CONSERVATIVE
New Forest East

WORK AND PENSIONS – DISABLED PEOPLE WHO LOST PIP OR UNIVERSAL CREDIT - 09 July 2026

WORK AND PENSIONS – DISABLED PEOPLE WHO LOST PIP OR UNIVERSAL CREDIT - 09 July 2026

Sir Julian Lewis: Does the review plan to look into the question of what happens when something goes wrong in the arrangements for a disabled person receiving PIP or universal credit? This time last week I raised with the Leader of the House at business questions the fact that my casework team had been trying for six months to get an answer on behalf of someone who lost PIP and UC. We had a holding letter in February, but we have still had no substantive reply and this lady is getting more and more desperate. We did write to the Minister on 8 June. I know he has been very busy, but he should be receiving a letter, if he has not already, from the Leader of the House. When he deals with that individual case, will it perhaps serve as a guide to what is needed more generally to be able to communicate on behalf of our constituents?

[The Minister for Social Security and Disability (Sir Stephen Timms): Yes, I shall look out for the right hon. Gentleman’s letter and I hope he will receive a reply in short order. He is right that the system needs to work well for people to be confident in it. One thing he may welcome is that we have just started recording by default the assessments for PIP – the focus in the review is on PIP specifically – partly so that when something does go badly wrong, and his constituent’s case may well be an example of that, we can look back at what happened in the assessment and ensure that that mistake does not happen again.]