Speeches by Timms.

“We want to have in place a network of work coaches who have specifically been trained up to do this work among people out of work on health and disability grounds, the dedicated Pathways to Work advisers. I think we have 1,000 of those now in place, equivalent to two in every jobcentre. We have the academy for work coa…”

“I am not sure far fewer. We anticipate that by 2029-30 the estimate is 370,000 people who will be receiving PIP in November next year will not be receiving PIP by the end of the decade. That will be a number of people whose income is lower. Of course I would love for many of those to be able to move into work, and we a…”

“On the whole, I think the right approach here is a voluntary approach, to offer people the support that is available and it is for them to decide whether to take it up. This is an early part of the conversation here and, as I say, we will have much more when we come forward with our White Paper. I think the principle t…”

“I think the biggest changes would be for those who are currently in the LCWRA group who get absolutely nothing at all now. Our view is that it is reasonable to expect the great majority of people at least to talk to us about what their work ambitions are and about the support that we can provide to enable them to fulfi…”

“You are right, the work capability assessment at the moment is used to determine the conditionality applied to a particular individual and somebody classed as unable to work, as LCWRA, they get no support or engagement at all. They are abandoned by the system. What we want instead is to be able to guarantee personalise…”

“There are rules at the moment, and they have been in place for some time, to encourage working age people in receipt of health and disability benefits to try work. I do not think those rules are very well known but it may be, as you say, that even if they were, people would not really believe it and so it would not mak…”

“That is the wider picture. On PIP, I have made the point that the current trajectory for spending on PIP is not sustainable and so the changes we are making are intended to make it sustainable, but the spending on PIP will continue to rise in real terms. The number of people receiving PIP we expect to continue to incre…”

“You have said if we exclude other people, so allow me just to make the point that of course overall there are more gainers than losers from the changes that are being made in the Bill because of the increase in universal credit standard allowance received by a lot more people.”

“It is the start of a process. I have no doubt that once people have seen them people will have comments on them and no doubt between then and the regulations taking effect there will be some changes. We are doing it in parallel with the Bill.”

“We will be bringing forward regulations and those regulations I shall be placing in the library of the House by Monday so they will be public ahead of the Second Reading of the Bill due to take place on Tuesday.”

“Yes. As I said, the changed role for this assessment is certainly an important factor in the background to the review.”

“No, we do not. I always thought it was a slightly odd plan that the previous Government had, which was to abolish WCA but to make big changes to it for the last couple of years of its existence. We have made clear we will not make those changes to the WCA. We are going to abolish the WCA. We are not going to change tha…”

“Yes, there are people who at the moment are on LCWRA due to non-functional special circumstances, which I think is probably what you are referring to—people with cancer, for example, going through cancer treatment, people with high-risk pregnancy and also people classified as substantial risk at the moment. We recognis…”

“I think for the time being the PIP assessment process will continue to look pretty much as it does now, but there are people who are arguing—you mentioned Ben Geiger earlier—that we should be looking, for example, not just at the functional assessment but at environmental factors. That would be a very big change and it…”

“Finishing off the under-22 point, I agree with you about the importance of improving mental health support and I think that the Scottish Government should be following the lead that Wes Streeting and his colleagues are taking in England. Of course we know the best thing for somebody’s mental health, particularly at tha…”

“Yes, I would be glad to. Our concern is at the moment too many young people are being categorised as unable to work right at the start of their working lives and left with no engagement and no support. That means that they face the prospect of being trapped in long-term economic inactivity before their career has even …”

“I have had concerns raised with me about some aspects of this and no doubt at some point we will want to have a look at it, but it is not part of the proposals that we are bringing forward at the moment.”

“I think the Motability scheme, the mobility component of PIP, has an important job to do. We were talking earlier about people being able to get to work and the mobility component is very important for many people with a health issue or a disability to enable them to stay in work.”

“We are looking at the moment at the terms of reference for the PIP review. The background to it is that it is a long time now since PIP was introduced. It was introduced in 2013, 12 years ago—the Chair and I will certainly remember that happening—and it is being looked at. Paul Gray carried out a couple of reviews in 2…”

“People above state pension age by and large will not be affected by these changes. The reason for that is that they are on what are known as ongoing awards with a light touch review that happens once every 10 years or so. The light touch review does not involve a reassessment for those who are over state pension age. T…”