Disability charities and campaigning organisations react to the interim Timms Review

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  • Post last modified:11 July 2026

Disabled people’s charities and advocacy organisations have been swift to respond following the publication of the interim Timms Review into the Department of Work and Pensions’ (DWP) Personal Independence Payment (PIP) system. The preliminary findings recognised the benefit as vitally important, but also criticised the “degrading” and “dehumanising” assessment process. Ultimately, it determined that PIP was “not fit for purpose”. Almost universally, the response from advocacy organisations was something along the lines of ‘That’s what we’ve been trying to tell you for years’. Likewise, most also welcomed the review’s initial findings, and echoed the vital necessity of PIP. In this article,…

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Interim Timms Report brands DWP PIP system “not fit for purpose”

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  • Post last modified:10 July 2026

On 9 July, social security and disability minister Stephen Timms published his interim report on the state of the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) system. The initial findings were damning, recognising that the payments were vitally necessary for disabled recipients, but ultimately “not fit for purpose”. In large part, this failing was due to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)-managed assessment system. Participants branded those assessments as “dehumanising”, “soul destroying”, and “degrading”. The review also highlighted pressing concerns regarding: whether the functional assessment and descriptors fully reflect real-life impacts, particularly for fluctuating, multiple, and less visible conditions, as well as about…

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The next PM must act on the interim Timms Report and scrap the DWP’s PIP assessment system

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  • Post last modified:9 July 2026

On 9 July, the interim Timms Review branded Personal Independence Payments (PIP) “not fit for purpose”. The news comes as the Labour Party searches for a new leader, and a new UK prime minister, to boot. Right now, Andy Burnham looks like a shoo-in — and he’s got a golden opportunity to scrap PIP as we know it. Stephen Timms, the minister for social security and disability, began his investigation back in October. The interim report drew on well over 38,000 responses to the government’s call for evidence. It highlighted that PIP assessments were frequently “dehumanising”, “degrading” and “stressful” for claimants.…

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