Timms Review into Personal Independence Payment (PIP)

JUSTICE has submitted a response to the Timms Review Call for Evidence, calling for reforms to improve the fairness, accessibility and transparency of benefits decision-making.  

Our response focuses on improving the quality of initial PIP decisions, reducing the burden on claimants and strengthening accountability within the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). With 67% of PIP appeals overturned at Tribunal, JUSTICE highlights the urgent need to address shortcomings in the assessment and decision-making process.

In our response, we recommend:

• Simplifying the application process by requiring assessors and decision-makers to request additional evidence, improving data sharing between the NHS and DWP, and ensuring all evidence provided by claimants is properly considered.

• Reforming PIP assessments by providing specialist assessors for claimants with mental ill health, neurodivergence or complex, fluctuating or rare conditions, ensuring a fairer use of informal observations and allowing claimants to choose their preferred assessment method.

• Strengthening oversight of outsourced assessments through clearer contractual standards, independent audits and publication of performance data.

• Restoring access to early legal advice by reinstating legal aid funding for early benefits advice to help claimants navigate the application process.

• Simplifying the appeals process by removing mandatory reconsideration as a prerequisite to appeal and requiring the DWP to analyse Tribunal decisions to identify recurring issues in their decision-making.

• Improving accountability and transparency at the DWP through publicly available performance standards, recording assessments as standard on an opt-out basis, establishing an independent welfare inspectorate, increasing transparency around automation and improving reasonable adjustments for claimants.

Read the response in full here.