Who benefits? A campaign to protect DLA for people with autism

Who Benefits? challenges the Government’s proposed reforms to Disability Living Allowance (DLA).

Thanks to your campaigning, the Government has promised that changes to DLA will not disadvantage people with autism. The Government has assured us that those who need financial support will qualify for the new Personal Independence Payment (PIP).

Latest news

• The Government has reversed its decision to remove the mobility component of DLA for people in residential care.
• Ministers accepted our recommendation that people with sufficient expert evidence about their autism should not have to go through a stressful face-to-face assessment.  
• We recommended that assessors should have full training in autism. A commitment has been made to specify the training requirements in contracts.  
• We recommended that the assessment criteria (descriptors) reflect the variety of the difficulties people with autism experience. The second draft criteria published last year includes descriptors on engaging socially and communicating.

Despite these commitments there is there is still much more we need to do. We asked you to respond to the new consultation about DLA, to tell the Government what you thought the assessment process for the PIP should be like. It is absolutely crucial that this assessment is designed to recognise the difficulties people with autism have.

About the campaign

In the 2010 emergency summer budget it was announced that £1 billion was to be cut from the Government’s projected spend on DLA over three years, with the Government proposing replacing DLA for adults with a new benefit, called the PIP. Applicants for the PIP will need to have a face-to-face assessment with a professional. We are worried that the combination of the budget cut and the change in assessment process will make it much harder for adults with autism to claim the benefit.

The Who Benefits? report

Our Who Benefits? report was based on the stories of over 250 people with autism, family members and carers. They told us that DLA was an absolute lifeline, supporting them to be more independent, or sometimes simply helping them to get by. Our report challenged the cuts to DLA proposed by the Government and set out key recommendations to ensure the new system would work better for adults with autism.

Resources

• Who Benefits? campaign report (PDF)
• Don't Limit Mobility report, a joint campaign with other disability charities to oppose the plan to remove the mobility component of DLA for people in residential care (PDF)
• Our response to the Government's consultation on DLA reform (PDF) 
• A response to the Government’s consultation on DLA reform from the Disability Benefits Consortium (of which the NAS is a member charity) (PDF)