Political opinion with MP Peter Lamb: Crawley MP welcomes Government decision to drop Personal Independence Payment changes

Unfortunately, due to the cost to the Treasury of the rising number of PIP claims, last March the Government announced proposals which would have introduced a more restrictive qualifying criteria for PIP and which in the process risked excluding many disabled people with a high level of need.

For the three and a half months since this policy change was first suggested, I have worked to try to change the Government's position on PIP: meeting with ministers and officials, attending MP policy sessions, signing private and open letters to the Prime Minister, and making it clear through the media that I would be opposing any cuts to PIP.

Last week, I was one of the signatories to the reasoned amendment to the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payments Bill which demonstrated the extent of backbench opposition to the proposed changes to PIP, resulting in the announcement that all current PIP claimants would have their existing claim preserved.

Unwilling to cut off future claimants with disabilities, I was among those MPs who persisted in making it clear to the Government that we would still be voting against the bill, resulting in an announcement on the day of the Second Reading that PIP would be removed entirely from the bill when it reached the Committee Stage, in line with Commons procedure, and enabling me to vote in support of the remaining largely positive provisions of the bill.

A review will now take place into PIP, bringing disability groups into the process of designing the new system before being presented to MPs for further debate. Commitments have already been given that the goal of the review will be to deliver the 'right' system for ensuring genuine needs are met rather than as a cost-cutting measure.

I will continue to encourage Government to find the savings now needed by looking at the causes rather than the symptoms of increased welfare spending and tackling them at source, such as reducing the cost of PIP by clearing the backlog in mental health treatment, and in the process improving the quality of life of constituents.