PIP 20 metre rule consultation response: “We’re not listening.”

Scales of justice


The result: they’re keeping the threshold for enhanced support at twenty metres.

Unfortunately, despite Mike Penning – the new Minister of State for Disabled People – assuring us in the foreward that the DWP “have listened carefully to the feedback received from disabled people and their organisations” the bulk of the response sets out why the DWP are going to ignore the feedback that has been given to them.

The most telling part is paragraphs 3.2 and 3.3 which read:

“Out of 1142 respondents, 914 indicated a clear preference for changing the Moving around criteria. [From 20m to something else.] […] Five individual respondents were supportive of retaining the current criteria.


The executive summary is three pages long and doesn’t actually state the outcome directly. However, this is the DWP summary of what the public responses said to them: (Emphasis mine)



And the DWP response:




It seems clear that the responses to the consultation were never going to matter; the DWP has ridden roughshod over the whole lot to push ahead with what they want. They explain that the overwhelming majority of responses were against them, they acknowledge all the objections, and then they carry on as before. It’s quite telling that their document has an almost petulant tone to it, like some teenager at being told they can’t have their own way. For example: “Government is entitled to use different criteria for different purposes”.


Please sign WOW Petition against the War On Welfare.

DWP website: Consultation on the PIP assessment ‘moving around’ activity

Jane Young: The PIP 20 metre rule remains intact

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Author: Latentexistence


6 thoughts on “PIP 20 metre rule consultation response: “We’re not listening.””

  1. Urgh. I knew they wouldn’t give a damn what the consultation said… I somehow still had a tiny shred of lukewarm hope that we could somehow *make* them listen. Bastards. Utter, horrific bastards. We basically don’t *have* rights or the rule of law any more, do we? Does the ECRPD contain any provisions for enforcement..?

  2. No surprise here, they have clearly done whatever they want to do all along and it has all been calculated and cruel. They are callous, cold, heartless beings. I wish you luck in putting the screws to them.

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