Notes:

Cases in Payment are Caseload Totals. These show the number of people in receipt of an allowance, and exclude people with entitlement where the payment has been suspended, for example if they are in hospital. Latest available data are presented here. Numbers are rounded to the nearest hundred.

Caseload Numbers are based on a 5 per cent. sample rated in line with the DWP Information Directorate: Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study (WPLS) total caseload, and are therefore subject to a degree of sampling variation.

Estimated caseloads for 2008-09 are the average of caseloads at August and November 2008. Expenditure estimated using 5 per cent. data is adjusted by the ratio of total expenditure estimated on 5 per cent. data to outturn total expenditure. Estimated costs are subject to revision when February 2009 caseloads are available.

From October 2008 the way in which a disabling condition is recorded on the live system changed. Disabling conditions are now recorded as primary and secondary, (previously recorded as disability care and mobility codes). For existing cases a mapping exercise was carried out which assigned disability care code to primary disabling condition and disability mobility code to secondary condition. IFD have updated the methodology used to derive main disabling condition to reflect this change in the live system.

A diagnosed medical condition does not mean that someone is automatically entitled to disability living allowance. Entitlement is dependent on an assessment of how much help someone needs with personal care and/or mobility because of their disability. These statistics are only collected for administrative purposes

Sources:

Caseloads: DWP Information Directorate, 5 per cent. sample. Cases included are those where epilepsy is the main disabling condition.

Estimated cost: based on applying allowance rates to estimated caseload by care and mobility rate and adjusting by ratio of total outturn estimated from 5 per cent. sample to actual total outturn.