Disability expert tells MPs PIP crackdown could 'scare' people away from work

A panel of disability experts have told a select committee of MPs that a crackdown on disability benefits intended to push people back into work could actually result in more disabled people staying out of the workforce. One expert told the committee that sanctions would not work as "nobody can achieve anything from a position of fear".

Last month, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced plans to tackle "sick note culture" with sweeping changes to Personal Independence Payments, amid a massive rise in long-term sickness following the pandemic that has left 2.6 million people out of the workforce. Though, there has been scepticism about whether these measures could be introduced before the General Election later this year.

Speaking to the Work and Pensions Committee today (May 1), a panel of disability experts explained to MPs how almost a quarter of the workforce had become disabled following the pandemic, as well as how the Prime Minister's crackdown on benefits could actually scare disabled people further away from employment. Glasgow MP David Linden asked the panel of experts: "Does threatening people to punish them with a sanction, does it work?"

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Laura Davis, chief executive of the British Association of Supported Employment, answered saying: "Within the supported employment model which is what I represent, the evidence shows that building aspiration and hope are the most effective ways of engaging people into the employment market. Actually, what we see for people is the more you talk about sanctioning, the more you drive behaviours of people trying to hang on to what they've got."

The committee's panel of witnesses, which also included