Speeches by Timms.

“I don’t think anyone will see a cut next April. I think new claimants from April will have a lower rate of universal credit health premium, but nobody will experience a cut in that sense in April. In November, the changes to the personal independence payment will start and there will then be some people from November o…”

“It is an important point.”

“I recognise that that is a very significant issue and that there is a good deal of anxiety around. Of course change does sometimes need to be made, and we must do it in a way that is as helpful and supportive as possible. The changes particularly to PIP, as I said, are not going to start until November next year and no…”

“Essentially because of the urgency of the changes that needed to be made. If you look at personal independence payment, the year before the pandemic in current prices PIP cost the then Government £12 billion, last year it cost the Government £22 billion and the cost of it went up by £2.8 billion per year last year alon…”

“Let us see how we get on. We have announced those increases and they are in the Bill being debated next week. Beyond that I am not able to say but of course there are certainly aspirations around. I think everybody will have heard of the essentials guarantee idea. There is a case to be made, but let us see how we get o…”

“I think it is about needs first. We are saying we need to focus on supporting people to move into work, to fulfil their ambitions and aspirations, to have the same choices and chances that everyone else takes for granted and not hear from the system what they hear now, which is, “You are not capable of working”. That i…”

“You are certainly right, and there are examples where cuts in one area have led to increases in another. A classic example of that is the rate in universal credit for LCW, limited capability for work, because when ESA was introduced and the work capability assessment was introduced in 2008—and I ought to come clean to …”

“Partly this goes back to the discussion we were having earlier that at the moment there is a very big incentive for people claiming universal credit to seek to be classified as LCWRA, an appalling phraseology, because if they are classified as LCWRA then they get a premium, which is worth more than the universal credit…”

“I think that sequencing point is a very important one. As you say, the changes we are proposing will start from next April on universal credit.”

“Fifteen years, I think.”

“No. I understand the argument but I do not agree with it. I think the need for the funding for PIP to be on a sustainable basis is clear—and we have talked about that—and urgent, and the Government have needed to work on that. It is a benefit that has been in place for 12 years. It is appropriate to think about whether…”

“Thank you very much, Chair, for the opportunity to come before the Committee. The background to all of this is the position, which I think is pretty clear, that the current system does not work. As you know, uniquely in the G7, our employment rate is still less than it was just before the pandemic. Every other country …”

“We can make some short-term changes relatively quickly. If there was to be a more fundamental change to the nature of the PIP assessment, for example in bringing in environmental factors rather than just functional factors, I think everybody recognises that would take quite a long time. You would have to come up with i…”

“The shorter-term ones will be on a track for implementation around that time. Practically I do not think it will be possible to make those changes by November 2026 but we can make them shortly afterward. I will ask Katherine Pateman to say a little bit more about that. Then the longer-term changes could be much longer-…”

“I think there are several points here. I talked about the employment support that we will guarantee to people during the 13 week run-on period, about a decision on benefit is made. I am confident we will be able to deliver that by the time all of this starts in November next year. I think there is more than that we nee…”

“If we decide to make some short-term changes, we will be able to implement those perhaps not quite by November next year but not long afterwards. They will be in place for the great bulk at least of the reassessments that occur after November next year, so that will be post the review or that part of the review. That s…”

“Can I just come in? That is not how I see it. As I say, the key programme will be in place this year. The changes we are talking about in the benefit system start from next year but the number of people affected by them will grow over time. I think the support that we are providing will be in place in line with the nee…”

“On the first point, I think the evidence is clear that a voluntary approach here is the most effective and that people are best supported when they have chosen for themselves to take up employment support. The motivation is there, they have been involved in deciding what to do and that works more effectively. Let us se…”

“I will be undertaking the review so, yes, the information will be available to me. Not least thanks to your work, Chair, we are being much more open about all this now than was the case in the past, so information is being published in the annual review of the Department. We want people to see what is going on. There i…”

“I am going to duck the question, and I will be glad to come back in the autumn once we have thought this through properly and talk more about how we see it all panning out.”