Labour is leaving millions of claimants in a state of anxiety as it reveals that it is looking at the responses to the Conservative’s green paper on PIP which suggested, amongst other things, the possibility of paying the benefit as vouchers rather than cash.
The Conservatives published a Green Paper on the future of PIP in April 2024. Amongst the proposals were suggestions that instead of regular cash payments, PIP could be replaced with:
- A catalogue/shop scheme
- A voucher scheme
- A receipt based system
- One-off grants
The consultation period for the Green Paper ended on 22 July and we know that many of our readers took part and are desperate to know the outcome.
Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Thomas of Winchester tabled a question for the DWP in the House of Lords:
“To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to change the personal independence payment assessment.”
Yesterday, the answer came from Baroness Sherlock, the DWP minister in the House of Lords:
“We will be engaging with the responses people have made to the previous government's consultation on Personal Independence Payment, which closed on Monday 22 July.
“We want to thank the many people who invested their time in responding.
“We will be considering our own approach to social security in due course.”
The response by Baroness Sherlock makes it seem unlikely that there will be any official statement on PIP changes before the parliamentary summer recess, which lasts from 30 July until 2 September.
However, the House of Commons goes into recess again for the party conference season from 13 September until 6 October.
So, there is a real possibility that PIP claimants will be left without any news for several months.
Written questions by MPs to the secretary of state about the PIP consultation and about WCA changes have yet to receive answers. We suspect that any responses will simply be stalling ones, but we’ll keep readers posted if we learn anything more.
