Disability Benefit “Not Working”, Review Finds as Charities Respond
The government’s interim review of Personal Independence Payment, published today, found the benefit “not fit for purpose”, with the disability minister Sir Stephen Timms concluding: “Pip is not working. It is not working for the people that go through the process, nor for a government committed to supporting disabled people.” Drawing on around 40,000 responses — more than nine in ten describing negative experiences — it recommends moving away from the points-based assessment. Disability charities welcomed the findings while warning the benefit remains a lifeline.
The review reopens the most dangerous domestic fault line of the outgoing government — last year’s attempt at £5bn of welfare cuts collapsed under a backbench revolt — and hands it, deliberately unresolved, to Andy Burnham, who has ruled out “crude cuts”. The interim-now, recommendations-in-autumn structure defers the hardest question: how to reconcile a bill rising towards £41bn with a fiscal watchdog warning of an unsustainable path, without pushing disabled people into poverty. Charities backing the co-produced approach also want the extra costs of disability protected. Watch whether Burnham commits to seeing the review through, and how the autumn report squares restraint with his anti-austerity pitch.