‘The final Timms report is Labour’s chance to get PIP reform right’

Andy Burnham has more than a couple of knotty issues in his in-tray and another one will soon be landing. After the backlash against cuts to support for disabled people last year, the government, Labour MPs and disabled people are all nervously looking ahead to the final recommendations of the Timms Review of Personal Independence Payment (PIP).

Last summer showed the risks of getting reform wrong. Cuts to eligibility that push disabled people into poverty would create further political turmoil, deepen distrust in government and do immense damage to individuals and to the government’s goals of enabling more people to start and sustain work. 

But there is a better route: reform that makes PIP more efficient and sustainable while improving disabled people’s lives. Trussell’s ‘Making PIP work’ report details practical proposals that would get decisions right first time; reduce unnecessary reassessments; and give disabled people confidence that steps towards employment, volunteering or recovery will not put essential support at risk.

This is also where public opinion sits. Our new polling with Thinks Insights found that 77% of the public want social security reform to better protect disabled people from hardship, while 81% want the system to be simpler and easier to navigate. Our More in Common polling with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that 59% think any ambition to reduce spending should tackle the underlying causes of people’s need to claim, rather than restrict eligibility or cut rates. 

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Disability should not mean people are plunged into hardship. But three quarters of people referred to Trussell food banks are disabled. PIP helps meet the extra costs disabled people face, from equipment and accessible transport to easier-to-prepare food and higher heating bills. It enables independence, participation and, for many, employment.

Whilst PIP eligibility has no relation to work status – and makes employment possible for many people – the Timms Review’s interim report concluded that the current system can act as a barrier to work and recovery. It rightly makes clear that this is absolutely not because the system is generous or easy to access.

The problem is PIP’s punitive and bureaucratic processes leaves disabled people in fear of losing everything. This is not just about employment – we speak to people in food banks who are scared that trying exercise, socialising and other steps to improve their health or wellbeing will be used against them.

Why is this fear so great?

The reality is that, although PIP is not means-tested, it has become part of the UK’s anti-poverty architecture. Households on PIP already experience hunger at three times the rate of other households. With living costs rising, ill-health and disability unequally distributed, eroding Universal Credit adequacy, and many barriers to employment, losing PIP would mean being pushed even deeper into hardship for many.  

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And fear of losing PIP is far from the greatest barrier to work for disabled people. A lack of suitable or flexible jobs, discrimination and delays to Access to Work all help to explain persistent labour market inequalities. Many disabled people fear – with good reason – that at least some attempts to take up employment won’t work out, and that the consequences could then be catastrophic.

Then the process of accessing PIP makes the risk of losing this critical income very real. PIP assessments are often traumatic and the decisions too often wrong. Short interviews and generic questions fail to build understanding of someone’s day-to-day reality, leading to decisions very frequently being overturned at tribunal. 

Then at regular award reviews, rather than using the existing evidence and seeing what might have changed, the process pretty much starts again with the same lengthy forms, traumatic experiences, costly face to face assessments and mistakes. One disabled person needing a food bank told us:

“I’m dreading the next one [PIP review], because the next one is coming next year. What if I don’t get lucky? How is that going to change it? I have spent since I got it worrying about the next one, because you think, ‘Oh God, got to go through that again, but next time it could be worse’…”

With better use of medical evidence and simple changes to the application and assessment processes, DWP can get decisions right first time, reducing costly and stressful appeals and tribunals. 

A more intelligent award review process, that avoids costly unnecessary reassessments for people whose condition won’t improve, and makes better use of existing evidence, would create breathing space. Strengthening currently weak ‘right to try’ measures would give disabled people critical assurance that trying work or volunteering won’t be used to cut their support. 

Social security reform doesn’t need to be a binary choice between protecting disabled people or building a sustainable system. Labour has a chance to show that popular and lasting reform can do both. 

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