Timms Review: Updated Terms of Reference and Next Steps

In June, the Government announced it would launch the Timms review, the first ever full review of personal independence payment, with the aim of ensuring we have a system that supports disabled people to achieve better health, higher living standards and greater independence, including through employment.

Listening to those with lived experience will be critical to the success of any future reform. That is why we launched the pathways to work consultation, to which the Government will respond today. It is why we ran collaboration committees to bring together groups of disabled people and other experts to inform the design of the support we offer. And it is why we will co-produce the Timms review with disabled people, the organisations that represent them, and other experts.

Over the summer, I met with disabled people, disabled people’s organisations, disability, welfare and carers’ charities, think-tanks and other experts to discuss how we should approach co-production in the Timms review. This is the first time that the Government have undertaken coproduction on this scale, although there have been many good examples in local and devolved contexts, and we wanted to take time to learn from those with expertise and experience.

Having taken this feedback on board, we are today publishing updated terms of reference and setting out the next steps for the review. The updated ToR contain a small number of revisions to reflect the current Government policy following changes to the Universal Credit Act 2025, and to clarify the review’s overarching aims and fiscal parameters to give clarity to participants, stakeholders and the public. In line with the principle of co-production, they give the review a broad remit to set its own strategic direction, priorities and workplan. The revised ToR have been published on gov.uk at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/timms-review-of-pip-terms-of-reference

I can also confirm today that I will co-chair the review alongside Sharon Brennan and Dr Clenton Farquharson CBE. I look forward to drawing upon their wealth of knowledge and experience as we begin this work together.

As co-chairs, we will oversee a steering group with a majority of its membership made up of disabled people or representatives of disabled people’s organisations, ensuring disabled people are at the heart of the review. The group will be recruited through an open and transparent expression of interest process, which has launched today and is available on gov.uk and will run for four weeks.

We will share the EOI, which is available in a range of accessible formats, widely with stakeholders and across our networks.

The steering group will not work alone; it will shape and oversee a programme of participation and engagement that brings together the full range of views and voices.

We are ready to listen and learn, and we are committed to continued transparency and evaluation as this work continues. The review is expected to report to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions by autumn 2026, with an interim update expected ahead of that.

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