Sixth Delegated Legislation Committee

24 June 2026

Committee Actual start House of Commons

15:26 - 15:29
Speaker 1
Order, order. 
15:29 - 15:45
Speaker 2
Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payment, Jobseeker's Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance (Decisions and Appeals) (Amendment) Regulations 2026.  I call the Shadow Minister, Rebecca Smith, to move the motion. 
15:45 - 16:41
Speaker 3
Thank you, Ms. Hobbs-House.  It's a privilege to serve under your chairmanship.  I appreciate it's incredibly warm in here, so bear with me, but we want, we feel this is an important debate to be had this afternoon.  So today I want to sound the alarm about this statutory instrument.  This new measure hands the government sweeping discretionary powers with too few safeguards and too little scrutiny. 

The change would allow the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to extend the length of fixed-term Personal Independence Payment awards, known as PIP.  It is intended to tackle the backlog of awards reviews following COVID-19, but we believe it takes us backwards, not forwards.  Under the previous approach, people's awards have been regularly reviewed to ensure that the support they receive reflects their actual circumstances.  Yet under the new approach, most claimants will only get two checks in ten years.  One review period will last four years, with subsequent reviews lasting six years. 

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