USING POWERS given to it by the House of Commons, the Work and Pensions Committee is to obtain and publish a Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) commissioned report on disabled people’s experiences of the benefits system after the Department again refused to make the research public
The report The Uses of Health and Disability Benefits was received by the Government in September 2020. It followed a research project led by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), which interviewed disabled people about their experiences of receiving PIP, ESA and Universal Credit.
On 23 September 2021, the Chair of the Committee Stephen Timms said: “Some 120 disabled people gave up their time—at DWP’s request—to talk about their experiences of the benefits system, in the expectation that they were taking part in research that would be published and used to inform policy. DWP should be listening to the voices of disabled people. Instead, the Secretary of State seems to have simply brushed this important report under the carpet.
“It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the Government is refusing to publish this research because its findings are too embarrassing. It must now publish the report without further delay.”
In December 2021, the Committee gave the Secretary of State Thérèse Coffey one final chance to publish the report, which she herself admitted fell within the Government’s own protocol for publication.
Following confirmation from that she will not be reconsidering her decision, the Committee has written to NatCen, which carried out the research, ordering it to provide a copy for publication by the Committee by Thursday 27 January.
Stephen Timms, said: “After repeated obstruction from the Secretary of State to keep from public view a piece of work that falls within the Government’s own protocol for publication, we have reached the end of the road. We would have much rather the DWP had done the right thing and published the report itself, so it is with regret that we must now take the highly unusual step of using our parliamentary powers to obtain a copy from NatCen and publish it ourselves. We have been forced to do this to ensure that the reality of disabled people’s experiences of the benefits system can see the light of day.”
* Read a transcript of Stephen Timm’s exchange with Dr Coffey at last month’s evidence session here.
* Source: Work and Pensions Committee