New disability benefit replaces DLA

• The Personal Independence Payment (PIP) scheme is being introduced for people with a health condition or disability aged 16 to 64.
• It was introduced for new claims in Merseyside, North West England, Cumbria, Cheshire and North East England in April. It will be rolled out nationally from today.

• Currently, there are no current plans to replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for children under 16 and people aged 65 and over who are already receiving it.
• Most people currently getting DLA will not by affected by the change until 2015, according to the government.

• When DLA was introduced in 1992, it covered 1.1 million people, at a cost of around £3 billion, which has risen to more than £12 billion a year now.
• In the past decade, the number of people claiming DLA has risen by almost a third from 2.4 million to 3.3 million.

Read more: A cool look at the arguments around DLA PIP benefit changes