Social Security Benefits: Terminal Illnesses
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of expanding Special Rules to all residents with a terminal illness diagnosis.
Answered by Sir Stephen Timms
The Department supports people nearing the end of life through special benefit rules – called the Special Rules for End of Life (‘Special Rules’). For many years, the Special Rules applied to people who have 6 months or less to live, they now apply to people who have 12 months or less to live.
This definition is set out in the Social Security (Special Rules for End of Life) Bill 2022 passed under the last Government.
This Government has no current plans to extend the Special Rules eligibility criteria beyond 12 months. The 12-month criteria aligns with the definition of end of life used across the NHS
The Department recognises that determining an end-of-life prognosis is challenging. The current definition in legislation is clear; it applies where there is a reasonable expectation that death in consequence of a progressive disease is expected in the next 12-months. We support this in our guidance for clinicians, where we ask clinicians to consider: “their patient’s ‘estimated prognosis’ and whether it would not come as a surprise if their patient were to die in the next 12 months.”
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