The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has confirmed that Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is likely to be scrapped for two health conditions: ADHD and autism. DWP boss Pat McFadden has issued an update on potential welfare and benefits reforms, indicating that eligibility rules for these conditions are set to be tightened or reworked.
Background on the Timms Review
The update comes amid the ongoing Timms Review, co-chaired by Sir Stephen Timms. The review is examining how PIP should change in response to a ballooning welfare bill and a system that has sparked concerns among Conservative and Reform MPs. The PIP claimant list has reached four million, with the Timms Review set to submit its interim report this summer.
“These numbers tripled… between 2020 [and] 2024 and they’ve continued to rise,” McFadden told the I Newspaper. He noted that conditions like ADHD and autism were less widely diagnosed when the system was designed 13 years ago.
McFadden's Comments on Assessment Process
McFadden stated, “I spoke to the Timms review panel… a few months ago and I said one of the things to consider from a system that was designed 13 years ago is whether the assessment process is really fit for the range of conditions and the rise in the reports of some conditions… and also to be ambitious about if they conclude that it hasn’t taken into account those things enough about what the future might look like now.” He added that he expected “that whole question of the assessment and different conditions will be quite central to their work.”
Impact on Claimants and Future Reforms
The I paper reports that McFadden has given the “clearest indication yet that eligibility rules for conditions such as ADHD and autism are set to be tightened or reworked.” The Timms Review continues, with PIP figures showing that 100,000 more claimants are on PIP for conditions like autism and ADHD. Any benefits cuts would be pushed through by Andy Burnham, the new Prime Minister after he succeeds Sir Keir Starmer.
