Disabled people appointed to co-produce Timms review of PIP: 'This opportunity cannot be wasted'

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has appointed a steering group to advise on plans for disability benefit reforms.

Almost all 12 members have “lived experience of disability or long-term health conditions”, including those who work within disabled people’s organisations.

Minister for disability and social security Stephen Timms is leading on a review of personal independence payment (PIP) after the government was forced to U-turn on its plans for cuts.

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The government promised that the review would be co-produced with disabled people and disabled people’s organisations to ensure “fairness, respect, transparency and the central role of lived experience”.

It has said it is “committed to a review that is shaped by disabled people and is not simply about them, because policy works best when it is built alongside those impacted by it”.

There were more than 340 applications to join the steering group, and the DWP has now selected 12 members who bring experience across welfare policy, advocacy, accessibility, governance and leadership. They are also diverse in characteristics, including ethnicity, sexuality and geography.

The Big Issue has reported extensively on the PIP system, and hundreds of disabled people have written to the magazine to share their “traumatic” experiences of the assessment process.

Charles Gillies, policy co-chair of the Disability Benefits Consortium and senior policy officer at the MS Society, says: “PIP assessments are not only stressful, they fail to recognise the impact of fluctuating and progressive conditions like MS – often denying people the support they need to live independently.”

Gillies says that the Timms Review “offers a chance to bring about real change, and it’s undeniably positive that most members of the new steering group have lived experience of disability or claiming PIP”.

“This review must now engage meaningfully with the steering group and disabled people more generally, and remain laser-focussed on improving the fairness of PIP assessments – or we risk this vital opportunity being wasted,” he said. “And crucially, it cannot become about making cuts.”

Following an initial introductory call in January 2026, the steering group will meet formally for the first time over the next few weeks and begin detailed co-production and policy work in February.

They will also prepare for a “wider, fully accessible programme of engagement beyond the steering group”, which is due to start in the spring.

The group includes advocacy lead for Dimensions UK Dr Mark Brooks; disability rights advocate George Fielding; disability rights activist Tara Flood; retired Paralympic athlete Mark Fosbrook; professor at King’s College London Ben Geiger; disability equality advocate Katrina Gilman; former special adviser to the prime minister Jean-André Prager; founder of We Are All Disabled CIC Dr Lucy Reynolds; disabled academic Dr Felix Shi; head of public affairs at the Spinal Injuries Association Dr Dharshana Sridhar; chief executive of Disability Action Haringey Phil Stevens; and autistic and dyslexic project manager and designer Leila Talmadge.

You can read the full biographies of steering group members here.

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