Yesterday we shared details of a new Government consultation on Personal Independence Payment (PIP), the benefit which will be replacing Disability Living Allowance from next year as part of the Welfare Reform Bill. 

The new consultation looks for feedback on the elements of the PIP reform which have been updated and follows the publication of a second draft of the assessment criteria in November and the entitlement thresholds (i.e. how much of the benefit someone is likely to be entitled to, depending on their answers to the questions in the assessment), which were also released yesterday.

Based on these thresholds, it is estimated that around 500,000 people currently recieving DLA will not be entitled to PIP when they are reassessed for the new benefit, leading some to worry that this will result in disabled people’s standard of living falling, and indeed, some have raised concerns that disabled people could end up living in poverty.

Last week, a report called Responsible Reform was published. This report was written by a group of disabled people who reviewed the evidence submitted to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) during the first consultation and concluded that there was more concern about and resistance to the reform of DLA than was previously suggested.

Today a debate is being held in the House of Lords (Welfare Reform Bill, Day Four). You can watch the debate live and read a list of the proposed amendments being debated on the House of Lords website.

Among those Peers involved in the debate are former Paralympian, Lady Grey-Thompson (an independent cross-bencher), who is proposing amendments 50e and 50zr which call for a one year pilot study and a requirement for all assessment to have input from claimants’ GPs.

This BBC Politics article on the welfare changes states that:

In the Lords, cross-bench peers - who are not affiliated to any party - have been among the most vocal critics. They have joined forces with Labour peers to propose amendments and have defeated the government on four occasions so far. On DLA, they want guarantees that assessment tests will be piloted first and those doing them must consult healthcare professionals.

Yesterday a joint statement was released by a coalition of disability organisations asking Peers to support amendments to pause the legislation on the basis of disabled people’s concerns highlighted in the Responsible Reform report and the potential of people no longer being eligible for support they currently recieve.

The Government announced yesterday that they will not be increasing the qualifying period from 3 months to 6, as was originally proposed.

A live discussion of the Lords Debate is available on the Society Guardian website: Welfare Reform Bill - Lords live discussion.

ecdp has worked with members in Essex and beyond to collect their lived experience and respond to the previous DWP consultations on this issue. We are commited to continuing this work and will be carrying out further engagement to respond to the new consultation.