But the haphazard and last-ditch nature of this deal demonstrates how ill-thought-through the original proposals were – and why the rebels were right in their initial call for the Bill to be withdrawn and rethought.
The changes, as laid out by Liz Kendall last week, mean that all existing claimants of Personal Independence Payments (PIP) will be exempt from the cuts to eligibility and the new qualifying requirements will be implemented from November 2026 for new claims only. This is not good enough.
And that is what has been so frustrating and dishonest about the parade of government ministers in TV studios in recent weeks saying these cuts are about helping disabled people into work. PIP precisely does support many thousands of disabled people to be able to work. Cutting PIP risks pushing disabled people out of the workplace and, in many cases, into poverty.
Even the protections for existing claimants are partial at best. Those reapplying for PIP, after losing it – perhaps because of a fluctuating condition – will not have the level of their previous award protected. It is also unclear whether those who lose PIP, due to a prolonged stay in hospital or hospice care, will also lose out should they recover and reapply. The implication is they will be treated as new claimants.
In 2016, when Labour defeated the then Conservative government’s proposals to cut £4.5bn from disabled people on PIP, Keir Starmer branded the proposals as “unfair and unacceptable”. He was right. Cutting PIP was “unfair and unacceptable” when the Tories did it, and it is equally as unjustifiable when Labour proposes cuts to disability benefits too.
square ANDREW FISHER Cutting PIP benefits will be Starmer’s undoing
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Andrew Fisher served as the Labour Party’s executive director of policy under Jeremy Corbyn between 2015 and 2019
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