Timms Review of Personal Independence Payment: CPAG’s response

Our submission to the Timms Review of Personal Independence Payment explores the clear links between poverty and ill health and shows that, at present, the system too often fails the people it is meant to serve. Social security must adequately support low-income families and disabled people, treating them with dignity and respect. The recommendations we make in this submission would help to make that a reality.

We bring to this review our policy knowledge of the social security system, direct insight from our work supporting the advice sector across the UK, including our Early Warning System, and, through Changing Realities, the lived experiences of people navigating the system. 

Key points

• Personal independence payment (PIP) supports millions of people with the costs of disability, regardless of the extent to which a person is able to engage in paid work.
• Rising PIP spending reflects growing disability prevalence, not runaway costs; UK spends (as a share of GDP) below the OECD average, and no more on working-age benefits than it did thirty years ago.
• Disability rates have recently risen sharply due to a rise in mental health conditions, tackling disability prevalence is first and foremost a public health challenge.
• There are several design flaws with the current PIP system which must be addressed.
• PIP should be reformed with key underlying principles at its basis. The system should be adequate to meet need, well administered, personalised, trusted, supportive, transparent, proportionate, timely and advice should be accessible.
• The new system must be co-designed with disabled people, as they are the people who are most affected by it. 
• It should remain an extra costs benefit that is non-means-tested and paid whether in or out of paid work.