David Maples, Socialist Party disability group convener
To avoid a humiliating defeat for Keir Starmer’s Labour government, planned attacks on Personal Independence Payments (PIP) eligibility have been postponed until after a review by disability minister Stephen Timms, due to be published in autumn 2026.
The Stephen Timms review is a trap. Disabled people should have nothing to do with it. The government started with an entirely arbitrary plan to cut £5 billion. It still intends to cut £5 billion. It just doesn’t have a plan. Disabled people and our organisations have no responsibility for this situation.
Socialist Party members have been campaigning to oppose the attacks on disability benefits and for the TUC (Trades Union Congress) and its Disabled Workers Committee to organise a weekend demonstration against Labour austerity, as a launchpad for sustained trade union action in defence of workers and young people.
Our campaign included a motion on this to the TUC Trades Councils conference, through Cardiff Trades Council, which will now be debated at the TUC Congress in September.
Disabled organisations such as Disabled People Against the Cuts (DPAC) and Crips Against Cuts led a campaign which turned the government into disarray. It is now the responsibility of the largest democratic organisations of disabled people, the trade unions, to take up this battle.
Trade unions should also use the period of the review to draw up their own demands, against the cuts and for a benefits system that works for us all. Workplace reps have in-depth experience of the issues that disabled workers encounter. It is working-class people who should reform the benefits system, not to cut spending at the whims of the bosses, but to provide everyone with the support they need, an opportunity for a decent job with decent pay and end the race to the bottom.
