The ‘Special Rules’ allow people nearing the end of life to:

• get faster, easier access to some benefits
• get higher payments for some benefits
• avoid a medical assessment

Clinicians, such as a GP, hospital consultant, hospice doctor or registered nurse, can be asked to provide medical evidence (currently a DS1500) for a benefit claim under the ‘Special Rules’ process.

At present, the DWP is in the middle of making legislative changes to the Special Rules eligibility criteria to allow fast-tracked access to financial support for those who may have 12 months or less to live, rather than an estimated 6 months, which has been the case up until now.

DWP recognises that an increasing number of people are living with chronic illness and co-morbidities and that people need more support at an earlier stage when approaching the end of life. Therefore, DWP is changing the current 6-month ‘Special Rules’ criteria to a model which considers whether an individual is likely to be in their final year of life, that is with a 12-month time-frame.

The intent of this change to the ‘Special Rules’ process is to align with the current NHS/GMC definition of ‘end of life’ which states that ‘patients are approaching the end of life when they are likely to die within the next 12 months’. One of the aims of this alignment is to bring conversations about financial support into mind when taking a holistic approach to supporting patients with advanced progressive illness, poor prognoses or terminal conditions.

These changes are occurring in a staggered fashion and DWP have created online resource for clinicians (nurses and doctors) which explains the current situation, introduces the new medical evidence form and provides all other info that might be required (www.gov.uk/dwp/special-rules)