Welfare Reform Bill Update (1:00 PM Montreal Time)

 

No 10 guts welfare bill in big new concession as minister says Pip cuts planned for 2026 shelved until after Timms review

In the Commons Anna Dixon (Lab) has just intervened to say the Timms review should be brought forward.

Andrew Pakes (Lab), who has the floor, says he agrees. He says he would like to see Duracell batteries inserted into the review.

At this point Stephen Timms, the social security and disability minister, intervenes, to make the concession reported earlier. (See 5.18pm.)

He says:

I want to make this point to [Pakes] that he and others across the house during this debate have raised concerns that the changes to Pip are coming ahead of the conclusions of the review of the assessment that I will be leading.

We have heard those concerns, and that is why I can announce that we are going to remove the clause five from the bill at committee, that we will move straight to the wider review, sometimes referred to as the Timms review, and only make changes to Pip eligibility, activities and descriptors following that review.

The government is committed to concluding the review by the autumn of next year.

That is another big concession. It has two implications.

It means there is a chance that new Pip eligibility rules will not come into force in November 2026. (The government said it wanted the Timms review to report in the autumn of next year, and that it would implement its recommendations as quickly as possible, but legislating for welfare reforms is never quick.)

Much more importantly, it means that the switch to the four-point Pip eligibility rule may never happen at all. It won’t be in the legislation. And there is no guarantee the Timms review will revive the idea – certainly if it is genuinely “co-produced” with disabled people, as the government promises. The four-point rule was the key instrument that was going to deliver the £2.5bn savings that, this morning, the Treasury was going to deliver.

This means MPs are set to pass a bill that won’t necessarily deliver anything like the level of cuts originally planned. It is a huge win for those campaigning against it.

Updated at 17.54 BST

Welfare Reform Bill Update (9:41 AM Montreal Time)

 

I cannot cross by on the other side' - Rachael Maskell says she can't ignore what 'Dickensian' cuts will do for disabled

Rachael Maskell, the Labour MP who has tabled the rebel amendment, is speaking now.

She says 138 deaf and disabled people’s organisations have backed the reasoned amendments that would kill the bill.

She recalls a constituent visiting her, with his young daughter. He could not work because of his mental health condition. He said, if is benefits were cut, “it would be better that I wasn’t here”.

She says people with fluctuating conditions are particularly worried.

(Liz Kendall tried to address this point earlier – see 2.01pm.) She goes on:

These Dickensian cuts belong to a different era and a different party.

They are far from what this Labour party is for – a party to protect the poor, as is my purpose for I am my brother’s keeper, these are my constituents, my neighbours, my community, my responsibility, and I cannot cross by on the other side for one, let alone for the 150,000 who will be pushed further into poverty.