With no more than 44 working days left, DWP disability minister Stephen Timms told MPs during a Westminster Hall debate last week that the Timms review is only just working out how to involve outside agencies in its work,. He also confirmed again that the work capability assessment (WCA) is definitely being abolished, which suggests that the steering group will have to incorporate elements of the WCA into their deliberations
Timms told MPs that the WCA would be abolished after the review has concluded:
“In future, eligibility for additional health-related financial support in universal credit will be assessed in England and Wales via the personal independence payment assessment. It will be based on the impact of disability on daily living, rather than on capacity to work. . . Due to its link with the PIP assessment, the WCA abolition will not proceed until after the conclusion of the review into PIP that I am currently co-chairing.”
He also gave an update on what the Timms review steering group are doing:
“We are going to have a full day together tomorrow, considering how to secure external input to our consideration of how the system should work in the future. The review’s recommendations will be submitted to the Secretary of State in the autumn.”
There is a maximum of nine months before the review is completed, with the steering group not only having to consider PIP eligibility, but also the potentially vast complexities of how PIP assessments will interact with the UC health element.
One example of the complexities is how people with short-term conditions, such as cancer treatment or pregnancy issues, will be able to access the UC heath element whilst unable to work.
Another is the question of how people who may be a substantial risk to themselves or other people if found capable of work will access financial support. If these issues are not to be dealt with by the new PIP system, then it’s hard to see how some sort of WCA will not still be required.
Yet, the steering group is only just at the stage of working out how to involve outside bodies or individuals in the process and has, we suspect, not even begun the work of redesigning PIP.
If the steering group is to report by the end of November at the latest, working just five days a month, we calculate they now have no more than 44 days to get the job done.
That may not be impossible to do, but it probably is impossible to do well.
You can read the record of the Westminster Hall debate on WCA timescales here.
