Labour’s promise to current PIP claimants that they would not be affected by the 4-point rule may be almost worthless, lasting only a few months, as the government has announced they will be rushing through a new PIP assessment system “as quickly as possible” after Autumn 2026.  

The proposed PIP 4-point rule will take effect from November 2026, if the current bill goes through.

According to the Pathways to Work Green Paper (Annex A), the new single assessment for PIP was due to be implemented in 2028/29.

But the Timms Review of the PIP Assessment. Terms of Reference now states that “. . .  we expect it to conclude by Autumn 2026”.

And Liz Kendall told parliament today (see parliament tv around 15.56) that “The review will conclude by Autumn 2026 and we will then implement any changes arising from that as quickly as possible”. 

Depending on how extensive the changes are, this means that they could be in place in early 2027, only months after the 4-point rule has been introduced.  As the document states, new rules could take the form “of changes to primary legislation, secondary legislation, as well as a range of potential non-legislative actions.”  Some aspects of the points system, for example, could be changed very quickly using secondary legislation.

We have seen no evidence so far that current claimants will be exempt from changes brought in by the Timms review, exemption seems only to extend to some of the changes relating to Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill. 

The new single assessment created by Timms will also be the gateway to an award of the universal credit health element, so it’s very hard to see how current claimants could be assessed using the current test once the single assessment is introduced.

If this proves not to be the case we will issue an update.

The terms of reference say that the new PIP assessment will be “coproduced with disabled people, along with the organisations that represent them, experts, MPs and other stakeholders, so a wide range of views and voices are heard.”

But it goes on to add that “The review will ultimately report to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for final decisions.”  This raises the question of what degree of influence on the final outcome disabled people will have, after they have been “heard”.

The review will look at every aspect of the assessment, “including activities, descriptors and associated points – to consider whether these effectively capture the impact of long-term health conditions and disability in the modern world.”

It will also consider whether issues other than the assessment should be taken into account, including “evidence related to an individual’s personal circumstances and environment.”  It’s hard to know what this could mean.  It could, for example, be anything from whether you live alone to what sort of bathroom you have or how far the nearest bus stop is.

The review will also look at “What role the assessment could and should play in unlocking wider support to better achieve higher living standards and greater independence.”  Again, it’s hard to know what this means, but it could suggest the PIP assessment being used to give access to therapy or treatment.

The review of PIP is clearly going to be very wide ranging but it is also going to be completed at speed.  If the new PIP assessment includes the 4-point rule, or something equally draconian, current claimants may only have a few months exemption from it after November 2026.  The bringing forward of the implementation of the new PIP assessment seems to be another underhand trick from a department that deals in little else.

You can download an explanatory letter from Stephen Timms to all MPs which includes the proposed amendment exempting current claimants from the 4-point rule from this page.

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  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 18 hours ago
    new PIP assessment system..... What does that mean please ??? Does it mean they will change the whole pip form and points on it , remove questions and add different ones ???? 

     I'm sick and tired of living in this uncertainty, I don't know how much more of this I can take.. it's going to be worse than imagined.   I'm down to my last something, I don't know how to explain it but i feel like I'm going over the edge now and not coming back. 

    I absolutely hate these people , they're destroying whatever I have left in life :(
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 14 hours ago
      @T Every new govt makes changes to these things.  The worry about the medium to long term future never goes away on disability benefits.  We won't know anything much about this for another eighteen months, and then the report from the review will have to be digested, and then any new form would need to be created, and then it will probably need to go through parliament, and then implemented.  It's a long way in the future.  We don't know anything about it, so there's no point worrying about the results at this stage.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 15 hours ago
      @T I feel like this too. I’ve had to limit looking at this page and the information in the news because it just looks like a xxxx show now from the hope maybe things might be a bit better . I think with the goal posts moved not only on pip but on uc contributions based esa etc. Its  got me completely confused. I can’t take anymore of it. It’s making me feel ill . There’s no way I’m putting myself at risk anymore working and I can’t be relied on thanks to them so  it’s no good anyway. I’ve absolutely had it  . 
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 15 hours ago
      @T I can totally empathise. I've dragged myself through 5 years of struggles and now there's this. I'd only just stopped having panic attacks about being made homeless again and then this. I'm sick of living in constant fear state. I never feared I'd be forced to work I'm so ill but now I know British governments leaders consider that acceptable. 
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 16 hours ago
      @T T - I feel exactly the same way. It is truly awful and torturous what they are doing. 
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 17 hours ago
      @T And me x
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 18 hours ago
    There was nothing said to suggest that the new form, if it ever appears, will not have the 4 point rule.  

    Nor did it suggest in any way whatsoever that our reassessments as current claimants would revert to the four point rule with the new form.  Or that it wouldn't.  

    It seems a little ahead of the game to worry about something that might never happen, and which isn't going to even be announced for at least 18 months, and probably longer than that.  If the review ends in autumn 2026, it then has to report back to Kendall and Co, and then a new form created, and then a bill etc.  And there i is one heck of a lot of "could," "maybe," " we don't know," and "it raises the question" in that article!



  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 18 hours ago
    I was watching the live coverage of her on Sky News earlier - EVERY SINGLE QUESTION ASKED was sidestepped with a well rehearsed well repeated mantra of smoke and mirrors. 

    There is no reassurance here for any claimant. 

    I can only hope ministers see this and see sense and vote this thing down the toilet where it belongs.


  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 18 hours ago
    Josh Fenton-Glynn
    (Calder Valley) (Lab)
    on a specific point, if someone currently receives PIP but their condition is getting worse and they ask for a reassessment of the level of their PIP, will they be assessed under the current system or under the new one?

    Liz Kendall
    They are an existing claimant and they will be assessed—let me be really clear about this—under the existing rules.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 16 hours ago
      @John
      Darren Paffey
      (Southampton Itchen) (Lab)
      can she please confirm whether, if an existing claimant or someone on a legacy benefit is reassessed, the new measures or the existing ones will apply?

      Liz Kendall
      I want to be crystal clear: people who are currently on PIP and are on PIP by the time these changes come in—November 2026—will remain on that benefit under those old rules.


      Liz Kendall
      Existing claimants will remain on the current rules, even if and when they are reassessed. Changes will come in for new claimants from November 2026, but our review will look, as I have said many times, at the different activities and descriptors, and the points that they will get,
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 18 hours ago
      @John Sorry, that should have said the journalist contacted the dwp after I alerted him.  I didn't do that bit.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 18 hours ago
      @John Kendall misspoke.  The amendment states the opposite.  I alerted the Guardian live journalist and reached out to the DWP who confirmed that this WASNT the case.  

  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 18 hours ago
    EXCL: Key architect of the welfare rebellion Debbie Abrahams tells @romillyweeks the concessions still don't go far enough 'We implore the government to think again', she said Abrahams says she'll vote against the bill or abstain unless there are further changes
    Reported on ITVPolitics
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 18 hours ago
    I'm done for today. I'm all worried out. Just can't fill my head with any more. 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 18 hours ago
    This government was not concerned with the well being of the disabled people when they allegedly did a "O" turn and it was only done to mislead the labour MPs into passing their bill through and the inference and implication they had compromised in letting existing PIP claimants remain was basically also factually misled. 
    At every turn Liz Kendall and Stephen Timms and thereby Starmer himself have kept on playing politics with the lives of the disabled and sick and left things till the last minute in order to avoid proper scrutiny so their bill would pass. 
    I really hope this bill is defeated by those Labour MPs who stood up to the government and not mislead by them into thinking something major has been achieved when in fact it has not and that they are not only making a fool out of the would be rebels but also the whole of the parliament by playing games that show there is a deep deceitful slight of hands going on.
    I hope and pray that tomorrow brings defeat for Starmer and Liz Kendall whom if he has not realised by now has put his very own premiership in danger if he is altogether not aware of the double talk and double dealing his Secretary of State and Minister are doing as stated by them today showing contradictions in their statements and also showing that they are not really playing ball with the so called U turn which in fact should be called a full circle turn of nothing
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 18 hours ago
    I suggest we now focus on contacting undecided MPs – we still have time before the vote tomorrow.

    Chi Onwurah, Newcastle Central and West

    https://x.com/ChiOnwurah/status/1939678731749998921
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 16 hours ago
      @Ginny52 I also had no luck with my MP - so I emailed some of the key MPs -
      Debbie Abrahams
      Dame Meg Hillier
      Vicky Foxcroft
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 18 hours ago
      @HL Wrote pleading email to Labour mp again but have only just received automated response to the one I sent a week ago so not much hope. Certainly won’t be voting for him again.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 18 hours ago
    I just want to wish us all the best of luck for tomorrow.
    At the very least, we’ve managed to get this to the top of the news agenda—and that’s no small thing. This community has been so unheard for so long, and it matters that we’ve finally broken through.

    What shocks me about so many of these politicians—Kendall, Timms, and others—is the utter calm, even humorous confidence they display. They seem to have no real sense of the devastation they’ve already caused, let alone the further harm these rushed policies are likely to inflict.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 17 hours ago
      @CaroA
      "What shocks me about so many of these politicians—Kendall, Timms, and others—is the utter calm, even humorous confidence they display. They seem to have no real sense of the devastation they’ve already caused, let alone the further harm these rushed policies are likely to inflict."

      It's not their lives on the line, so they can afford to be calm and confident. The struggles of sick and disabled people are so far removed from their own lives that it just doesn't impinge on their consciousness at all. They live in a completely different world. As far as they're concerned this is a problem of political management, not what is morally right and wrong. 

      Timms in particular has turned out to be an utter snake of a man. At least we already knew Kendall and Reeves were bloody awful, but Timms has gone from being supportive of us in opposition to one of the worst and most mendacious in government. And this from a man who claims to be a devout Christian. I thought Christ said a lot about helping the poor, but apparently Timms has been reading a rather different version of the Bible.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 18 hours ago
      @CaroA Hi CaroA

      Same right back to you! 

      'Ditto'

      We have I think at the very least, ALL of us  have let them KNOW we will be heard. Through whatever route each of us have taken to be be heard!


      Now we wait until tomorrow! 



       






    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 18 hours ago
      @CaroA To reach cabinet level political status they don't care until their job is on the line. 
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