PIP cuts are paused after 'shambolic' series of U-turns – but is it enough to rebuild trust in Labour?

The government has paused its plans to cut the personal independence payment (PIP) until it undertakes a review alongside disabled people and the organisations which support them.

But ministers have been warned that this cannot be used as a “smokescreen to evade accountability” and must make genuine progress in reforming the system to better protect disabled people.

In a last-minute attempt to win over MPs in a vote on the welfare bill yesterday (1 July) evening, ministers announced that they would delay the PIP cuts until a review of the assessment process has concluded.

Read more:

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• Labour’s disability benefits bill is supposed to help people into work – but the jobs aren’t there

Led by disability and social security minister Stephen Timms, this review will be co-produced with disability organisations.

This means that plans to tighten the eligibility criteria for PIP have been delayed. Although the government still hopes to save money and reform the system, the cuts may not go ahead at all.

The government won the vote with a majority of 75 votes, but 49 Labour MPs opposed the bill – representing the biggest rebellion Keir Starmer has faced to date.

It was only after making major concessions to the bill that the government was able to secure sufficient support.

Jen Clark, Amnesty International UK’s economic, social and cultural rights lead, said she is “cautiously relieved that the cruellest aspect of the bill has been put on pause for now” but stressed that the so-called Timms review “cannot be used as a smokescreen to evade accountability or scrutiny”.

One Conservative MP compared the review to “marking your own homework”. There is no guarantee that the government will not proceed with cuts after the review concludes.

Amnesty urged the government to use the opportunity provided by the Timms review to establish an independent commission to carry out an inquiry into the benefits system. This would drive reform to ensure “all individuals have an adequate standard of living grounded in dignity and human rights”.

As the Big Issue has reported extensively, there are major problems within the PIP assessment process itself which mean that people are missing out on support for which they should be eligible.

Campaigners have long called for a more compassionate social security system. But so far, the Labour government has remained insistent on slashing support rather than reforming the system in a way which would benefit disabled people.

Helen Barnard, director of policy at charity Trussell, applauded disabled people, MPs and organisations who have raised their voices against the cuts and secured changes to the welfare bill which will protect hundreds of thousands of disabled people.

But she added: “This bill should never have come before MPs. This was a chaotic and upsetting process that could have been avoided had this government stuck to its commitments to disabled people, and placed their voices at the heart of reform.”

Mikey Erhardt, policy lead at Disability Rights UK, said disabled campaigners and their allies have forced the government to drop billions of pounds worth of cuts and will “continue to resist this disastrous bill”.

He added that “serious concerns” remain relating to the government’s intention to press ahead with cuts to the health element of universal credit, which will impact around 730,000 people.

Current claimants and those with severe health conditions will be protected, but new claimants will have the health element of universal credit slashed in half and people under the age of 22 will not be eligible for that part of the benefit at all.

Charlotte Gill, head of campaigns and public affairs at the MS Society, said: “Reducing support for those receiving the universal credit health element will hit the poorest in our society the hardest and force more people into poverty and worsen people’s health.”

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), the welfare bill is no longer expected to deliver any savings over the next four years, as £1.7 billion of cuts to universal credit are offset by the increase to the standard allowance.

“The government is effectively returning to the drawing board,” said Helen Miller, deputy director of the IFS. With the expected £5bn in annual savings now off the table, the bill has delivered little financial benefit and has damaged public confidence in the government.

Amnesty research found that around 75% of the public thought that the government’s plans to remove PIP from disabled people were cruel.

Dr Sarah Hughes, chief executive of Mind, said that the “shambolic process has broken trust”. She added: “Some of the most vulnerable people in our society, including people already struggling with their mental health, have needlessly gone through turmoil.”

Mind’s helplines have seen an increase in calls from people worried about their benefits.

“Meaningful consultation with disabled people is where this process should have started, and the government’s PIP review must be an opportunity for a renewed approach to policymaking that is based on evidence and the reality of people’s lives,” Hughes said.

Mind is calling for the bill to be halted in its entirety, urging the government to instead work with disabled people to “define what good reform of the benefits system looks like”. 

Mark Rowland, chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation, said that pausing the PIP cuts is “clearly the right decision given the lack of evidence these measures would encourage anyone with a mental health problem into work”.

But he added that the bill remains “deeply flawed”, raising particular concern around the plans to reduce the health element of universal credit. He urged the government to drop these cuts, saying: “These measures are discriminatory, and will do little to support people back into the workplace.”

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