Government Offers Major Eleventh Hour Concession On Welfare Reforms
The concession comes just hours ahead of a key vote (Alamy)
2 min read
The government has offered another major concession on its welfare reforms just before a House of Commons vote in a bid to avoid a backbench rebellion.
In the hours leading up to the vote on Tuesday night, the government was being warned that 40 Labour MPs or more could vote against the legislation despite ministers having offered concessions last week.
Under changes announced on Friday, the government said it would ensure that existing Personal Independence Payment (PIP) recipients would not be impacted by stricter new rules, and that only new claimants would be affected.
However, there was still concern among Labour MPs that a promised review into how PIP works, led by work and pensions minister Stephen Timms, would not have time to feed its findings back to the government before the new rules came into effect.
The review is expected to conclude in Autumn 2026, which is when the new rules were due to be implemented.
However, in another major concession to Labour rebels, Timms announced in the House of Commons today that the changes to PIP eligibility would only happen "following that review", adding that the clause containing the changes would be removed altogether from the bill.
"[MPs] across the house during this debate have raised concerns that the changes to PIP are coming ahead of the conclusions of the review of the assessment that I will be leading," the minister said.
"We've heard those concerns," he added.
"That is why I can announce that we are going to remove the clause five from the bill at committee, but we will move straight to the wider review — sometimes referred to as the Timms review — and only make changes to eligibility, activities, and descriptors, following that review.
The government is committed to concluding the review by the autumn of next year.”
The concession means the government will almost certainly win the vote tonight.
However, it represents another embarrassing moment for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, with the legislation having been watered down significantly since it was first announced earlier in the year.
There will also be questions over how Chancellor Rachel Reeves will raise funds to fill the gap left by the lost savings.
Additional reporting by Nadine Batchelor-Hunt.
