Toby Perkins MP: Statement on Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill

I have thought long and hard about this and have met with disability campaigners and those who help the disabled as well as constituents’ who currently receive Personal Independence payment and were set to lose it under these reforms.

I have also listened to government ministers who have set out their aims with this bill. I recognise that our welfare system is in need of reform and that there are many positive measures within this bill which I hope the government will continue to pursue. However, I fear that the changes to eligibility for Personal independence payment will hit too many disabled people, many of whom really need the payment in order to be able to access work or to cope with their disability.

I accept that many well intentioned colleagues are hopeful that through the passage of the bill it will be improved and I respect their choice to take that approach, but I have not heard enough to suggest that the government are minded to make the changes that would make the bill palatable and so I hope that, even at this late stage, the government will pause and reflect on how they can achieve their aims of modernising support for disabled people in a way that will enjoy more confidence from the disabled community.

The current system is deeply flawed, and these changes seem to reduce the numbers who receive the payment without much improvement to the nuances required to assess who is in need of the payment.

The government’s own impact assessment suggests that 250,000 people will be pushed into poverty by these changes.

I realise that Ministers are wrestling with a very difficult financial picture and a broken welfare system, and that there is a need to bring down the amount spent.

Unlike some, I am not resistant to any attempt to look at the eligibility criteria and identify if savings can be made, but it must be done in a more nuanced way that doesn’t just look at the current flawed assessment indicators and draw an arbitrary line that means lots of disabled people cease to receive the money.

For that reason and for the others laid out in the reasoned amendment, I will vote for the amendment if it comes before the house on Tuesday and urge the government to consider pausing this legislation, re-consulting on the changes with disabled people, and look to bring about the improvements that they are intending to make to employment support and assessment before considering reducing the eligibility criteria.