Charities warn Labour’s PIP review must ‘earn the trust’ of disabled people
Labor has been asked to ensure the ongoing review of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) deals properly with disabled people after it halted benefit cuts last year.
Health and disability benefits were at the heart of Labor’s plans to cut welfare spending last year; Proposals to change the assessment criteria to make it effectively harder to claim have been met with fierce opposition from campaign groups and politicians.
PIP, now claimed by 3.8 million people, is designed to help with the extra costs of living with an illness or disability.
Ministers backed down on the plans in late June after more than 100 Labor MPs threatened to vote against the government on the measures. The concession and review were announced by Sir Stephen Timms amid debate over the legislation.
Currently the Minister for Disability and Social Security is chairing the review, which the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has promised will be ‘co-produced’ with disabled people, addressing one of the key criticisms of the government’s original plans.
But a group of more than 50 charities and disabled people’s organizations have called on Sir Stephen to offer disabled people “clarity” about how this will work in practice, more than half a year after the review began.
In a recent update, Timms review co-chairs confirmed that a steering group of 12 members from 340 applications had been appointed to oversee the study.
An open letter put together by Turn2us and Z2K welcomes this development but adds: “No single group of people can fully reflect the experiences of all disabled people receiving PIP. It will therefore be critical to ensure that the Review engages broadly and effectively with a wide range of people who benefit from this help.”
The 52 signatories, including Trussell, Mind and the New Economics Foundation, write: “We think it is crucial that your future engagement program prioritizes engagement with people receiving both PIP and means-tested benefits.
“Although around one in five people receiving PIP are working, most PIP claimants also receive means-tested out-of-work benefits. More generally, 28 per cent of disabled people live in poverty. This group will be particularly affected by any PIP changes resulting from the Review – particularly those receiving the health element of universal credit, which will be linked to PIP under the reformed system.”
“The lack of clarity about what this inclusion will look like is causing concern for some people with disabilities in this group.”
The letter includes the perspective of a PIP claimant named Roxie, a member of Z2K’s disability benefits specialist experience group: “For people like me, PIP is not an abstract policy issue. It is what keeps us safe, sheltered, warm and able to cope.”
“When a process is presented as fair, transparent and based on lived experience, but I fail to see it reflected at the management level of the people who rely on PIP to survive, it creates deep discomfort.”
The signatories called on Sir Stephen and the DWP to ensure disabled people relying on PIP are prioritized during the review, as well as to publish documents such as agendas, minutes and reports submitted to the steering group to ensure maximum transparency.
Rose Grayston, Z2K’s interim director of policy and engagement, said: “The Timms Review will only succeed if it gains the trust of all the people it directly impacts. This means transparency and power-sharing and engagement with disabled people living in poverty who will be most affected by the Review’s changes. For them, PIP is the difference between stability and crisis.”
A DWP spokesperson said: “We welcome the recognition that the voices of disabled people are at the heart of the Review.
“The steering group has now started to meet and is primarily developing and agreeing a wider program of engagement.
“The Review co-chairs are providing regular updates on the progress of the Review on GOV.UK, where we will also be drawing up plans for wider engagement.”
Full text of the open letter can be found here.
