Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
The government are considering reforming the DLA and replacing it with Personal Independence Payments (PIP). It will be a clearer, more targeted benefit, with an objective assessment; designed to enable disabled people to participate more fully in society. It will follow a social rather than a medical model, based on a person’s needs and the barriers that they face rather than their individual disability.
What are medical and social models?
Medical model:
Through the medical model, disability is understood as an individual problem. If someone has an impairment- a visual, mobility or hearing impairment. For example their inability to see, walk or hear is understood as their disability.
Social model:
Through the social model, disability is understood as an unequal relationship within society, in which the needs of people with impairments are often given little or no consideration.
SAIF-2009, Scottish Accessible Information Forum
