PIP Changes 2026: Timms Review and Latest DWP Updates

The weekly PIP rates for 2026/27, compared with 2025/26 (DWP, Benefit and pension rates 2026 to 2027, see our full benefit rates 2026/27 guide):

Each rate is about 3.8% higher. For monthly amounts, see our PIP rates 2026/27 guide and the PIP descriptors.

DWP's statistics for July 2026 say that until April 2026, award durations ranged from a minimum of 9 months to a maximum of 10 years. Since April 2026 most new awards to people aged 25 or over will be for 4 years with a review after 3 years. Subsequent awards following a successful review will be for 6 years with the review taking place after 5 years. The changes will also apply to the existing PIP caseload from 16 June 2026. Our PIP review guide explains how a review works.

The interim report says the Timms Review arose from a parliamentary debate during the passage of the Universal Credit Act in July 2025, when planned government changes to PIP eligibility did not have the support of Parliament. The government set up the review to look at PIP more fundamentally.

• It is jointly led by co-chairs Sharon Brennan, Dr Clenton Farquharson CBE and Sir Stephen Timms, Minister for Social Security and Disability, with a 12 member steering group
• Its call for evidence opened on 19 March 2026 and closed on 28 May 2026, and received 38,713 responses
• The interim report was published on 9 July 2026. It says the evidence so far tells the review that while PIP is widely valued, it is no longer fit for purpose, and many people describe applying as “dehumanising”
• The steering group is exploring whether the activities and descriptors focus too heavily on what people cannot do, and whether the assessment is too subjective
• The interim report does not provide recommendations. They will be set out in the final report in the autumn

In September 2026 the Review's co-chairs shared emerging recommendations, which they say are not final recommendations but a starting point for people to test, challenge and help improve. They include proposals for reforming the current PIP system, alongside principles that could underpin more fundamental reform.

The emerging recommendations for improving the current benefit include:

• Reducing unnecessary award reviews for people with lifelong or degenerative conditions
• Improving the PIP2 form and guidance so that it is easier to complete and better captures fluctuating conditions
• Making the tone and language of DWP communications more respectful and easier to understand
• Improving how reasonable adjustments are identified, implemented and monitored
• An advocacy service for people who struggle to articulate the impacts of their condition
• A framework governing how decisions are made, appealed and corrected, with learning from mandatory reconsiderations and appeals applied across the process
• Reviewing the 28-day hospitalisation rule
• Changing how PIP assesses and accounts for fluctuating conditions, so it does not just take a snapshot view
• Face-to-face assessments where evidence is limited or contradictory, and a variety of assessment formats
• An online portal, with offline alternatives to avoid digital exclusion

The principles for a reformed benefit include:

• Cash will remain the foundation of the award, and the award will be non-means-tested
• A light-touch initial assessment, then different assessment pathways for different groups of people
• People with well-evidenced, serious conditions, including those receiving end-of-life care, could benefit from a fast-track pathway
• All assessment pathways will consider fluctuating cumulative impacts, rather than relying on a snapshot
• A “Tell Us Once” principle: with their permission, each person will have a single digital profile, so people are not repeatedly asked for the same information
• A wide range of evidence will be accepted, including specialist reports by mental health professionals or social workers and testimony from carers, family, friends and other people who know the person
• Some awards will also include services and other non-cash support
• The reformed benefit will be designed with disabled people and those with long-term health conditions, and tested to make sure it works before it is rolled out

The Review says its recommendations must operate within its terms of reference, including remaining within the Office for Budget Responsibility's projections for future PIP expenditure. Its co-chairs say participants at 15 shaping recommendations workshops across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be asked to explore the emerging recommendations, and that the final report will follow later this autumn.

The House of Commons and House of Lords Libraries set out what happened:

• The government introduced the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill in June 2025. It would have required PIP claimants to score four or more points in at least one daily living activity to get the daily living part, known as the four-point rule.
• People already getting PIP when the changes were expected to come into force (not before November 2026) would have been exempt, so the rule would only have applied to new claimants.
• At second reading on 1 July 2025, the government said it would remove the PIP clause (clause 5) and only make changes to PIP eligibility activities and descriptors following the Timms review of the PIP assessment.
• The PIP clause was removed at the Commons committee stage on 9 July 2025, and the Bill was renamed the Universal Credit Bill.
• It became the Universal Credit Act 2025 on 3 September 2025, an Act to alter the rates of Universal Credit elements and income-related ESA.

The November 2026 date came from the four-point rule, which was removed from the Bill on 9 July 2025. The official timetable now is the Timms Review's: it will report its recommendations to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions by autumn 2026, and it has committed to reporting its outcomes to Parliament. A report of recommendations is not itself a change to the rules.

The latest official publications on PIP, as at 7 October 2026:

• The Timms Review: co-chair updates for July, August and September 2026, published in GOV.UK's Timms Review collection. The September update has an annex of emerging recommendations
• DWP, Personal Independence Payment statistics to July 2026
• Ministry of Justice, Tribunal Statistics Quarterly for April to June 2026: 67% of PIP decisions cleared at a tribunal hearing were overturned in the claimant's favour

• If you already get PIP, you continue to get it while your claim is being reviewed, and you must report changes straight away
• If you think you qualify, you can start a claim by phone or by post
• If you disagree with a PIP decision, you can ask for a mandatory reconsideration, usually within one month of the date of the decision, and then appeal

See our guides on the PIP appeal process, PIP reviews and the wider benefits guides.