The Petition
To Pat Mcfadden MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Stephen Timms MP, Minster for Social Security and Disability,
The government’s review of PIP is an opportunity to make PIP fair for people with MS by better recognising fluctuating and invisible symptoms, improving mobility assessments, and ending unnecessary reassessments for long-term conditions.
We are calling on the UK Government to:
- Embed the PIP system with fairness, dignity and respect — Introduce new core principles for the PIP system that embed fairness, dignity, respect, consistency and transparency across every stage of the PIP process.
- Fix how fluctuating and invisible symptoms are assessed — Introduce a flexible, person-centred approach that captures the reality of living with fluctuating and invisible symptoms, like MS, and end inaccurate informal observations.
- Change how mobility is assessed — Scrap the arbitrary 20 metre rule and replace it with an assessment based on whether people can complete essential daily tasks and live independently.
- End unnecessary reassessments — Offer lifetime awards as default for people living with long-term, progressive conditions like MS, replacing compulsory reassessments with light-touch check-ins and stopping reassessments for those on the highest awards.