No 10 guts welfare invoice in massive new concession as minister says Pip cuts deliberate for 2026 shelved till after Timms overview
Within the Commons Anna Dixon (Lab) has simply intervened to say the Timms overview needs to be introduced ahead.
Andrew Pakes (Lab), who has the ground, says he agrees. He says he wish to see Duracell batteries inserted into the overview.
At this level Stephen Timms, the social safety and incapacity minister, intervenes, to make the concession reported earlier. (See 5.18pm.)
He says:
I wish to make this level to [Pakes] that he and others throughout the home throughout this debate have raised considerations that the modifications to Pip are coming forward of the conclusions of the overview of the evaluation that I will probably be main.
Now we have heard these considerations, and that’s the reason I can announce that we’re going to take away the clause 5 from the invoice at committee, that we’ll transfer straight to the broader overview, typically known as the Timms overview, and solely make modifications to Pip eligibility, actions and descriptors following that overview.
The federal government is dedicated to concluding the overview by the autumn of subsequent 12 months.
That’s one other massive concession. It has two implications.
It means there’s a likelihood that new Pip eligibility guidelines is not going to come into drive in November 2026. (The federal government stated it wished the Timms overview to report within the autumn of subsequent 12 months, and that it will implement its suggestions as rapidly as doable, however legislating for welfare reforms is rarely fast.)
Rather more importantly, it implies that the change to the four-point Pip eligibility rule could by no means occur in any respect. It gained’t be within the laws. And there’s no assure the Timms overview will revive the concept – definitely whether it is genuinely “co-produced” with disabled individuals, as the federal government guarantees. The four-point rule was the important thing instrument that was going to ship the £2.5bn financial savings that, this morning, the Treasury was going to ship.
This implies MPs are set to cross a invoice that gained’t essentially ship something like the extent of cuts initially deliberate. It’s a big win for these campaigning in opposition to it.
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Up to date at 12.54 EDT
Key occasions
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How newest concession means authorities left with welfare invoice that will not have an effect on Pip eligibility
25m in the past
No 10 guts welfare invoice in massive new concession as minister says Pip cuts deliberate for 2026 shelved till after Timms overview
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Starmer set to supply Labour MPs additional welfare invoice concession
53m in the past
Ex-whip Vicky Foxcroft welcomes concessions, however says Timms overview should report earlier than Pip modifications rolled out
1h in the past
No 10 refuses to rule out additional concessions on welfare invoice
2h in the past
Meg Hillier urges Labour MPs to ‘financial institution’ concessions, again authorities and proceed to combat for disabled individuals
2h in the past
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2h in the past
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Labour’s Rebecca Lengthy-Bailey says there are ‘infinite’ other ways of elevating cash, corresponding to wealth tax
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Kendall says, when Timms overview Pip guidelines kick in, claimants can search reassessment in the event that they assume that might assist
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Kendall confirms present Pip claimants will probably be reassessed underneath present guidelines, even after November 2026
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Present key occasions solely
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How newest concession means authorities left with welfare invoice that will not have an effect on Pip eligibility
Right here is the Commons library briefing on the invoice. It explains what all components of the invoice do. All the weather regarding Pip are in clause 5, and with out clause 5, this invoice is not going to have an effect on Pip eligibility – now or sooner or later.
The DWP could have an aspiration nonetheless to impose the four-point rule for Pip eligibility. But it surely has, in impact, delegated that call to the Timms overview, and if, because it say, that overview goes go genuinely be co-produced with disabled individuals, then it is extremely exhausting to see the four-point rule being revived.
And right here is the textual content of the invoice itself.
Though that is the invoice that may cross tonight, if MPs vote in favour, the Timms announcement implies that, with clause 5 eliminated, all that will probably be left will probably be a invoice affecting the common credit score.
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After Stephen Timms made his dramatic concession within the Commons, Andy McDonald (Lab) used a degree of order to say that it was not clear what MPs had been voting on.
And Andrew Pakes (Lab), resuming his speech stated that, as somebody from a celebration that usually debated clause 4, he was glad to listen to the information about clause 5.
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Up to date at 13.01 EDT
No 10 guts welfare invoice in massive new concession as minister says Pip cuts deliberate for 2026 shelved till after Timms overview
Within the Commons Anna Dixon (Lab) has simply intervened to say the Timms overview needs to be introduced ahead.
Andrew Pakes (Lab), who has the ground, says he agrees. He says he wish to see Duracell batteries inserted into the overview.
At this level Stephen Timms, the social safety and incapacity minister, intervenes, to make the concession reported earlier. (See 5.18pm.)
He says:
I wish to make this level to [Pakes] that he and others throughout the home throughout this debate have raised considerations that the modifications to Pip are coming forward of the conclusions of the overview of the evaluation that I will probably be main.
Now we have heard these considerations, and that’s the reason I can announce that we’re going to take away the clause 5 from the invoice at committee, that we’ll transfer straight to the broader overview, typically known as the Timms overview, and solely make modifications to Pip eligibility, actions and descriptors following that overview.
The federal government is dedicated to concluding the overview by the autumn of subsequent 12 months.
That’s one other massive concession. It has two implications.
It means there’s a likelihood that new Pip eligibility guidelines is not going to come into drive in November 2026. (The federal government stated it wished the Timms overview to report within the autumn of subsequent 12 months, and that it will implement its suggestions as rapidly as doable, however legislating for welfare reforms is rarely fast.)
Rather more importantly, it implies that the change to the four-point Pip eligibility rule could by no means occur in any respect. It gained’t be within the laws. And there’s no assure the Timms overview will revive the concept – definitely whether it is genuinely “co-produced” with disabled individuals, as the federal government guarantees. The four-point rule was the important thing instrument that was going to ship the £2.5bn financial savings that, this morning, the Treasury was going to ship.
This implies MPs are set to cross a invoice that gained’t essentially ship something like the extent of cuts initially deliberate. It’s a big win for these campaigning in opposition to it.
Share
Up to date at 12.54 EDT
Jessica Elgot and Pippa Crerar level out of their story that the last-minute concession that No 10 is about to approve can be a humiliation for Liz Kendall.
Whereas the transfer is predicted to safe the invoice’s second studying, it will be a humiliating climbdown for Liz Kendall, the welfare secretary, who simply hours earlier than had advised MPs the brand new four-point threshold would apply from November 2026 and emphasised the necessity for the federal government to take its time over the Timms overview to get it proper.
Steven Swinford, political editor of the Occasions, has made the identical level on social media.
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Starmer set to supply Labour MPs additional welfare invoice concession
Keir Starmer is about to supply Labour backbenchers an extra concession over incapacity advantages in a last-ditch try and restrict the biggest revolt of his premiership and get his controversial welfare invoice over the road, Jessica Elgot and Pippa Crerar report.
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Ex-whip Vicky Foxcroft welcomes concessions, however says Timms overview should report earlier than Pip modifications rolled out
Vicky Foxcroft, who resigned as a Labour whip over the invoice, began her speech by saying she welcomed the constructive elements within the invoice.
However she had some considerations that also wanted to be addressed, she stated. She went on:
We want the Timms overview to report earlier than the brand new system is rolled out.
She stated disabled individuals need reform of the advantages system. However they didn’t need these plans, she stated. They need to have been consulted from the beginning.
And he or she stated she wished to make clear what she meant by co-production. This was an idea that went again to the US civil rights motion, she stated. It was developed by by Sherry Arnstein in 1969, she stated. She went on:
It needs to be in place from the beginning of the method, and all the knowledge needs to be made out there to everybody, and a plan needs to be agreed collectively. And there have to be the power to usher in specialists. And these specialists needs to be paid for due to their contribution, and handled as valued companions. We needs to be empowering and upskilling these concerned. And I hope that it goes with out saying all data needs to be out there in accessible codecs, and the valued companions should be user-led disabled individuals’s organisations.
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Up to date at 12.14 EDT
Ayoub Khan, the impartial MP, stated the welfare invoice was “morally indefensible”. He stated it was a “calculated assault on a number of the most marginalised individuals in our society”. It continued a sample of “cuts dressed up as reform”, he stated.
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Up to date at 12.05 EDT
Beth Rigby, political editor of Sky Information, can also be reporting {that a} additional vital concession is coming from No 10. (See 3.45pm.)
Appears to be like like one other main concession on the best way as govt appears to get the welfare vote throughout the road.
Perceive (as per @jessicaelgot @kitty_donaldson @singharj) that any modifications on PIP eligibility will wait till Timms overview (because of report in autumn 2026)
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Jeremy Corbyn, the previous Labour chief, stated the invoice was motivated by the necessity to save £5bn. It might be higher if the federal government deserted the invoice, and waited as a substitute for the end result of the Timms overview.
Labour’s Zubhir Ahmed intervened and stated that, if Corbyn voted in opposition to the invoice, he can be voting in opposition to a rise in the usual charge of common credit score, the suitable to attempt assure and £1bn additional for employment assist.
In response, Corbyn stated voting in opposition to the invoice can be a vote for equality. He stated totally different laws was wanted, and that might embody the measures talked about by Ahmed, he implied.
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Cat Smith (Lab) stated the federal government was solely leaving eight days between second studying and third studying. That meant disabled individuals didn’t have sufficient time to answer it correctly, she stated.
Welfare reform needs to be a co-production with disabled individuals, she stated. It ought to comply with the “nothing about me with out me” to determination making, she stated.
She stated advantages needs to be paid on the idea of want. However this invoice will result in individuals being paid totally different quantities, relying on whent they utilized. Smith stated she wouldn’t have the ability to look her consituents within the eye and justify voting for this.
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No 10 refuses to rule out additional concessions on welfare invoice
On the afternoon foyer briefing Downing Avenue refused to rule out additional concessions on the welfare invoice. Requested about this, a No 10 spokesperson stated:
I’m not going to get forward of the vote. There’s a debate occurring in Parliament as we converse, and I’m not going to get forward of the vote this night.
There’s been quite a few discussions over latest days however as I say I’m simply not going to get forward of the vote this night.
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Marie Tidball (Lab) says she is without doubt one of the few seen disabled MPs in parliament. She recollects being terrified throughout Covid, pondering of what would occur if she caught coronavirus, and what impact this is able to have on her toddler. She says “sobbed deeply”, and considered the affect Covid would have on disabled individuals. Within the first wave, they died in massive numbers, she says.
She’s going to vote in opposition to the invoice, she says.
The concessions are vital, she says. However they’ll nonetheless minimize Pip for brand spanking new funds, and push 150,000 individuals into poverty. She goes on:
I can’t settle for this, nor a proposed level system underneath present descriptors, which might exclude eligibility for many who can’t placed on their underwear, prosthetic limbs or sneakers with out assist.
She says, if the invoice passes tonight, she is going to search for additional assurances if she goes to vote for it at third studying.
First, the Timms overview, “should not be performative”.
Second, she says she desires the “sequencing” to alter. She desires to report earlier than the modifications deliberate for November 2026 come into impact, so they’re decided by what the overview concludes. The federal government should seek the advice of with disabled individuals over the summer time.
And, third, there have to be “a transparent goal for closing the incapacity employment hole”.
She additionally says disabled individuals mustn’t view the Tories voting in opposition to the invoice right this moment as an indication of solidarity. The Tories needs to be” hanging their heads in disgrace” at their failure to assist the disabled, she says.
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Richard Burgon (Lab) stated the federal government ought to go “again to the drafting board” and give you a invoice acceptable to disabled individuals. He stated there was no want for the federal government to hurry this by means of now.
If this had been a free vote, then it will be exhausting to seek out many Labour MPs in any respect who had been going to vote for it.
This can be a matter of conscience, and we should be clear what we’re evaluating right here after we resolve how one can vote tonight.
We’re not evaluating the invoice as the federal government supposed, with the invoice as is promised.
What we needs to be evaluating is the state of affairs of disabled individuals throughout the nation as it’s now, and the state of affairs of disabled individuals within the nation which is able to come to cross if this invoice is handed.
Burgon is without doubt one of the Labour MPs who’ve signed the brand new reasoned modification, tabled by Rachael Maskell.
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