Timms Review complaint: Welsh call for independent review

Action, All Posts, Benefits, local authority cuts, local groups, News, PIP, Politics, welfare cuts, Welfare reforms No Responses »

Jul 192026

Click here for the Easy Read version

Logos of DPAC Cymru, Voices ADFOCAD, Don't Call Me Special, Social Workers Union, Unite Community Wales, Austerity Action Group, TSSA Wales No.1 Branch, Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union, PCS Cymru, Swansea and district trades council, Cardiff trades council, and the National Shop Stewards Network

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

For press enquires contact dpac.cymru+press@gmail.com

DPAC response to TUC statement on PIP today

All Posts, Access to Work, Motability, News, PIP, Speeches, Universal Credit, welfare cuts, Welfare reforms 1 Response »

May 182026

We are disappointed with the TUC statement on PIP today calling for reform on PIP by linking PIP with work.

General secretary Paul Nowak says: “The Government has a vital opportunity to support more disabled people into work through the Timms Review…. Only a genuine reform of Pip will ensure that disabled people who can work receive the support they need to move into and stay in work.”

But PIP is paid to people who work and who don’t work. It is not paid on the basis of work – it is paid on the basis of daily living and mobility/getting around. Work does not come into the assessment, nor should it. It may help people to access work, but that is not the primary purpose of it.

The TUC statement suggests that PIP reform and the Timms review is justified and should involve consideration of work. It is now being reported in the media as ‘PIP rules should be changed to get disabled people into work.’

DPAC member Bill Scott says: ‘I’m a lifelong trade union member and long time activist but I feel utterly betrayed by what Paul Nowak has said and so will hundreds of thousands of other disabled people. Honestly I’ve spent over 20 years trying to build bridges between the trade union movement and disabled people and I feel as though I’ve totally wasted my time as all the suspicions that disabled people had about them are borne out.’

DPAC member Lee Starr Elliot moved a motion at the CWU conference calling on the TUC to do better when it comes to the gov attack on social security for deaf and disabled people: Recommitting to Action Against Disability Cuts. It was passed unanimously. Video and text below.

I stand before you today because we are witnessing a coordinated, systemic attack on disabled workers – an attack that is being dressed up as “reform” but feels like a declaration of war on our class. Last year, at the TUC Congress, we stood together. Motions 38 and 39 were passed unanimously. The entire trade union movement pledged coordinated and sustained action against disability cuts. The CWU was at the heart of that fight.

But today, there is a dangerous silence coming from Congress House.

The TUC leadership has suggested that because of minor concessions on PIP, the “emergency” has passed. They claim they no longer need to implement the actions we voted for.

Conference, they are wrong.

These concessions are a sticking plaster on a gaping wound. They are temporary, lasting only until the conclusion of the Timms Review. And let’s be clear: the promised “co-production” with disabled people is a sham. We aren’t being consulted; we are being managed.
While the TUC waits, our members are suffering. Cuts to Motability, the gutting of Access to Work, and the squeezing of the Universal Credit Health Element are not “policy adjustments” – they are life-altering emergencies.

And it’s not just the Department for Work and Pensions. Decades of austerity and the systematic underfunding of local councils have decimated social services, transport, and education. When a council can’t provide a bus or a carer, it is the disabled worker who is imprisoned in their own home.

Perhaps most sickening is the targeting of the next generation. Through the Milburn and Streeting reviews, we see a government obsessed with “over-diagnosis” and “work-readiness.” They are threatening to abolish Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) and forcing 55,000 young disabled people into compulsory placements under the shadow of sanctions.

This is not “support.” This is state-sponsored bullying.

That is why this motion is vital. We are instructing our NEC to stop the TUC from dragging its feet. We are calling for:

1. *A coordinated movement-wide campaign* that exposes the cumulative impact of these cuts.

2. *An accessible, static demonstration* and a mass lobby of Parliament. We need to show them our faces and our strength.

3. *A weekend demonstration against Labour’s austerity plans.* We must send a message to this government: You cannot balance the books on the backs of disabled workers.

4. And finally, we demand an *independent disability review* – one led democratically by disabled people and trade unions, not by Whitehall bureaucrats working for the benefit of their mates and their pockets.

Conference, we don’t just want a seat at the table; we want to change the menu.

The TUC must recommit and be led by the disability community not the politicians. We must support the movement to move united and We must stand with our disabled members, not just in words, but in struggle. I move. Solidarity

Disability minister Stephen Timms under fire in LBC interview

Action, All Posts, Benefits, Disability Activism, Disability Rights, DWP, Letters, local groups, News, PIP, Politics, welfare cuts, Welfare reforms, Write to your MP 2 Responses »

Sep 132025

Calls for an independent PIP review with UK minister under fire

A Welsh disability group is calling for an independent review of Personal Independence Payments (PIP).

Disabled People Against Cuts Cymru (DPAC Cymru) has accused the disability minister Stephen Timms of failing to properly lead his own review into the disability benefit, saying that “co-production is not taking place as promised.”

Speaking exclusively to LBC’s Welsh Correspondent Caitlin Parr, the group’s comments follow the Minister of State for Social Security and Disability, Sir Stephen Timms MP, meeting with the Welsh Government Disability Equality Forum on Tuesday 2nd.

LBC news reported that DPAC Cymru had long fought for disabled people’s voices to be heard in changes to welfare reforms, but were concerned that the minister, despite promises to engage widely over the summer, had so far left Welsh disabled people out of discussions around the review, outside of those forum meetings.

DPAC Cymru claims that Timm’s attendance at those recent forum meetings is “far too little and far too late for Welsh disabled people after months of stonewalling from Timms,” and said they were frustrated by “more promises but no action.”

Ben Golightly, from Swansea, is a coordinator for DPAC Cymru. He told LBC, “he [Timms] agreed in that meeting that it was important for Welsh disabled people and Welsh disabled people’s organisations to be heard. He was meant to talk about how he was delivering co-production. It was his job to do it. And he had no real update, because he hasn’t been doing that job.”

Despite promises from government ministers, DPAC Cymru say that co-production has not taken place, and they are “back to square one.”

Ben said, “We had hoped that after a major defeat in parliament that when he [Timms] promised co-production with disabled people, that we wouldn’t have to go through all of this again. There is so little trust in the way the government has treated disabled people that we need an independent review, led by disabled people, and Stephen Timms and the government should turn up and listen, but they should have no say over how it’s run because they’ve shown, throughout several months, that they’re unable to do it.”

Lee Ellery, an independent disability activist and lead press coordinator for DPAC Cymru, who has Cerebral palsy quadriplegic, agreed, telling LBC news it’s time more Welsh voices were heard.

Lee said, “people with disabilities, particularly in Wales, are left to the bottom of the pile so to speak, and we should be at the forefront of everything. I’m worried about what the result of the [PIP] review might come out to say, if the person who’s leading it doesn’t understand the whole process.”

LBC news reported that “the Timms review into PIP assessments is expected to conclude in Autumn 2026, when changes already decided on for new PIP claimants will come into force.”

DPAC Cymru’s calls for an independent review, made in an open letter released last Monday, has already received wide support, collecting 600 signatures and the support of representatives of more than twenty-five organisations.

Comments collected from respondents talk about their feelings of hurt, being “belittled,” “completely disregarded and isolated,” and the “harm and loss of trust” caused by Timms and the government.

Signatures on the open letter are open until the end of September.

Sign here

We want an independent PIP review!

Action, Access to Work, All Posts, Benefits, Disability Activism, Disability Rights, DWP, Letters, local groups, News, PIP, Politics, welfare cuts, Welfare reforms 4 Responses »

Sep 012025

This is an open letter from DPAC Cymru, produced with feedback from six Disabled People’s Organisations.

Disclaimer: DPAC Cymru didn’t have time to reach 100% agreed wording with DPAC UK, as we would have liked to. Even within DPAC Cymru, the letter wording is somewhat of a compromise. However, for important tactical reasons in Wales, we felt it was important to publish without delay. DPAC have therefore agreed to share the letter with this disclaimer.

Click here for the Easy Read version.

To:

The Welsh Government,

The Scottish Government,

The Northern Ireland Executive,

The UK Government,

1st September 2025

After a major, if partial, defeat in parliament over disability cuts, the disability minister Stephen Timms promised MPs that the PIP benefit review would be co-produced by disabled people and their organisations.

There is widespread skepticism if this will genuinely be the case. Promises to “engage widely over the summer” have not been met, and there has been no transparency over Timms’ plans for “ten people” to have “a lot of sway”. His comments reveal that he does not understand what co-production means. Timms has also repeatedly declined to acknowledge the many serious failures of the Pathways to Work green paper consultation process, particularly felt in Wales.

We counterpose this to the Disability Rights Taskforce, initiated in partnership with the Welsh Government, which brought together 350 stakeholders and 200 policy experts, as a model of what co-production can look like. However, many Taskforce participants were frustrated that much of their work was ultimately missing from the Welsh Government draft plan. This is a lesson that even co-produced policy will fall flat without accountability. Disabled people’s organisations must be given the necessary resources and powers to carry out the implementation and monitoring of decisions.

[Some of us] cautiously welcome[d] the announcement of the Government’s new Independent Disability Advisory Panel. This panel is separate to, but will feed into, the Timms review of PIP. However, trust remains very low, and the terms – of “up to 10” people – have already been set for us. [See update, below]

We the undersigned demand that:

• The new Independent Disability Advisory Panel must be genuinely independent, representative, transparent, and have real powers of oversight.

• The UK government must acknowledge its failures in delivering the Pathways to Work consultation and legislative process, as a precondition to rebuilding trust and ensuring those mistakes are not repeated.

• The PIP review must be independently led by disabled people and our organisations, inviting the views of carers, volunteers, and workers in health, social care, housing, transport, and welfare.

• Any review of welfare reform must also, in a process led by disabled people, involve trade unions as democratic organisations representing 1.4 million disabled workers as well as representing the workers responsible for the day-to-day delivery of services that disabled people rely on.

• The scope of the PIP review must be widened to all aspects of welfare and employment for disabled people, guided by the principle: from each according to their ability, to each according to their need.

• Dedicated funding must be provided to Disabled Peoples Organisations to support outreach, accessible engagement, and the collection of views from disabled people, including those without internet access or digital skills.

• The devolved governments of Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, and councils, should recognise and support this independent review even if the UK government refuses to.

• The UK government must immediately halt all cuts to disability and incapacity benefits for the duration of the review, and urgently fix Access to Work.

• Parliament must be given time to properly scrutinise any new legislation.

• The UC bill should be repealed. It is flawed, and was rushed through in an abnormal and undemocratic way.

[Update 4th September] Statement from DPAC Cymru regarding the “Independent Disability Advisory Panel”:

“The recently published terms for the so-called Independent Disability Advisory Panel, including the requirement to sign a non-disclosure agreement, are completely unacceptable. We are going to go back to a full consultation with all of our members and allies and take time for discussion to correct the weakness in our compromise wording of ‘cautiously welcome’ and come back united, realigned on the strongest possible response. We hope you will continue to support the demand for an independent PIP review, led by disabled people, and support this letter with your signature.”

For a full list of signatures and footnotes, see here.

To add your support to the letter, add your signature here

Here are short URLs for sharing the letter:

Non-Easy Read: Bit.Ly/independent-pip-review

Easy Read: Bit.Ly/easy-read-independent-pip-review