Personal Independence Payment and Disability Benefits: Implementation and Impact
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Baroness in Waiting/Government Whip (Baroness Dacres of Lewisham) (Lab)
My Lords, I am grateful to all noble Lords who have participated in this debate. If I cannot respond to all points and questions that have been raised, I will review Hansard and write to noble Lords, and place something in the Library.
We have had a wonderful debate this afternoon. We have covered a huge variety of issues and touched on the lives of millions of people with disabilities and long-term health conditions across the country. Today’s debate has been an invaluable opportunity to address some of the topics that go beyond party-political debates and go to the heart of what really matters. It is about what we expect from our welfare state: how to recognise the lived experiences of those with disabilities and how to support and empower disabled people to live an independent, fulfilling life with opportunities and choices to participate fully in society. With that said, I would like to thank the noble Baroness, Lady Jenkin of Kennington, for bringing this debate to the House today. We truly appreciate it, as the noble Baroness could hear from all the contributions we have had today.
As has been commented by many Lords, there are millions of people who rely on the personal independence payment, or PIP, to help them meet the costs associated with daily living, mobility, communication, transport, equipment, support services, and countless other aspects of just living an everyday life. Entitlement to PIP is assessed on the basis of the needs arising from the health condition or disability, rather than the health condition or disability itself. The central purpose was, and remains, to help with the extra costs associated with disability and long-term health conditions. I want to acknowledge the noble Lord who, as a Minister, was at the genesis of PIP when it first came into being.
Similarly, the work capability assessment, or WCA, determines the eligibility for employment support allowances and additional health-related amounts of universal credit, and also assesses the individual’s capability for work. That is a key principle for both assessments: to consider the impact of that person’s disability or health condition, be it temporary or be it fluctuating, on their day-to-day life. While the purpose of these assessments has remained the same, the world around us has continually changed. The labour market has changed. Technology has changed. Healthcare has changed. Society’s understanding of disability has evolved.
Before discussing where reforms might be needed, it is important to be clear about the principle and values that underpin the Government’s approach. A successful state should prevent people falling into long-term economic inactivity; we should be helping more people into work, restoring trust through a fair and effective assessment system, and protect those who cannot work by supporting them to live independently with dignity. It also needs to ensure that the system is financially sustainable and to keep providing for those who need it most. The Budget on 28 October set out our latest forecast on government spending.
Before I go further, I will talk a little bit about the clearance times. We are committed to ensuring that people can access financial support through PIP in a timely manner. That has been mentioned by a number of noble Lords this afternoon. Reducing the time taken for the PIP claimant’s journey is a priority for the department and we are working constantly to make improvements to our services.
I would further like to assure noble Lords that we are always aiming to make an award decision as quickly as possible. The noble Lord, Lord Palmer, and my noble friend Lord Davies mentioned this. We need to take into account the need to review all available evidence, including that from claimants, and I shall come back to the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Jenkin, regarding face-to-face assessments.
We have seen a decrease in PIP clearance time since August 2021, with the latest statistics showing that the average end-to-end journey has reduced from 26 weeks in August 2021 to 18 weeks by the end of July 2026. This is because we are using a blend of phone, video and face-to-face assessments to support claimants and to deliver a more efficient and user-centred service; increasing case manager and assessment provider health professional resources; making sure that we are improving training for those who are doing these assessments; and prioritising new claims while safeguarding claimants awaiting awards reviews.
Noble Lords will be aware of the Timms review, which the noble Lords, Lord Palmer, Lord Young and Lord Davies, have mentioned this afternoon. It is the very first full review of PIP, which some might say is long overdue, and it seeks to ensure that we have a system that supports disabled people to achieve better health and higher living standards, with greater independence, including through employment. On 9 September, the review shared a set of emerging recommendations. These are not the final recommendations—as we know, those will be published by the end of the year—but they were a starting point for the steering group to be able to test, challenge and improve, with feedback going back to the Timms review. That symbolises part of what might be considered the Labour ethos: nothing about us without us.
The Timms review is being co-produced with disabled people, the organisations that represent them and other experts. This means that the Government are sharing ownership and responsibility for how the review runs and what it recommends. The Timms review is not working towards a fixed set of outcomes; it is listening to the lived experience and expertise of disabled people, because that is critical to the review’s success. Today, we cannot pre-empt what the recommendations will be, but we shall patiently wait.
I acknowledge what the noble Lord, Lord Young, mentioned in his contribution: there needs to be a balance between the Timms review and the Milburn review. The Milburn review, as he said, has taken a broader look at welfare, health, education, skills and employment, and is focusing on the challenges facing young people who are not in education, employment or training. We look forward to the final report and its policy recommendations, which will help young people to access education, training and employment. As I said, these are not the final recommendations.
I move on to PIP expenditure and the caseloads, which have grown substantially over recent years. As has been mentioned, as of 2026, around 4 million people receive PIP. A responsible Government cannot ignore the long-term sustainability of the system. The system must remain capable of supporting future generations, as well as today’s claimants. Alongside this, we have been clear that we need to build a welfare system that supports participation and opportunity, and that is part of what the Milburn review is looking at.
Looking ahead, the Timms review and the Milburn review will play a central role in shaping the future direction of policy. The noble Lord, Lord Young, mentioned that there could be tensions in that, but we shall wait and see how that flows when we get the full reports. The onus will be on us, as Members of this House and the other place, to look at the reviews and to work together for the best benefit of those who we seek to help through PIP and by getting people into work and employment, regardless of age, with or without disabilities. I assure the House that the Government will consider the recommendations and the reviews very carefully.
I will now attempt to address other points raised during the debate, starting with the point raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Spielman, about yesterday’s Budget. The Chancellor and the Prime Minister have both said clearly that we have to bring the benefits Bill down and fix the broken welfare system we inherited. But you do not do that by crude cuts, especially when people are feeling cost of living pressures. As I have already mentioned, we have two ongoing reviews, which are due imminently. The Chancellor has set out that the Government will respond by the end of the year. But we are not complacent. We are already taking action and delivering on welfare reform in different ways.
We have been rebalancing universal credit to reduce the incentive to be labelled too sick to work and increasing face-to-face assessments for health benefits, which declined under the previous Government. We are reforming mobility and tax breaks, which is expected to save over £1 billion over the next five years, and we are acting to get young people into work, with record funding for apprenticeships, grants for businesses taking on unemployed young people and our youth guarantee programme.
I said that I would come back to the noble Baroness, Lady Jenkin, and the face-to-face assessments, which are sometimes the best way for some people to get their assessments. It allows for a more human approach, where people can sit down and better explain their circumstances or illustrate the condition that affects them in practice. It helps to ensure that decisions are fair, accurate and based on the whole picture. But that is just one part of the routes we can take to do such assessments. It is an important part and one that we have taken seriously. We plan to increase our face-to-face delivery by 30% and are already making steps to increase and improve face-to-face assessment. By July 2026, face-to-face accounted for 14.6% of PIP consultations and 23% of WCA consultations—so we are moving in the right direction and will continue to do so.
Another point raised was the PIP criteria for individuals’ abilities and fluctuating conditions. That was mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady Jenkin, my noble friend Lord Davies and the noble Lord, Lord Palmer. The criteria to consider an individual’s ability is over a 12-month period, ensuring that fluctuations are taken into account. It is essential for assessments to accurately reflect the impact of the variations in individual levels of impairment. This is important for all health conditions and impairments, not just typically fluctuating conditions.
The noble Lord, Lord Palmer, mentioned workplace capability assessments. Claimants who report a deterioration in their health condition, or a new condition, continue to be referred for reassessment but are waiting longer than we would like. We are prioritising initial assessments over reassessments, but we are also prioritising those who are seeking employment within a few weeks’ time, so that they can get their assessments and we make sure they are having the right assessment for when they go into work. That is another thing that we are doing.
We know that this is a very important issue for claimants and stakeholder groups, which is why we are urgently considering options for expediting reassessments of these cases as part of our wider intentions, set out in the Pathways to Work Green Paper, to resume assessments at scale when capacity in the system allows.
On awards durations, which was raised by my noble friend Lord Davies and the noble Lord, Lord Palmer, it may be helpful if I explain that, once somebody has been awarded a PIP, which can be paid at one of eight rates, either the award can be reviewed or the claimant will be required to submit a new claim. Award rates and their durations are set out on an individual basis, based on the claimant’s needs and the likelihood of those needs changing.
The Government are also prioritising welfare reform. Putting work and opportunity at the centre of our system should support people to get into work and to get on in work while ensuring that those who cannot work get the support that they need. We have already discussed at length the Milburn and Timms reviews, but in the meantime we will continue reshaping the system into one that puts work at the centre, while we will always support those who may not be able to work.
My noble friend Lord Davies and the noble Baroness, Lady Jenkin, made points about accuracy. It is our aim to make the right decision as early as possible in the claimant’s journey. To support this, we have made improvements to our decision-making process to ensure that people get the support that they are entitled to without needing to appeal. This includes giving decision-makers additional time to contact claimants proactively if they think additional evidence is required and may support the claim. It is a fundamental principle of our legal and political system that citizens should be able to challenge decisions made by the Government through the legal system. Mandatory reconsideration is a key element of the department’s decision-making process. It offers claimants the opportunity to challenge decisions and provide additional information that may be relevant to their claim.
Since the summer of 2026, when claimants tell us that they no longer consider themselves to have restricted ability to work, their case is reviewed to determine whether their limited capability for work or limited capability for work and work-related activity status should continue. The review considers whether there is sufficient evidence that the claimant’s circumstances have changed. In clear cases, the decision-maker can remove the LCW or LCWRA status without further assessment. Where there is doubt, including where health conditions are complex or fluctuating, the claimant may be referred for reassessment. In some cases, following the review, entitlement remains unchanged—for example, where the claimant has reported a change in error or the available evidence does not support removal.
The Government are committed to giving disabled people and people with health conditions confidence that working will not trigger reassessment and a potential loss of benefit. I hope that reassures the noble Baroness, Lady Jenkin, and the noble Lord, Lord Young, about the principle of right to try. There are already rules in place that are intended to encourage working-age people who are in receipt of health and disability benefit—be it PIP, universal credit or the new style employment and support allowance—to try work. The DWP suggests that there is a lack of awareness of these rules, and we will be working to ensure that this is widely promoted and that those who wish to have the right to try take advantage of this opportunity as well as the welfare reforms putting opportunities at the centre of everything that we do.
I have not had the opportunity to mention the claims management system. The noble Lord, Lord Young, and my noble friend Lord Davies talked about the codes that we have online, claimants who are getting poor information and people taking advantage. We will be introducing a new code of practice in the coming weeks that clamps down on activity by claims management, as well as the work that we are doing in guiding people to the government website so that claimants get the right information first-hand.
I thank noble Lords for their contributions this afternoon. I assure noble Lords across the House that we will engage constructively with the process of building a fair and trusted sustainable welfare state that is centred on the needs of disabled people.