We did it! We changed DWP guidance on PIP assessments

Our welfare benefits team could see DWP policy (in its guidance to medical assessors) effectively encouraging use of stronger and dangerous painkillers (opioids) - counter to what many people want, and to medical advice. Disability benefits were being refused on the basis of the painkiller or dosage being taken as a proxy of the level of pain experienced. The team gathered robust evidence from many cases they worked on where the initial refusal was then overturned in the vast majority of cases at appeal.