Our vision is a world where everyone all of ages living with inflammatory arthritis can freely pursue their dreams and live life to the full.
What is PIP? Personal Independence Payment can help with extra living costs if you have both: one a long term physical or mental health condition or disability and two difficulty doing certain everyday tasks or getting around because of your condition. There are two parts to PIP:
- daily living part – if you need help with everyday tasks,
- mobility part – if you need help with getting around.
You can get PIP even if you’re working.
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions announced on March 18th plans to reform welfare benefits, with a particular focus on PIP for individuals with greater needs. The changes are:
- A minimum score of four on at least one of the daily living activities to be eligible for the daily living element of PIP. Meaning you will have to show you have a great difficulty with daily activities such as washing, eating and dressing.
- Eligibility for mobility needs will be unaffected.
- PIP assessments will be recorded.
- There will be an increase in the number of face to face assessments.
- These changes will come into effect in November 2026
Our response:
We fully support the government’s efforts to help people get back to work, and we also recognise that many people living with IA want to work. Work provides structure, focus, and purpose. But for that to truly be beneficial, the working environment must be supportive and enable people to thrive. Unfortunately, we know this isn’t always the case especially for people living with IA.
Employers and businesses also need to step up and do more to support people with IA at work. That means providing meaningful, flexible opportunities that utilise skills and experience while ensuring there is open communication about what employees truly need. Understanding IA is key and employers must educate themselves so they can provide better support – not just for older employees but for younger individuals too, because IA affects people of all ages. IA affects people differently so it is vital employers work with employees to make sure their work environment is suitable for them.
This ties into the need for better services. Early diagnosis is crucial. It allows people to begin treatment sooner, increasing the chances of staying in work and have better outcomes in life whilst living with IA. We also need better access to treatments, including home care delivery services, whilst this is improving, there is still more to be done to make sure everyone with IA has the medications when they need it.
IAUK will be working with – government, businesses, and healthcare providers – to make the people with IA who can still work or return to work are able to by having the workplace more inclusive and accessible for people with IA. Living with a health condition is not a choice, but improving support is.
Please do listen to Inflammatory! episode 7 Redundancy to Routine, where we discuss working with IA.
