DWP update on scrapping £737 PIP payments and new voucher scheme

A huge update on the plan to scrap the payments for millions of people on benefits has been issued.

A controversial consultation was launched in the summer which proposed several potential measures for cutting welfare state spending, including the ending of cash payments for people claiming Personal Independence Payments and replacing them with several possible options, including vouchers instead of cash.

The plans would see the £737 a month or £9,583.60 a year payments cut and replaced with either vouchers for food and equipment or with ordering from a 'prescribed list' of disability kit.

The plans could have seen a catalogue scheme replace the payments, a receipt based system where disabled people are reimbursed for purchases relating to their condition or one-off grants rather than regular payments.

The document also suggested reviewing PIP assessments and what qualified someone for it.

Now the new scheme appears to be dead in the water - at least for the time being.

New Pensions minister Sir Stepehen Timms has given an update on the PIP plans as he said: "We do not intend to publish a response to the previous Government's consultation. We will be considering our own plans for social security in due course and will fulfil our continued commitment to work with disabled people so that their views and voices are at the heart of all that we do."

Benefits and Work said: "This does not rule out the possibility that Labour could come up with similar ideas in the future, but it makes it much less likely. It is very improbable that the government would decline to respond to a consultation on PIP vouchers and yet very soon afterwards unveil their own plan to introduce exactly the same thing."