Speeches by Timms.

“Let us see how we get on. We have announced those increases and they are in the Bill being debated next week. Beyond that I am not able to say but of course there are certainly aspirations around. I think everybody will have heard of the essentials guarantee idea. There is a case to be made, but let us see how we get o…”

“I think it is about needs first. We are saying we need to focus on supporting people to move into work, to fulfil their ambitions and aspirations, to have the same choices and chances that everyone else takes for granted and not hear from the system what they hear now, which is, “You are not capable of working”. That i…”

“You are certainly right, and there are examples where cuts in one area have led to increases in another. A classic example of that is the rate in universal credit for LCW, limited capability for work, because when ESA was introduced and the work capability assessment was introduced in 2008—and I ought to come clean to …”

“Partly this goes back to the discussion we were having earlier that at the moment there is a very big incentive for people claiming universal credit to seek to be classified as LCWRA, an appalling phraseology, because if they are classified as LCWRA then they get a premium, which is worth more than the universal credit…”

“We can make some short-term changes relatively quickly. If there was to be a more fundamental change to the nature of the PIP assessment, for example in bringing in environmental factors rather than just functional factors, I think everybody recognises that would take quite a long time. You would have to come up with i…”

“No. I understand the argument but I do not agree with it. I think the need for the funding for PIP to be on a sustainable basis is clear—and we have talked about that—and urgent, and the Government have needed to work on that. It is a benefit that has been in place for 12 years. It is appropriate to think about whether…”

“If we decide to make some short-term changes, we will be able to implement those perhaps not quite by November next year but not long afterwards. They will be in place for the great bulk at least of the reassessments that occur after November next year, so that will be post the review or that part of the review. That s…”

“The shorter-term ones will be on a track for implementation around that time. Practically I do not think it will be possible to make those changes by November 2026 but we can make them shortly afterward. I will ask Katherine Pateman to say a little bit more about that. Then the longer-term changes could be much longer-…”

“Thank you very much, Chair, for the opportunity to come before the Committee. The background to all of this is the position, which I think is pretty clear, that the current system does not work. As you know, uniquely in the G7, our employment rate is still less than it was just before the pandemic. Every other country …”

“I will be undertaking the review so, yes, the information will be available to me. Not least thanks to your work, Chair, we are being much more open about all this now than was the case in the past, so information is being published in the annual review of the Department. We want people to see what is going on. There i…”

“I am not sure far fewer. We anticipate that by 2029-30 the estimate is 370,000 people who will be receiving PIP in November next year will not be receiving PIP by the end of the decade. That will be a number of people whose income is lower. Of course I would love for many of those to be able to move into work, and we a…”

“I think for the time being the PIP assessment process will continue to look pretty much as it does now, but there are people who are arguing—you mentioned Ben Geiger earlier—that we should be looking, for example, not just at the functional assessment but at environmental factors. That would be a very big change and it…”

“I think there are several points here. I talked about the employment support that we will guarantee to people during the 13 week run-on period, about a decision on benefit is made. I am confident we will be able to deliver that by the time all of this starts in November next year. I think there is more than that we nee…”

“That is the wider picture. On PIP, I have made the point that the current trajectory for spending on PIP is not sustainable and so the changes we are making are intended to make it sustainable, but the spending on PIP will continue to rise in real terms. The number of people receiving PIP we expect to continue to incre…”

“Can I just come in? That is not how I see it. As I say, the key programme will be in place this year. The changes we are talking about in the benefit system start from next year but the number of people affected by them will grow over time. I think the support that we are providing will be in place in line with the nee…”

“On the first point, I think the evidence is clear that a voluntary approach here is the most effective and that people are best supported when they have chosen for themselves to take up employment support. The motivation is there, they have been involved in deciding what to do and that works more effectively. Let us se…”

“You have said if we exclude other people, so allow me just to make the point that of course overall there are more gainers than losers from the changes that are being made in the Bill because of the increase in universal credit standard allowance received by a lot more people.”

“I am going to duck the question, and I will be glad to come back in the autumn once we have thought this through properly and talk more about how we see it all panning out.”

“We want to have in place a network of work coaches who have specifically been trained up to do this work among people out of work on health and disability grounds, the dedicated Pathways to Work advisers. I think we have 1,000 of those now in place, equivalent to two in every jobcentre. We have the academy for work coa…”

“On the whole, I think the right approach here is a voluntary approach, to offer people the support that is available and it is for them to decide whether to take it up. This is an early part of the conversation here and, as I say, we will have much more when we come forward with our White Paper. I think the principle t…”