DWP update on PIP crackdown reveals truth behind planned changes to benefits

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Last month, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a sweeping crackdown on Personal Independence Payments (PIP) for the long-term sick and disabled, floating plans to remove the cash benefit and replace it with vouchers, as well as other measures designed to get more people back into the workforce.

This crackdown drew the anger of many disability rights campaigners, who called the plans "brutal" and led to one disabled PIP claimant asking "Why should we have to fight to live?" But in a written response to a parliamentary question, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) minister Mims Davies revealed the truth behind the supposed crackdown.

Responding to a question by Labour MP Imran Hussain, asking whether the DWP has “made an assessment of the potential impact of proposed reforms to Personal Independence Payment on the mental wellbeing of people who become ineligible", the Minister for Disabled People's reply said that there would be "no immediate changes" to the benefit system. READ MORE: Bad news for mortgage and rent costs after Bank of England decision The context for the government's changes to PIP is a political one.

As pointed out by Martin Lewis at the time, the Conservatives are behind in the polls in the year of a General Election and will not have time in this parliament to enact the sweeping reforms.