THE council is urging residents who claim disability benefits to respond quickly to letters about a new payment system.

St Helens residents are to be invited to claim Personal Independent Payments (PIP), which replaces the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and letters are due to start arriving from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in the borough's homes from Monday, July 13.

PIP is already in place for new claimants but will now extend to people who currently have a long-term or indefinite award of DLA.

St Helens Council cabinet member for corporate services, Cllr Anthony Johnson said: "These are major changes that will affect a significant number of our residents claiming disability benefits. We would urge everyone to claim for PIP as soon as they receive their correspondence letter from the DWP.”

DLA will be phased out over the next two years and claimants will not receive PIP automatically just because they qualify for DLA.

All claimants must make their claim for PIP within 28 days of receiving their letter, otherwise their payments will stop.

It is aimed that all existing DLA claimants will have been invited to claim PIP by late 2017.

For more information go to: www.gov.uk/government/publications/timetable-for-pip-replacing-dla