DWP issues 'death knell' for PIP voucher plan amid record disability benefit numbers

The much-derided reforms to disability benefits at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which were floated by the previous Conservative government and would have seen cash payments turned into vouchers, appear to have been dumped in a Whitehall bin.

Announced amid cratering poll numbers for the Rishi Sunak government and Conservative party at large, the 'Modernising Support for Independent Living' green paper proposed a variety of changes to the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) to tackle the ballooning DWP disability bill, termed "sick note culture". These included turning the roughly £434 disability benefit into an equipment voucher system and providing therapy instead of money.

In the years following the pandemic, the number of PIP claimants has jumped by a quarter to 3.5 million with a large increase in claims for mental health issues. Responding to questions from MPs over when the new Labour government would publish a response to the consultation held on the Tory proposals, disability minister Sir Stephen Timms said: “We do not intend to publish a response to the previous Government’s consultation."

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After weeks of questions from campaigners about the reforms, this response was called the PIP voucher plan's "death knell" by the Benefits and Work forum. But, Sir Stephen Timms was also clear that reforms to the benefit system were still on the way under Labour.

The Minister for Social Security and Disability continued: "We will be considering our own plans for social security in due course and will fulfil our continued commitment to work with disabled people so that their views and voices are at the heart of all that we