On Wednesday 18 June the government published the Universal Credit (UC) and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) bill.
Proposals in the bill
It includes the planned cuts to PIP – where a person will need to score 4 points in at least one daily living area in order to qualify for the daily living component.
More than 1.3 million current PIP daily living claimants did not meet this criteria at their last assessment.
The government has calculated that only 370,000 of these should end up losing their daily living after reassessment before 2029/2030 on account of what they call “behaviour changes”. These “behaviour changes” include more appeals and Mandatory Reconsiderations.
The Office for Budget Responsibility calls this a “highly uncertain judgement”.
We also don’t have information about how the impact of these “behaviour changes” have been calculated.
The cuts to PIP are not part of the consultation on the Pathways to Work green paper taking place.
The bill also includes changes to UC including:
- Increasing the standard allowance of Universal Credit that everyone gets
- Freezing for four years the additional component of UC that is given to claimants who have been found to have Limited Capability for Work-Related Activity (LCWRA) / are in the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) support group. This means the amount will not go up in line with inflation.
- Halving the LCWRA component for new claimants.
The green paper consultation does include questions on UC although it does not ask specific questions about these proposals.
That consultation will close on 30 June.
Concessions
The bill contains what the government is calling a “concession” to opponants who are worried about the impacts of the bill on poverty.
The bill extends the time that PIP claimants will carry on getting the benefit after an assessment has found them no longer eligible.
Through the bill, this will increase from 4 – 13 weeks.
The government is describing this as “protections for millions of vulnerable people on benefits“.
Money Resolution
The bill requires a money resolution. (See para. 150 of the Explanatory Notes)
This applies to bills dealing with issues relating to State finances and expenditure in order to get them through Parliament with less scrutiny than is usual for new legislation.
It means the bill will go through Parliament much more quickly and that the House of Lords will not get to have a say.
The bill was introduced to Parliament by Liz Kendall on 18 June.
The next stage – the “second reading” – is where MPs will debate the principles behind the bill before voting on it.
That has been scheduled for 1 July.
If it passes that vote, the next stage will be a “Committee of the Whole House”.
This has been scheduled to take place on Wednesday 9th July.
This will take place in the Commons and only MPs will be able to take part (technically on behalf of the whole of Parliament).
This will be where amendments to the bill can be debated.
Report stage (where amendments are voted on) and a final debate and vote on the bill have also been scheduled to be squeezed in on 9th July.
If the bill passes third reading it then becomes law.
Reasoned Amendment (RA)
13 out of 15 select committee chairs were behind an amendment trying to block the bill.
In the end there were 162 signatories including 129 Labour MPs.
The amendment called for the bill to be stopped and not debated at second reading, saying that among other issues with it, Disabled people have not been properly consulted.
Instead the amendment called for a pause so that further consultation can take place and support put in place before any further cuts are made.
Reasoned amendments are often symbolic but they have more chance of being selected for debate by the Speaker if other parties sign.
Major concession
After days of negotiations with the leaders of the Reasoned Amendment, Starmer announced that major concessions had been agreed which will be proposed as an amendment to the bill by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Liz Kendall.
The details are still unclear but it appears that under this amendment existing claimants will be exempt from the proposed changes, investment in employment support for Disabled people will be brought forward, and the PIP review proposed in the green paper will be undertaken in coproduction with Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations (DDPO).
DDPO’s and Deaf and Disabled people led campaign groups have been clear that we still oppose the bill and that we are united in our opposition.
What can we do?
We do not have long to act.
The most impactful things we can do are:
Write to your MP – there are template letters available but personalised letters with information about how you will be personally impacted are the strongest. Even if they reply with the standard party line, it does make a difference what volume of correspondence they get on different issues.
Publicise the rally outside Parliament on 30 June – encourage all those who can to get there and for those at home to support online. Hashtag #WelfareNotWarfare. This is the last day of the green paper consultation.
Organise and take part in local actions against the bill on 1 July – this is the day that second reading of the bill has been scheduled to take place on. We want to raise awareness about the bill, about how devastating the cuts will be, how the proposals in it have not been consulted on and how MPs are being expected to vote on it with lots of information missing. Local media can be a good way to get attention for protests and issues that MMS ignores.
What do we want?
We want the bill withdrawn and new social security policy to be co-produced with Deaf and Disabled people as Labour promised in their election manifesto.
