It’s come to light that disability minister Stephen Timms effectively lied to parliament over Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Personal Independence Payment (PIP) changes. This is because, far from taking them out of the Bill that MPs debated on Tuesday 1 July, all of them are still in there – as the Canary previously warned.

DWP PIP changes: an absolute mess

DWP PIP changes that Labour wants to introduce have been controversial. As the Telegraph reported:

Under the proposals, claimants would have needed to score a minimum of four points – which measure how hard they find it to perform tasks unaided – in at least one daily activity to qualify for Pip from November 2026.

Currently they need to score eight points to qualify – but these can be spread over several tasks.

The Canary has been documenting the fact that these changes could lead to hundreds of thousands – if not over one million – chronically ill and disabled people losing their DWP PIP. So, in the face of a growing MP revolt, Labour made some concessions which would have ‘protected’ existing claimants. However, the changes still would have hit new and transitioning claimants.

Then suddenly, during the Welfare Bill debate on 1 July, Timms said:

Others across the House during this debate have raised concerns that the changes to Pip are coming ahead of the conclusions of the review of the assessment that I will be leading.

We’ve heard those concerns and that is why I can announce that we are going to remove the Clause Five from the Bill at committee, that we will move straight to the wider review, sometimes referred to as the Timms Review and only make changes to PIP eligibility activity and descriptors following that review.

Much of the corporate media and politicians claimed this was a victory – and that the DWP PIP changes were effectively dead in the water. However, the Canary warned this was not the case. This was because the physical Bill MPs were voting on still had the changes in it.

And now, this has been proven true.

Timms lied to parliament

Early on Wednesday 2 July, the government published the amended version of the Bill. And predictably, all the DWP PIP changes are still in there. What the government has done is added some caveats to the entire Bill. It has outlined criteria that need to be met before it claims the Bill will become law. Or, as the Bill states:

This new clause provides for most provisions of the Act not to come into force until certain documents have been produced and then only unless the House of Commons does not resolve that they should not come into force.

These are:

(a) a report by the Secretary of State on the outcome of consultation on the provisions of this Act with—
(i) disabled people,
(ii) their carers, and
(iii) organisations that represent disabled people and their carers, including a summary of those responses, including proposals relating to implementation;
(b) a report by the Office for Budget Responsibility on its analysis of the effects on employment of the provisions of this Act;
(c) a statement by the Secretary of State on the timetable for changes in the levels of resources for employment support related to the implementation of the provisions of this Act;
(d) an impact assessment by the Secretary of State for the provisions of this Act, including a statement of the expected number of individuals and children who may be at risk of falling into poverty;
(e) a statement of an assessment by the Secretary of State of the impact of the provisions of this Act on health and social care needs, including demand for services;
(f) the final report of the review into Personal Independence Payment assessment the terms of reference of which were published by the Secretary of State on 30 June 2025; and
(g) the final report of the independent review by Sir Charlie Mayfield into the role of employers and government in supporting employment of disabled people and people with long-term health conditions.

So, Timms misled parliament about exactly what the government was doing over DWP PIP. It has not ‘removed Clause Five’. It has left it in, and added provisions to the entire Bill. Of note is that there is an additional, new changes in the Bill – the rate of the Health Element of Universal Credit will now not be frozen for existing, terminally ill, and seriously ill claimants. It will rise in line with inflation. However, this is creating a two-tier system which will choose who is the deserving and underserving sick.

DWP PIP: it’s not over yet

Overall, the backtracking of Timms is the pinnacle of mendacity by Labour. In the end, only 49 Labour MPs voted against the government. Others may have voted with it on the basis Timms had said the DWP PIP changes were being removed. Now, that has proven to be untrue.

When the Bill does eventually come to parliament for the final time, Labour has such a huge majority that, as on 1 July, it will be impossible to stop it being passed by parliament.

All those claiming victory were claiming it too soon – because Labour is not to be trusted.

Featured image via the Canary

By Steve Topple

This post was originally published on Canary.