Fast-Track Severe Disability Group Criteria Revealed

With many thanks to Benefits And Work.

The DWP have revealed the draft criteria they will be using to select claimants for the Severe Disability Group, which will allow fast-track claims for disability benefits.  Benefits and Work would like to know if readers with severe, lifelong conditions think they would meet the criteria.

What is the Severe Disability Group?

The purpose of the Severe Disability Group is to improve the disability benefits assessment process for claimants who have conditions which are severely disabling, lifelong and with no realistic prospect of recovery.

Claimants who fit the criteria will not need to complete a detailed application form or go through a face-to-face assessment in order to claim personal independence payment (PIP) or to be found to have limited capability for work-related activity (LCWRA) for employment and support allowance (ESA0 or universal credit (UC).

The introduction of a Severe Disability Group was first consulted on in the Health and Disability green paper in 2021.

The resulting Health and Disability white paper published in 2023 revealed that design and testing of the Severe Disability Group had already begun.

The DWP have now announced that they are widening the testing of the Severe Disability Group, with two separate tests taking place, both relating to PIP.  There is more on this below.

How the Severe Disability Group works

Where a claimant is considered likely to meet the criteria for the Severe Disability Group, a short form will be sent to their specialist clinician.  The form is similar to the SR1/DS1500 form used for claimants who are terminally ill.

You can download a copy of the SR1 form from the response to this freedom of information request.

If the specialist confirms that the claimant meets the criteria, they will not be required to attend an assessment and will no longer be required to fill in complex forms, such as the PIP ‘How your disability affects you’ form or the ESA50/UC50.

Testing the criteria

The DWP are currently running two tests of the draft Severe Disability Group criteria

One test involves asking a selected group of clinicians to identify patients they believe are suitable.

The other test involves the DWP contacting claimants they consider to be likely to meet the criteria and asking if they would be willing to take part.  If they are, the DWP will then contact their clinician and ask them to complete a brief form. 

The DWP have said that participation is entirely voluntary, claimants can withdraw at any time and they “will not be financially disadvantaged by taking part.”

Official criteria

In order to meet the Severe Disability Group criteria, the DWP say claimants must :

have an irreversible or progressive condition, confirmed or managed by a secondary care specialist, with no realistic prospect of improvement 

have had no significant response to treatment, or treatment will not improve function, or no further treatment is planned

have a severe impairment of physical or mental function (or likely to develop this within 6 months) such that they need assistance from another person to complete two or more activities of daily living

The Secretary of State is satisfied that, for the individual patient the criteria have been fulfilled for: 
enhanced Personal Independence Payment (PIP) daily living or mobility components
functional limited capacity for work-related activity (LCWRA) or support group

Our interpretation

There is no published official guidance on how to interpret these criteria. So, please be aware that the definitions below are our understanding of the criteria, they are not official definitions.

An irreversible condition is one that may not deteriorate further but will also not improve, such as a learning disability, ADHD, spinal cord injury or cerebral palsy.

A progressive condition is one that is known to deteriorate, such as osteoarthritis, Parkinson’s disease, COPD or Alzheimer’s disease.  

A secondary care specialist is someone who is not in the first line of treatment.  So, a GP or mental health nurse would not be included, but a cardiologist or a psychiatrist would be.  It appears that you don’t need to be currently seeing a specialist, but you need to at least have had your condition confirmed by a specialist.

There is no planned treatment that will improve your condition further.

Your condition needs to affect two or more activities of daily living to the extent that you need assistance from another person.  These activities aren’t defined, but the list of PIP daily living activities would seem to be a likely place to start.

For PIP, you need to be able to meet the threshold for an enhanced award of the PIP daily living or mobility component.  If you don’t already get an award, you can check the criteria using the Benefits and Work PIP test.

For UC or ESA, you need to meet the criteria for being in the LCWRA group or the support group.  If you don’t currently get either of these benefits you can our UC WCA test for LCWRA or use our ESA test for the support group.