Guidance

Disability Living Allowance main disabling condition

Published 13 November 2013

Publication of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) main disabling condition on the Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study (100%) Tabulation Tool

From November 2011 DWP is reinstating the publication of main disabling condition for DLA data on the Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study (WPLS) 100% tabulation tool. The first data to be published will relate to caseloads at May 2011. Additional improvements, explained below, have been made to the way the data is presented. WPLS 100% data should now be the first choice for analysis on main disabling condition for DLA cases. For analysis prior to May 2011 the sample data tabulation tool should still be used. There are no plans to update the sample tabulation tool to reflect the improvements made to the way WPLS 100% data is presented.

Changes made to published disabling condition

Information is published on main disabling condition. This means that where more than one condition is present the main disabling condition is reported on. Prior to May 2011 analysis published on the (sample) tabulation tool classified an individual into one of 16 main disabling conditions and three composite main disabling conditions with the remaining conditions being grouped together in an “Other” category. From May 2011 onwards the main disabling conditions are published to the finest breakdown possible on the WPLS 100% tabulation tool. This means that the categories in the “Other” group are now disaggregated and categories previous grouped together as “Mental Health causes”, “Back Ailments” and “Deafness” are also now disaggregated ^{[footnote 1]}.

More detailed classifications on DLA disabling conditions have previously been published by DWP on its adhoc analysis page.

See for example the paper and tables published on 3 June 2011: “Disability Living Allowance: Disabling Condition – Caseloads and Expenditure 2000/01 and 2009/10” Prior to May 2011 data cases with a disabling condition of “Terminally ill” were allocated to a main disabling condition using the more specific disease code where one was available. From WPLS 100% May 2011 data onwards these will appear with a classification of “Terminally ill” where that is given as the primary reason for the claim. (Most of the affected cases would have been allocated to the “Malignant Disease” classification, with a lesser number to “Aids” and “Motor Neurone” disease).

Why we are reinstating WPLS 100% DLA main disabling condition from May 2011 data onwards

We have reinstated the publication of DLA disabling condition on WPLS 100% tabulation tool for May 2011 data onwards. Previously this information was only published on the sample (5%) tabulation tool due to the proportion of cases which couldn’t be allocated a specific main disabling condition based on the data sets which were available for analysis.

These cases were recorded as being transferred from the Attendance Allowance (AA) system on data sets available for statistical analysis, instead of having a disabling condition code . (When DLA was introduced in 1992 a large number of cases were transferred from the AA system). This problem did not exist on sample data so sample data was used for analysis. The proportion of cases which appear as “transferred from the AA system” on WPLS 100% data has now dropped to less than 3% so we have taken a decision that the benefits in being able to produce analysis on 100% of cases outweigh the issue of the relatively small proportion of cases not being allocated to a specific disabling code.

Changes in coding of disabling conditions made in October 2008

In October 2008 the disabling classification codes for claimants to DLA and AA were revised so that a much finer classification is available for new and reviewed cases. At the time of writing (September 2011) it is not possible to report on these finer classifications separately as the majority of cases recorded on the system are recorded under the old, less detailed classification system. Cases classified under the new finer scheme are allocated to one of the pre-existing classification groups for reporting purposes. The exception to this rule is where a condition recorded separately under new disabling code does not map directly to a pre-October 2008 classification. This occurs for the following cases:

“Cognitive disorder: precise diagnosis not specified”

Consists of those cases where the precise cause of the cognitive disorder (e.g. due to a stroke or due to dementia) has not been specified. Under the pre October 2008 coding system these cases would have either had a missing disability code for statistical purposes or a decision would have been forced on the Decision Maker to allocate to “Dementia” or in the case of cognitive disorder due to a stroke “Cerebrovascular Disease”. Cases allocated before October 2008 will still have these classifications recorded for statistical purposes.

Infectious Disease categories

Prior to October 2008 infectious diseases were not allocated to specific Infectious Disease classifications. Instead they were allocated to the existing classifications that best described them: e.g. pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) would be allocated to “Chest Diseases” but other types of TB would have been allocated differently, e.g. Renal TB would have been allocated to Renal Disorders. From October 2008 onwards incidences of TB of all types are recorded as TB and are reported in the table as “Infectious diseases: Bacterial disease – Tuberculosis”. An example of an infectious disease recorded as “Infectious diseases: Protozoal disease – other / precise diagnosis not specified” would be Giardiasis; pre-October 2008 this would have been most likely to be recorded in the “Inflammatory Bowel Disease” category as this would have given the closest fit to the condition. Cases allocated before October 2008 will still have these classifications recorded for statistical purposes. Please note: From October 2008 Obesity, which would have previously been included in the general classification of “Behavioural disorder”, was allocated to a specific code (as were the other conditions formerly recorded under the umbrella classification of “Behavioural disorder”). From February 2010 all “Obesity” cases that could be identified (i.e. had been allocated using the new finer classification system) were reclassified under “Metabolic disease”).

Mental Health Causes: This consists of the categories: Psychosis, Psychoneurosis, Personality Disorder, Dementia, Behavioural Disorder and Severely Mentally impaired.

Deafness: This consisted of Deafness and Deaf/Blind.

Back Ailments: This consisted of Spondylosis and ‘Back Pain - other / precise diagnosis not specified’. Examples of categories that feed into the ‘Back Pain - other / precise diagnosis not specified’ group are Spinal stenosis and Scoliosis.

1. The 3 composite classifications which are published separately on the WPLS 100% tabulation tool but are still published in composite form on the sample tabulation tool are: ↩