A powerful coalition of Welsh disability, carers’, and trade union organisations wrote to the Welsh Government on Tuesday asking ministers to lodge their “strongest possible grievance” with the UK Government over the Timms Review into the PIP disability benefit.

The UK-wide review was announced in parliament late last year, with promises of “co-production” with disabled people, and a pledge of no further cuts until its conclusion. However, Welsh Disabled Peoples’ Organisations are adamant that co-production is not happening, with Welsh disabled people, they claim, treated with particular contempt.

The intervention came in the final week before the Senedd summer recess, after local authorities, including Swansea Council, admitted they have made “no provision” for impending disability cuts in their medium-term budgets.

The groups have asked the new Welsh Government to deliver on its promise of providing practical assistance in achieving a “long standing demand” of “a genuine disability review, led independently and democratically by disabled people and our organisations, including our trade unions.”

The letter was coordinated by Disabled People Against Cuts Cymru (DPAC Cymru). Co-signatories include Disabled Peoples’ Organisations, unpaid Carers’ Organisations, and trade union organisations.

Statements from signatories:

Disabled People Against Cuts Cymru (DPAC Cymru) led several high-profile protests against the disability cuts last year. A spokesperson for the group said they intend to hold the UK Government to the promises they made to parliament:

“The Timms Review was won by protest, but it is not what was promised. We are asking the Welsh Government to join us in setting out a clear expectation that the UK Government may not table further disability cuts while a genuine and independent review takes place in Wales.

“MPs, whatever their views, must also refuse, on principle, to vote for disability cuts for the duration.

“All we’re demanding from Westminster here is a fair fight. Enough with the broken promises, misdirection, and insults.”

VOICES ADFOCAD operates across Wales to promote and advocate for the rights of Unpaid Carers. A spokesperson said:

“Disabled people in Wales have been clear for years: we will not accept reviews that speak about us while shutting us out. The Timms Review has failed to meet even the most basic standards of co‑production, and Welsh disabled people have been treated with disregard throughout the process.

“We are asking Welsh ministers to intervene because our communities deserve a review that is democratic, accountable, and led by disabled people ourselves, not another exercise that reinforces the inequality we are fighting to dismantle.”

Plaid Cymru Anabledd is the disabled members’ section of Plaid Cymru, the party that leads Wales’ new minority government. A spokesperson for the section said:

“The Welsh Government must use every lever it has to demand a genuine, independent review — led by disabled people, our organisations and our trade unions. Anything less is not co-production, it’s a rubber stamp.

“Disabled people were told we would be worked with. Instead we’ve been worked around. That promise the labour Westminster government made has to mean something — or it was never made in good faith.”

Social Workers Union (SWU) General Secretary John McGowan stated:

“Disability benefits are not luxuries. The PIP disability benefit is a crucial support to help disabled people meet the extra costs of disability and long-term ill health and to support their independence. We urge the Welsh Government to join DPAC Cymru in demanding an independent review on PIP cuts which would impact on 275,000 people in Wales.

“No further cuts must be made until a genuinely co-produced disability review has been achieved, and the focus should be on improving the system rather than further restricting access to it. To do otherwise will cause significant hardship for people with physical and mental health conditions – pushing them out of work and into deep poverty – and put further strain on the social care system already stretched to breaking point by chronic underfunding and a staffing crisis.”

Sarah Woolley, General Secretary of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union (BFAWU), said:

“Disabled people have the right to dignity, independence and a decent standard of living. If the Timms Review is to have credibility, it must genuinely be led with disabled people, not simply carried out in their name.

“Our members know the reality of low pay, insecure work and rising living costs. Personal Independence Payment helps meet the extra costs of disability, and further cuts would push more people into hardship while placing even greater pressure on public services.

“BFAWU stands in solidarity with Disabled People’s Organisations and supports the call for an independent review, led by disabled people and their organisations, including trade unions. No further disability cuts should be made until that work has been properly completed.”

Mark Evans is the secretary of Swansea and District Trades Council, which brings together affiliated branches and represents the community arm of the trade union movement in the Swansea area. He said:

“Our Trades Council thinks it is deplorable that a Labour Government has not properly and fully consulted Disabled People in compiling the Timms review. Many disabled people are members of trade unions that are affiliated to the Labour Party and many will rightly be considering why their union donates to a party that has attacked disability benefits in the past and given the lack of consultation is likely to do so again. If this is the case we will will be fully supporting disabled trade union members.”

Responding to the Timms Review interim report released last week, a DPAC Cymru spokesperson added:

“The Timms Review is badly dressed in the language of disability activism, but uses none of the methods. About the only thing the interim report gets right is that PIP is not fit for purpose.

“Disabled people, more than anyone, want a better system. The Timms Review will not deliver that because it is not designed to. The review is weaponising our concerns in order to justify cuts in a ‘caring’ way. Meanwhile, the ‘nasty’ arm of the UK Government is demonising us. Caught in that pincer movement, disabled people are a political football.

This has nothing to do with balancing the books. When the last attempt at welfare reform introduced a more punitive benefit system, it too ended up costing more than it saved. The Timms Review is about divide and rule, pure and simple. It is a cynical distraction from falling living standards and a failing economy. Defeating disability cuts is a fight for everyone.”

The letter text

Dear:

Rhun ap Iorwerth, First Minister of Wales
Sioned Williams, Deputy First Minister of Wales

14th July 2026

RE: disability cuts and the Timms Review

The new Welsh Government has made a welcome commitment to delivering a robust and action-oriented Disabled People’s Rights Plan. UK Government disability cuts are a serious risk to that plan, and a crisis in the making.

Concerningly, major Welsh local authorities like Swansea Council already admit they have made “no provision” for disability cuts in their medium-term budgets.

The UK Government was forced to promise in parliament that there would be no further cuts until the conclusion of a review, co-produced with disabled people – the Timms Review. The UK Government has proven itself, many times over, unable and unwilling to keep that promise. Despite its claims, the Timms Review is not delivering co-production, and cuts are continuing.

We are therefore writing to you, as Disabled People’s Organisations, unpaid Carers’ Organisations, and trade union organisations, with two requests:

1. We kindly request that the Welsh Government formally lodge with the UK Government our strongest possible grievance over the delivery of the Timms Review and disability cuts ‘consultation’ process since March 2025. It has been blatant: we have been treated badly because we are disabled people, and we have been treated badly because we are Welsh.

2. We also request the Welsh Government take concrete steps to provide practical assistance in achieving our long standing demand: an independent and genuine disability review, led by disabled people and our organisations including our trade unions, inviting the views of carers and the workers who deliver the services we rely on.

Despite themselves, we intend to hold the UK Government to the promise they made. We hope that you will join us in making clear the expectation that the UK Government may not table further disability cuts while a genuine and independent review takes place in Wales, and that MPs, whatever their views, must also refuse, on principle, to vote for disability cuts for the duration.

Specific points, such as what we suggest by the Welsh Government providing practical assistance, and our specific democratic grievances with the UK Government, are developed in the attached briefing.

Yours sincerely,

Disabled People Against Cuts Cymru (DPAC Cymru)
VOICES ADFOCAD
Don’t Call Me Special
Plaid Cymru Anabledd
Prof. Debbie Foster, Former co-Chair of the Welsh Government’s Disability Rights Taskforce.
Gemma Southgate, TSSA Wales & Western Executive Committee Member
Siân Boyles, PCS National officer for Wales
Mark Evans, Secretary, Swansea and District Trades Council
Cardiff Trades Council
TSSA Wales No.1 Branch
PCS Wales
PCS Proud
Unite Community Wales
Unite Community, Cardiff & Area
Social Workers Union (SWU)
Austerity Action Group (AAG)
Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU)
National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN)

The letter to the Welsh Government and attached briefing is available here

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