Preparing for Timms, Milburn and Streeting

Details: Published: 02 September 2026

With final reports due from Timms, Milburn and Streeting which could have significant effects on benefits, we’ve begun updating our resources for readers who want to have their say.

We’ve started with our overview of “What’s changing, when” and also updated our list of All party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) who may wield influence when changes are proposed.

The What’s changing, when page gives details of:

Changes already in force
Reviews currently under way
Possible future changes

It allows you to get an overview of what Labour have already done and what they may do in the future.

We’ll be keeping the page updated whenever there are relevant changes, so make it one to visit when rumours and half-truths appear online.

From there, we have a link to our What you can do page which has sections on:

Contact your MP
Contact your councillors
Contact a member of the House of Lords
Contact an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG)
Contact your local political parties
Contact local media
Contact organisations you have a connection with
Offer to be a case study
Support a campaign
Sign a petition
Take part in a protest

We’ll be relying on readers to keep us informed about any campaigns, petitions and protests that might be set up once Timms or any of the other reviews are published, so please put us on your mailing list.

We’ve fully update our list of APPGs that you may want to contact when changes are proposed.

We’ve added nine new groups:

Access to Disability Equipment
Adult Social Care
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Cancer
Disability
Disability Employment
Learning Disability
Poverty and Inequality
Wheelchair Users

And we’ve removed three that didn’t appear in the latest register:

Genetic, Rare and Undiagnosed Conditions
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
Usher Syndrome

There’s also a link to the full register of APPGs, because there may be some we have missed that you consider relevant.

We’ll be updating other resources on the What you can do page over the coming weeks. Do get in touch or post a comment below if you think there’s something we should add.

We’ll continue to hope that none of this will be necessary and that any changes proposed will be overwhelmingly beneficial to claimants.

But, just in case, we’ll be prepared to support your protests.

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JBob1234 · 2 days ago
In related news the Independent review into mental health conditions, ADHD and autism comissioned by Streeting and headed by Professor Peter Fonagy, is now expected to publish it's final report in a few weeks. This is the review controversialy looking at if mental health conditions are over diagnosed and if help/treatment is over medicalised. Burnham at the time the review was commissioned was critical that the review should not be used as an excuse for crude cuts to welfare. That would leave people still on benefits just poorer.

The review is controversial as it was commissioned despite at the time a recent expert review into ADHD headed by Professor Tamsin Ford, Head of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge along with many other experts finding there was no evidence of over diagnosis of ADHD. Which created the impression the government looked at the expert evidence did not like it and commissioned a new review headed by someone whose opinion was known to agree with the findings the government actually wanted. The trimming of the review also made it look like a leadership PR ploy by Streeting, trying to appeal to the right wing of the Labour party.
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Wayne · 3 days ago
Y does the government need more
defence spending. When we r not at war with anyone every party attacks the disabled disgusting
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  Bob · 3 days ago
  
  @Wayne The UK already spends 70 billion pounds a year on defence spending, it's so shady how they want more, more more..
  
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JBob1234 · 4 days ago
In other news the Conservatives have said if they become the government in addition to their previously announced £26 billion of welfare cuts, and previously announced reinstating of the two child benefit cap, they will also reduce housing benefit by 10%, and remove all VAT exemptions from the Motability scheme. These additional cuts would be to used to increase defence spending.
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  Paul Smith. · 3 days ago
  
  @Mike I agree 100%, the same goes to listening to the hate speech and propaganda the Tories are spewing out to get attention because they were made irrelevant in comparison to their former selves.
  
  At the moment speculation creates worry about issues that may not arise, this is exactly what those in power want, it is far more easy to control a frightened population, create a common enemy to fear while the enemy within subjugates the masses. It is better to put our energy into dealing with what arises if or when it arises so we can form a battle plan.
  
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  JBob1234 · 3 days ago
  
  @keepingitreal The Conservative plan appears to be for them just to be poorer, so in some cases being unable to pay their rent and getting evicted. Presumably resulting in more people ending up living in unfit or overcrowded housing or being homeless.
  
  In the area where I live for a non working one parent one child household in a two bed home it would result in the shortfall between housing support and rent increasing from just over £200 a month to just over £300. Leaving the household after making up the shortfall with about £500 a month. After other bills maybe £350 a month. A meager life.
  
  Still about a £100 cut a month is far less in cash terms than the cuts we have already had to disability benefits. The abolishing of the independent living fun (on average about £860 to £1,300 a month), severe disability premium (about £350 a month), reduction to lower rate disabled child element (about £160 a month), reduction of the LCW element to zero (about £160 a month), the more than halving of the LCWRA element for new claimants (about £200 a month).
  
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  Mike · 3 days ago
  
  @JBob1234 No point doom-scrolling 'other news' and worrying about the 'what ifs', we should just focus on the issues which are immediate and confirmed.
  
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  rookie · 3 days ago
  
  @JBob1234 @JBob1234 You do know we can read other news in other news?
  
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  keepingitreal · 3 days ago
  
  @JBob1234 They say that now. We're not even at the manifesto stage.
  
  Housing benefit is already inadequate for private rents, and already reduced by the bedroom tax on some social rents. How do the Conservatives propose to address the increase in rent arrears and evictions that further cuts would inevitably cause?
  
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D · 4 days ago
https://committees.parliament.uk/event/28103

No transcript yet but the subject is interesting considering upcoming welfare reform battleground

2 September 2026 - Safeguarding Vulnerable Claimants: One year on - Oral evidence
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D · 4 days ago
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2026-09-01/debates/2D2EC284-8B89-4BEC-B70E-20390F0CB98F/Working-AgeWelfareSystem?highlight=timms#contribution-18BC10F5-C746-448A-95EB-EE09329BA609

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/cost-of-living/major-pip-change-update-amid-34554507?int_source=amp_continue_reading&int_medium=amp&int_campaign=continue_reading_button#amp-readmore-target

Still trying to find the timms transcript from earlier today (9.30am: Stephen Timms, the social security and disability minister, gives evidence to the Commons work and pensions committee.)
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D · 4 days ago
This is really well organised and easy to read benefits&work admin.

Hopefully a huge percentage of disabled & their loved ones find this post as the more ppl we have on the same page & organised in repelling the worst case scenarios the better

The key battleground is where each Labour MPs backbenchers stand and which side is most successful turning heads.

If McFadden and co can’t get enough backbenchers onside reforms and the damage they could do to this community is limited.

It’s up to us to write to our MPs and discredit the findings and recommendations from the 3 studies commissioned by the gov as McFadden plan is clearly to weaponise findings/recommendations of the streeting/milburn/timms review to justify reforms (aka cuts and condition exclusion)

As I said before - whichever side ‘collects’ the most Labour backbenchers to their cause will have won a massive battle which will impact how the larger ‘war’ plays out.

But we’ve got to be proactive both before and after the recommendations of each of the 3 reviews get dropped within the next 3-4 months

Burnham highlighted in his first pmq’s today his desire to reduce the welfare bill as a top priority - I still don’t know if burnham would be willing to throw disabled under the bus like Starmer was but we got to presume for now that he’d be willing to target disabled claimants in wide ranging numbers to reduce the bill (though I hope Burnham will give reason to retract this concern at least somewhat)
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Neil Barry Cook · 4 days ago
Let's hope Labour stay in Power.
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Clockoholic · 4 days ago
I fall under the "Genetic, Rare and Undiagnosed conditions" so it's blinking nice they've removed that from the register for people like me. Do we not count?

Having had a quick look at the list I've no idea which one to choose should I wish to contact them regarding this.
I do have other conditions that fall under other various lists so assume picking "health" might be the best option to cover them all.
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  denby · 4 days ago
  
  @Clockoholic Me too, one in 15,000 I'm told. Just as well I'm a now-pensioner with a long award.
  
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Paul Smith. · 4 days ago
This is positive, hope for the best and only look for facts not speculation, so no unnecessary worry adding to those who are already concerned. Be prepared to fight in anyway we can not only individually but has a community that needs to stick together, we are millions and we need to use those numbers and also create allies to fight discrimination.
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