The government has published its Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill. It is summarised here. Its Second Reading is due on 1 July. This article re-publishes Meg Hillier’s parliamentary motion opposing it.

Meg Hillier MP has submitted a motion against it:

That this House, while noting the need to change the rates of benefits to people in need of State support and welcoming the much-needed increase in the standard rate of Universal Credit, declines to give a Second Reading to the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill, because it does not contain any proven and effective measures to improve employment support beyond what Personal Independence Payment (PIP) achieves for many disabled people, and which should be implemented alongside any changes to benefits; it contains dangerous and counterproductive cuts to entitlements aimed at disabled people, rather than proposing a framework which would facilitate all disabled people getting adequate financial and other support to thrive in society; it fails to reform PIP to make it more effective as a means of supporting employed people in work; it lacks measures to take proper account of the needs of people with severe fluctuating long-term conditions, including serious mental ill-health; it does not contain measures to improve the support from health services and local social services given to disabled people; it will lead to many unpaid carers no longer being eligible for Carer’s Allowance because the person they care for no longer qualifies for PIP; it has not been subject to full impact assessments; and it does not contain proposals to proactively work with disabled people to co-produce changes to the welfare system that will treat those in need of social security with dignity and respect.