• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / Benefits and Poverty / Conservative conference: Coffey says merging PIP with universal credit is ‘on the table’
Therese Coffey speaking from behind a long, flanked by three men in suits table

Conservative conference: Coffey says merging PIP with universal credit is ‘on the table’

By John Pring on 7th October 2021 Category: Benefits and Poverty

Listen

The possibility of merging personal independence payment (PIP) with universal credit is “on the table” as part of a fresh wave of social security reforms, work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey has admitted.

In response to a question from Disability News Service (DNS) at the Conservative party conference in Manchester, Coffey twice refused to rule out the possibility of bringing the two benefits together.

DNS had asked her about suggestions of a merger between means-tested universal credit and non-means-tested PIP, raised in July’s disability benefits green paper.

Responding to the question, she initially spoke about a pilot project on productivity in work, but then conceded that “everything is on the table is the best way of saying it, because the green paper is quite broad and we want to get some focus on genuine innovative thinking”.

She added: “Are these benefits actually working? That’s the question I often say past my officials.

“Are they having the intended desire? And if not, what are we going to do about that?

“Or is there something that we can have [that is] better… in that regard.”

Asked again by DNS if she could confirm that she was not ruling out folding PIP into the universal credit system, she declined to do so.

She said instead that the reforms were about “the broader outcome of… improving processes, but also how we encourage and reduce the disability employment gap”.

PIP is paid to disabled people both in and out of work, is not means-tested, and is supposed to contribute towards the extra impairment-related costs they face.

The fringe event was hosted by The Centre for Policy Studies, the right-wing thinktank co-founded by Margaret Thatcher.

Coffey also made repeated references during the event to the need to cut spending on disability benefits, particularly PIP, which again was discussed in the green paper.

She said that “probably” the biggest increase in benefits spending had been on “health benefits”, while PIP had “grown in a way that was not anticipated when it was introduced”.

She said that three out of four young people who claim PIP – a total of 189,000 – state that their primary reason is their mental health.

Coffey appeared to suggest that reducing the number of young people in mental distress claiming PIP would help more people “think of the benefit system as fair”.

She said that targeting PIP on “people who really need that support” may improve the “public perception” that the system is fair.

But James Kirkup, director of the Social Market Foundation thinktank, and former political editor of the Daily Telegraph, blamed the media and its use of words such as “feckless, idle, workshy” to describe benefit claimants, as well as the rhetoric of an “earlier generation of politicians”, such as George Osborne.

He said: “There has been a problem with the way we all collectively, media and politicians, talk about welfare.”

 

A note from the editor:

Please consider making a voluntary financial contribution to support the work of DNS and allow it to continue producing independent, carefully-researched news stories that focus on the lives and rights of disabled people and their user-led organisations.

Please do not contribute if you cannot afford to do so, and please note that DNS is not a charity. It is run and owned by disabled journalist John Pring and has been from its launch in April 2009.

Thank you for anything you can do to support the work of DNS…

Share this post:

Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on Reddit

Tags: Conservative conference DWP PIP Therese Coffey universal credit

Related

DWP yet to sign claimant deaths legal agreement with watchdog
30th June 2022
DWP ignored ‘hugely alarming’ research that linked WCA with 600 suicides, MPs are told
23rd June 2022
DWP’s ‘failing assessment system is increasing poverty and worsening mental health’
23rd June 2022

Primary Sidebar

Image shows a man wearing glasses sitting by an open laptop The text reads: Free Career Support for Disabled People Our services include: 1-2-1 Coaching Online Career Resources Find Support near you Search for Inclusive Jobs Career Events and Workshops Visit the Evenbreak Career Hive today to find out how we can help you

Access

Latest Stories

Disabled people are playing their part in defending their country, say Ukraine activists

DPO gives stark warning to disabled people about Covid pandemic

Covid inquiry ‘must examine catastrophic impact of pandemic on disabled people’

Mayor’s ‘ultra low emission zone’ plans ‘will impact tens of thousands of disabled people’

Disabled activists will push for changes to draft mental health bill that ‘breaches rights’

DWP yet to sign claimant deaths legal agreement with watchdog

‘Huge barrier’ of care charges is forcing disabled people into poverty, peers are told

DWP ignored ‘hugely alarming’ research that linked WCA with 600 suicides, MPs are told

Transport secretary silent after misleading MPs about tactile safety markings

DWP’s ‘failing assessment system is increasing poverty and worsening mental health’

Advice and Information

Readspeaker

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2022 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web