Committees

Government urged to publish research into disabled people’s experiences of benefits system

23 September 2021

The Work and Pensions Committee publishes an exchange of correspondence with the Secretary of State about the DWP’s failure to publish research it commissioned about disabled people’s experiences of disability benefits.

Committee Chair Stephen Timms says that the findings appear to have been ‘brushed under the carpet’ by the Government and calls for the report to be published ‘without further delay’.

Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP, Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, said:

“Some 120 disabled people gave up their time—at DWP’s request—to talk about their experiences of the benefits system, in the expectation that they were taking part in research that would be published and used to inform policy. DWP should be listening to the voices of disabled people. Instead, the Secretary of State seems to have simply brushed this important report under the carpet.

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the Government is refusing to publish this research because its findings are too embarrassing. It must now publish the report without further delay.”

The Committee’s letter, published today, warns that the decision not to publish the commissioned research appears to breach the Government’s own rules about publishing research.

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