DWP issues NEW update over plans to scrap PIP cash payments under Labour

A new Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) update on plans to replace monthly Personal Independence Payments (PIP) cash payments with vouchers has been issued. Labour Party MP Liz Kendall has issued a response after the PIP green paper earlier this year.

This week, Liberal Democrat MP Steve Darling asked the Secretary of State if she would rule out replacing cash Personal Independence Payments (PIP) with vouchers. Ms Kendall said she was "very struck, particularly by the comments people made around shifting support to vouchers, where many organisations said their real concern was that it took away people’s autonomy - particularly when services are so stretched and tight”.

Ms Kendall also said she had read those comments “very, very carefully”. Labour has plans to “reform sickness and disability benefits", she added, but it will be based on clear principles of “getting the decision right first time, early intervention, genuine support to help people into work, helping people live full, fulfilling and independent lives”.

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She added that it is “extremely difficult and I know people really want more detail, but we won’t do that until we’re absolutely ready and have had the proper discussions with people”. The previous Government published a consultation which proposed, among other policies, replacing PIP cash payments – which are not means-tested and are designed to help people living with a disability with day-to-day challenges – with vouchers.

Such reforms were part of a wider plan to tackle the rise in people claiming disability benefits, which is expected to cost the taxpayer £28bn a year by 2028/29 – an 110 per cent rise in spending since 2019. Ms Kendall also hit out at her predecessor, former Tory Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride, saying she did not agree with him that people were “just feeling too bluesy to work”.

Ms Kendall added that there were “complicated things going on with mental health” that needed to be addressed.