The Timms Review and the Inequalities blog in 2026

Reader, I owe you an apology: it’s been a while since I’ve posted, which is the worst thing you can do as a blogger. But there’s a reason why – I’m part of the steering group for the Timms Review of PIP.

In this post, I want to set out what this means for the Inequalities blog, ahead of a new series of posts in the coming weeks.

Put simply: I can’t talk about PIP this year. Or to be more precise: I can’t publicly set out what I think should happen to PIP to make it better.

This isn’t because of a gagging clause or an NDA or anything sinister. It’s just a commitment that all of the Timms Review steering group members have made; if one of us starts making recommendations, then that will be interpreted as a clue to what the Timms Review steering group as a whole thinks, and that’s not fair to the other people in the group.

Still, this doesn’t stop me talking about PIP-related research – indeed, there’s some PIP-related work with the Resolution Foundation that I’ll hopefully blog about in early summer. But I won’t be drawing out any policy implications of the research until the Timms Review has published its final report in late 2026. So my ideas on reducing medicalisation, exclusion and distress (following-up the original post a year ago) will follow in early 2027…

I should also flag that the Timms Review steering have just launched their call for evidence, with a deadline of 28^th May – so if you have ideas around making PIP better, please do read the call and send something in!

But the good news is that I will be blogging more regularly in the coming months. Now that the position of the blog is clear, I’ll be able to write about:

• Liz Sayce’s review of Carer’s Allowance Overpayments – which will also show that I’m still willing and able to criticise DWP;

• Why the way that we measure disability employment gaps is untrustworthy, and what we should do about it;

• New research on the effect of the cut to the work-related activity component to ESA back in 2017.

And obviously I’ll keep responding to things as they arise – just let me know if there’s anything else you think I should be covering.

Thanks for persevering with the blog, and I’m looking forward to re-starting the conversation!