What is the Timms Review?

The Timms Review is a report about Personal Independence Payment. 

Personal Independence Payment is a benefit for people with a disability or health problems.

It is also called PIP.

PIP is given to people to help with the extra costs of having a disability or health problem. 

The Timms Review is looking at PIP and what people think about it. 

In July 2026 The Timms Review shared an interim report. 
 

The interim report is the first report from the review.  

It says what work the people doing the Timms Review have done so far. 

It also says what work they still need to do.

The first report is on the GOV.UK website.

The first report does not say what the government needs to change to make PIP better. 

The first report says that people think PIP is an important benefit. 

But there are some things about PIP that people say do not work well.

Things like: 

• PIP does not cover all the extra costs of living with a disability.

• Assessments for PIP are difficult for people with a learning disability . 
  
  An assessment is a check to see if people can do everyday things like cooking, washing, or telling people what you need. 

• People who do the assessments do not know enough about hidden disabilities and support needs for people with a hidden disability.
  
  A hidden disability is when someone can't tell that the person has a disability by looking at them.

• 9 out of 10 people said they had a bad experience claiming PIP. 
  
  They said it was too complicated, took too long, and made them feel stressed. 

There are other things that are causing problems for PIP. 

More people are asking for help from PIP every year. 

The cost of food, travel, and support is more expensive than ever before. 

PIP helps people to pay for these things. 

People said that the way PIP works has not changed, but the world has changed a lot over the years. 

We are happy the government has co-produced the report with people who have a disability. 

Co-production means working with people with lived experience and making sure they are included in work and decisions. 

We agree that PIP is very important benefit for people with a learning disability.

But people with a learning disability have told us that it is not working well for them. 

We are happy the first report says people asked why they have assessments over and over again. 

We spoke to people with a learning disability and their families about how they wanted PIP to change. 

We want the government to: 

• Stop making people with a learning disability have to do assessments for PIP if they do not need to.

• Make PIP assessments work better for people with a learning disability. 
  
  Assessments should think about what kind of support people with a learning disability need to live their lives. 

• Make applying for PIP less stressful. 
  
  People who make decisions about PIP should know more about learning disability so they don’t make bad decisions. 

The people doing the Timms Review are going to keep talking to people and getting information about PIP. 

They are going to have meetings with people across the country to find out more. 

This will help them give ideas to the government about how to make PIP better. 

They will put the ideas in a final report in Autumn 2026. 

Then the government will decide if they are going to make changes to PIP. 

You can read the full version of our response to the first report in this blog.