Disability benefits system ‘not working’ Timms review finds | Benefits

A ground-breaking government review of disability benefits has warned that “tough discussions” are continuing on how to overhaul and pay for a system that has been judged to be unfit for purpose and often leaves vulnerable claimants dehumanised and humiliated.

Timms’ review of the personal independence payment (Pip) concluded that the benefit claimed by nearly 4 million people in England and Wales suffers from systemic and deep-rooted problems that undermine confidence in the benefits system.

Its interim report, published on Thursday, concluded Pip was “not working” and is determined to make bold and radical proposals to overhaul benefits to ensure it continues to support disabled people “both now and in the future”.

He said the onerous Pip application process and the hostile eligibility assessments claimants face to pursue their benefits can be so distressing and “soul-destroying” that it can lead people to give up on work and their social lives.

“People describe Pip as something that ‘breaks’ them rather than a support that enables them to live independently and participate in society,” he said, citing one person who gave evidence to the review.

But the review also said it would not be a blank check and that the changes it recommends in its final report to ministers later this year must be sustainable within current official Pip spending forecasts.

Pip said it was “unclear whether other forms of support would be more effective” in helping disabled and chronically ill people live independently, leaving open the possibility that non-cash alternatives might be recommended in the final report.

“Pip cannot be all things to all people, so the management group will have some tough discussions as the review looks at Pip’s role and purpose,” the report said.

His final recommendations, which will likely come to the desk of a new prime minister and chancellor in the autumn, will have to balance political pressure to keep social security spending in check with meaningful reform of a dysfunctional system that he admits has badly failed disabled people.

Campaigners and think tanks generally welcomed the report’s diagnosis of long-standing problems with Pip, but warned that any changes would fail, primarily due to a desire to cut benefits.

“The focus should be on reforming the Pip to reflect how people actually experience disability, rather than making short-term savings that motivated the last two reform initiatives,” said Louise Murphy, senior economist at the Resolution Foundation.

Last year the government was forced to U-turn its £5bn-a-year disability benefit cut scheme in the face of Labor backtracking, fueled by anger that the plans would push hundreds of thousands of disabled people into poverty.

Pip is not means tested and is not a non-work benefit, but is designed as a supplement to the extra costs of living with a disability, often related to food, fuel and transport. Payments are up to £194.60 per week, depending on need.

The review confirms that spending on Pip has increased rapidly over the last seven years, driven in part by a rise in young adults claiming mental health problems, but overall spending on benefits has remained stable as a proportion of GDP.

Although the increase in spending is often blamed by right-wing media on young “snowflake” Pip claimants who they say are exaggerating mental health symptoms, the issue was barely mentioned in the almost 40,000 submissions to the review.

Evidence from the review suggests cuts to wider public services, long waits for NHS treatment, falling healthy life expectancy driving more working-age people into poor health and rising costs of living may be helping to fuel the rise in Pip applications.

This review, the first of its kind in the 13 years since Pip was introduced, is being produced jointly by the Department for Work and Pensions and a panel of disabled people; The review is being undertaken alongside a steering group co-chaired by social security and disability minister Stephen Timms and disability experts Sharon Brennan and Clenton Farquharson.

Brennan said: “We heard loud and clear: Pip is highly valuable as a benefit but not fit for purpose. We are committed to making changes so Pip can fulfill its purpose.”

After eight years of experience with the Pip system, Rob Lewis, who has multiple sclerosis (MS), is frank in his assessment and describes it as devastating. “Everything needs to change completely,” he says.

Lewis, 36, from South London, first applied for Pip in 2018, two years after his MS diagnosis, and was rewarded with a higher rate of daily living element and lower mobility element of the benefit.

Despite severe mobility issues, at her first face-to-face assessment, she was shocked when asked to touch her toes and pick up a cup. “It makes you feel like a liar, like you shouldn’t be asking for help or money,” she said.

While she was planning to attend college in 2022, she realized she would need a car due to mobility issues. To qualify for the mobility car program, Lewis had to be awarded a higher amount than Pip’s mobility portion.

After a successful re-evaluation, he was eligible for a rental car. But within months he was told to attend a mandatory re-evaluation, this time by phone.

He says that because the re-evaluation failed to identify MS as a lifelong condition in which symptoms fluctuate, he was deemed no longer eligible for a mobility plan and his car was taken away from him.

He objected to the decision in court. At this point, he says he’s struggling with worsening symptoms due to the stress of the process.

He won the appeal but suffered “major” damage to his mental and physical health. “While getting out of bed in the morning is hard enough sometimes, we shouldn’t have to re-prove ourselves every few years,” she says.

Lewis is expected to undergo another mandatory re-evaluation next year: “I’m going to go to war to fight for this again,” he says.