Department for Work and Pensions written question – answered at on 28 May 2025.
Bambos Charalambous
Labour, Southgate and Wood Green
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to page 10 of Young Lives vs Cancer’s report entitled The cost of waiting, published in March 2025, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of average time from diagnosis to first payment of disability benefits; what steps is she taking to reduce processing times for disability benefits' applications from young people with cancer; and what assessment she has made of the potential merits of reducing the three month period from diagnosis before young people with cancer can apply for disability benefits.
Stephen Timms
The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions
Entitlement to Disability Living Allowance for children (DLAc) under 16 and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) for young people from age 16 are assessed based on the additional care/daily living and mobility needs arising from a long-term disability or health condition, rather than a diagnosis of a condition or disability itself.
We are committed to ensuring children and young people can access financial support in a timely manner and have increased the number of staff to respond to the increase in claim volumes.
Individual needs and circumstances vary, so the 3-month qualifying period helps establish the resulting care/daily living and mobility needs are of a long-standing nature. It provides a Division between short term disability and long-term disability. The qualifying period commences from the point that additional needs start, rather than when a condition is diagnosed. A diagnosis is not required before a young person or their carer can apply for benefit, therefore the department has no information on when a diagnosis is made.
Applications under the special rules for end of life, where life expectancy is 12 months or less, do not have to satisfy the three-month qualifying period. The claim is fast tracked, and the person is eligible for the higher-rate care/daily living component from the date of claim.
Yes1 person thinks so
No0 people think not
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Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Allowance for those who need help looking after themselves. Not means tested.
Factsheet from RNID here: http://www.rnid.org.uk/html/factsheets/benefits_disability_allowance_and_deaf_people.htm
Official page from Department for Work and Pensions here: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/lifeevent/benefits/disability_liv_allowance.asp
The House of Commons votes by dividing. Those voting Aye (yes) to any proposition walk through the division lobby to the right of the Speaker and those voting no through the lobby to the left. In each of the lobbies there are desks occupied by Clerks who tick Members' names off division lists as they pass through. Then at the exit doors the Members are counted by two Members acting as tellers. The Speaker calls for a vote by announcing "Clear the Lobbies". In the House of Lords "Clear the Bar" is called. Division Bells ring throughout the building and the police direct all Strangers to leave the vicinity of the Members’ Lobby. They also walk through the public rooms of the House shouting "division". MPs have eight minutes to get to the Division Lobby before the doors are closed. Members make their way to the Chamber, where Whips are on hand to remind the uncertain which way, if any, their party is voting. Meanwhile the Clerks who will take the names of those voting have taken their place at the high tables with the alphabetical lists of MPs' names on which ticks are made to record the vote. When the tellers are ready the counting process begins - the recording of names by the Clerk and the counting of heads by the tellers. When both lobbies have been counted and the figures entered on a card this is given to the Speaker who reads the figures and announces "So the Ayes [or Noes] have it". In the House of Lords the process is the same except that the Lobbies are called the Contents Lobby and the Not Contents Lobby. Unlike many other legislatures, the House of Commons and the House of Lords have not adopted a mechanical or electronic means of voting. This was considered in 1998 but rejected. Divisions rarely take less than ten minutes and those where most Members are voting usually take about fifteen. Further information can be obtained from factsheet P9 at the UK Parliament site.
