Difficulties claiming Personal Independence Payment benefit

Money Box

BBC

Business

4.2 • 804 Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2021

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Many people on Disability Living Allowance are rejected when they are assessed for the newer benefit Personal Independence Payment (PIP). Paul Lewis hears about some of the experiences of claiming PIP and discusses with Daphne Hall, vice chair of the National Association of Welfare Rights Advisers and Dr Jim McCormick, chair of the Disability and Carers Benefits Advisory Group.

More than 100,000 couples in the UK divorce each year — around 40% of marriages. It is over 20 years since divorcing couples could bring the value of pensions into the pot when they share their assets. But only one out of every eight cases take pensions into account as part of the financial settlement. So why is pension sharing at divorce forgotten in so many cases? Paul Lewis speaks to Jo Edwards, head of Family Law at Forsters.

Up to a quarter of a million people over the age of 70 get no state pension - but around half of them could. Former pensions minister Steve Webb explains all.

It’s nearly three months since we first reported that people were suffering weeks of delays when they try to access their pension funds invested with Prudential. Since then those weeks of delays have turned into months… and still the problems continue. Dan Whitworth investigates.

Researcher: Anita Langary Production co-ordinator: Janet Staples Reporter: Dan Whitworth Producer: Ben Carter Editor: Alex Lewis

Transcript

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0:00.0	In Northern Ireland, from the late 70s to the early 90s, the IRA killed over 40 alleged informers.
0:08.0	But the man who often found, tortured and sometimes killed these people on behalf of the IRA
0:12.0	was himself an informer, a secret British army agent with the codename Stakeknife.
0:18.0	Who gets to play God? And why me? Why my family? When lies are still being told to this day,
0:24.0	who do you believe? I wouldn't even know where to start and I'm with the IRA.
0:28.6	Steakknife. Listen first on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, Radio, podcasts.
0:40.4	Hello, welcome to this Moneybox podcast.
0:44.7	Why do most divorces not take account of the value of pensions?
0:48.6	People are still waiting months to get their own money out of prudential.
0:52.8	A quarter of a million over 70s get no state pension.
0:55.5	Many of them could claim it with a phone call.
1:01.0	And what are your rights if you feel so bad after a COVID jab you need to take a day or too off work? But first, the family of a young disabled woman who took a fatal overdose
1:06.7	after 28 errors by the Department for Work and Pensions is demanding compensation.
1:12.3	Earlier this year, a coroner found that those mistakes were a predominant factor in the death of Philippa Day,
1:19.1	who took her own life in 2019, aged just 27.
1:23.1	One of her many stressful dealings with the department was claiming a benefit called PIP,
1:28.3	Personal Independence Payment.
1:30.5	Many disabled people have failed to get through the PIP assessment procedure after it replaced
1:34.8	another disability benefit in 2013.
1:37.8	One listener, Lisa, tells us her experience.
1:40.8	One of the most difficult parts of applying for PIP when you have a hidden disability like I do with fibromyalgia
1:47.1	is a fear of not being believed, the humiliation of the actual assessment and then being judged by a normally
	...

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