidence of the ‘your DLA award is going to stop in 4 weeks’ letters going out. Yet.

The attached guide is what Medical Services used for reference info on HIV (it’s old and may well have been updated).