Disability Living Allowance (Hansard, 11 February 1999)

§ Mr. Bayley

From April 1999 a new system of periodically reviewing entitlement to Disability Living Allowance (DLA) will be introduced. We intend to incorporate the lessons already learned and to evaluate and refine the process as it develops. At the outset not only will DLA recipients whose cases were examined by the Benefit Integrity Project (BIP) be excluded from the process but also people in any one of the specific categories previously excluded from the action of the BIP which are listed below.

Groups to be excluded at the outset:

1. People receiving the higher rate of the DLA mobility component and either the highest or the middle rate of the DLA care component who are:

Paraplegic
Tetraplegic
Quadriplegic
Both deaf and blind
Double amputees
Severely Mentally Impaired¹
Over the age of 65, or
With an award made prior to April 1992

2. People receiving the higher rate of the DLA mobility component and the highest rate of the DLA care component with:

Cystic Fibrosis
Dementia
Haemodialysis
Hyperkinetic Syndrome
Learning difficulty¹
Multiple Allergy Syndrome
Multiple Sclerosis
Motor Neurone Disease
Neurological Disease (including Muscular Dystrophy)
Parkinson's Disease
Total Parenteral Nutrition, or
Who are terminally ill¹

3. People with a fixed period award due to end within the next three years will also be excluded. Safeguards developed and introduced during the lifetime of the BIP will be carried forward into the new process. This will include the changes in evidence gathering introduced on 9 February 1998; which ensured that no decision to reduce or remove entitlement to DLA is based solely on the information provided by the claimant.

¹ This category applies only to certain people within these broad definitions.