The Timms Review must stop people with terminal illness being forced to reapply for PIP 

Life with a terminal illness, or life-limiting, progressive condition such as Parkinson’s or motor neurone disease, can be gruelling even for the most resilient among us: a daily reality so often marked by pain, exhaustion and the relentless work managing symptoms that are likely only to worsen.  

For many people, simply getting through the day and spending time with loved ones takes all the energy they have. Yet too many in exactly these circumstances are still forced to go through reassessments for ersonal independence payment (PIP), a benefit intended to help with the essential extra costs of disability and serious illness, to prove how unwell they are in order to keep the support they need.  

As Sir Stephen Timms begins his major review into the future of PIP, Marie Curie is leading a coalition of more than 30 charities, including Age UK, Amnesty International, Parkinson’s UK, the MND Association and Trussell to call for a more humane system.  

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Our recommendations are clear and compassionate. People who qualify under the special rules for end of life, which allow access to fast-tracked benefits for those with a prognosis that they are not likely to live for more than 12 months, should receive indefinite awards. People with progressive, life-limiting conditions who don’t qualify under these rules but are on the highest rates of PIP should also not be placed on fixed-length awards. And for people with progressive and life-limiting conditions on lower rates of PIP, compulsory reassessments should be replaced by light-touch reviews to check whether they now need more support.  

As the UK’s leading end-of-life charity, at Marie Curie we hear time and again stories of the stress reassessments can cause. Far from a minor administrative inconvenience, they create needless uncertainty and financial anxiety for people already suffering from serious illness. At worst, they expose just how harsh the system can be: one of our campaign supporters was told that they had effectively ‘lived too long’ with a terminal illness and would need to renew PIP to keep a Motability car essential for daily life.   

What makes this system even harder to defend is how little it achieves. As Marie Curie’s CEO, Matthew Reed, highlights in our coalition’s open letter to Sir Stephen, only 2% of PIP awards for people whose main condition was Parkinson’s, dementia or motor neurone disease were reduced at review between February 2025 and January 2026. Over that same period, 38% of people with Parkinson’s, 16% of people with dementia and 9% of people with motor neurone disease were still placed on fixed-term awards. Each PIP assessment costs around £282 – so essentially, public money is being spent on reviews that rarely change the outcome, while placing additional strain on people who are already seriously ill. 

Our proposals are not unrealistic. Across the border, Scotland has already shown that a better approach is possible, as people who receive adult disability payment under the special rules route receive a lifetime award that is not reviewed unless their circumstances change. There is no good reason why people elsewhere in the UK should be denied the same common-sense approach – and why similar certainty should not be extended to people with terminal or progressive and life-limiting conditions who do not qualify under the special rules. 

Whether someone is dying, or living with a progressive condition that will only worsen, they should not have to spend their limited time and energy proving that they still need help. The least we can do is to make sure that systems meant to support them do not add to that burden. 

As Sir Stephen considers the evidence, we urge him to remember the people at the heart of this debate: those trying to live as well as they can, for as long as they can, with the people they love. He now has the chance to ease their suffering in this one area – a responsibility he must take seriously to ensure that everyone has the chance to live with greater dignity and respect. 

Becca Stacy is Marie Curie’s senior policy manager for financial security

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