Guidance

Timms Review: register your interest in a shaping recommendations workshop

Published 12 August 2026

Summary

These shaping recommendations workshops are primarily for disabled people and people with long-term health conditions, ideally with experience interacting with the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) process. Participants will be invited to discuss and refine the Review’s emerging recommendations. Participants will receive a one-off payment in recognition of attendance and reimbursement of reasonable travel expenses.

There will be 15 workshops across the country during September and October 2026, with 9 held in person and 6 online. Registration of interest will open on Wednesday 12 August 2026 at 10am and close Friday 21 August 2026 at 5pm. You can register by completing this ‘about you’ form. We aim to let selected participants know if they have been invited to attend and, if so, which session by 4 September 2026.

Overview

The UK government launched the Timms Review to ensure that PIP is fair and fit for the future in a changing world.

The Review is co-chaired by:

• Sir Stephen Timms, Minister for Social Security and Disability
• Sharon Brennan
• Dr Clenton Farquharson CBE

The co-chairs work with a steering group of 12 members who jointly lead co-production of the Review. The steering group brings together a range of lived experience, expertise, and diverse characteristics. 

The steering group is in the process of developing recommendations and plans to host a series of workshops to help shape these recommendations with disabled people and people with long-term health conditions in September and October 2026.  

The Review’s steering group invites you to register your interest in attending a workshop by 5pm on Friday 21 August. This page provides more information about what to expect from the workshops.

Shaping recommendations workshops introduction

These workshops will focus on your views of the Review’s emerging recommendations, rather than identifying problems within the current system.

After the workshop, your input will be summarised and shared with the steering group. The insights from all workshops will be considered alongside other evidence and engagement. Not all ideas shared in workshops will be taken forward, but all will be heard and considered. However, the steering group is committed to providing clear feedback to each workshop, explaining what was taken forward by the steering group and what was not, and why.

Participant selection

The workshops are designed primarily for disabled people and people with long-term health conditions, ideally with experience of interacting with the PIP process, joining in a personal capacity. You do not need any previous experience of engaging with government reviews to take part in a workshop.

To register your interest, you will need to complete an ‘about you’ form. The information you provide on this form will help ensure there is a broad and balanced mix of people from different backgrounds, locations, health conditions and experiences.

Selection will be done randomly but the steering group will review and ensure the sample balances a range of characteristics as above. Where a particular characteristic is under-represented, applicants with that characteristic will be identified from the wider applicant pool and selected at random to fill any gaps. We will also keep a reserve list and may contact people if places become available due to cancellations.

We expect interest in these workshops to exceed the number of places available. Unfortunately, this means we may not be able to offer a place to everyone who registers interest.

Accessibility and inclusion

The Review team is committed to the accessibility of all workshops and will aim to meet the needs of all participants for you to fully participate. You can tell us if you need any reasonable adjustments in the ‘about you’ form. We will contact you to ask for further details if you are invited to a workshop.

Some examples of reasonable adjustments are:

• ensuring that workshop materials are available in different or accessible formats, such as large print and Easy Read
• allowing personal assistants or carers to be part of the meeting, and finding accessibility support for participants, for example sign language interpreters and palantypists
• making provision for support animals to attend in person meetings

Data protection

You will be asked to submit some personal information when you fill in the ‘about you’ form to register your interest in these workshops. In addition to your name and contact details, we will also collect some information about your background and personal characteristics. This is to ensure we are hearing from a diverse range of people and that our selection process is fair and inclusive.

Any information collected as part of this process will be subject to the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP’s) policy on data protection. To learn about your information rights and how DWP uses information, see the DWP’s personal information charter.

All data collected will be stored securely and destroyed once the workshops have been completed and the information from the workshops has been processed and fully anonymised. Data collected is strictly confidential and will only be available to the relevant Review team members and will not be linked to any other DWP records.

DWP will use email as the primary way of communicating with you. However, you can choose another preferred method of communication, such as a telephone call, in the ‘about you’ form.

Workshop locations and dates

There will be 15 workshops across the UK, offered as a mix of in person and online during September and October 2026, as listed in the table below. They will each be a one-day event from 10am to 4pm with regular breaks and have a maximum of 20 attendees each. The Review would like to hear from people who live in the region where the workshop is held, and each participant will be limited to joining one workshop.

Date	Nation​	Location​	Format
Tuesday 15 September	England – London​	London	In person​
Friday 18 September	England – North East​	Newcastle/Middlesbrough and surrounding areas​	Online​
Tuesday 22 September	England – South​	Bournemouth​	In person​
Tuesday 22 September	England and Wales	All regions	Online
Thursday 24 September	England – Midlands​	Birmingham ​	In person​
Friday 25 September	Wales – South	Cardiff	In person
Tuesday 29 September	England – East	Norwich and surrounding areas	Online
Tuesday 29 September	Scotland	Glasgow	In person
Wednesday 30 September	Wales – North​	Bangor ​	In person​
Wednesday 30 September	England and Wales​	All regions ​	Online​
Thursday 1 October	England – North West​	Liverpool	In person​
Thursday 1 October	Northern Ireland​	Belfast ​	In person​
Friday 2 October	England – Yorkshire and the Humber	Sheffield ​	In person​
Tuesday 6 October	Scotland​	All Scotland​	Online​
Wednesday 7 October	Northern Ireland​	All Northern Ireland	Online​

Payments and expenses

Participants who attend the full workshop will be offered a one-off payment. We will also reimburse reasonable travel costs and other necessary expenses (for example, costs of a personal assistant) for you if you are attending a workshop in a personal capacity.  We will provide you with more information if you are invited to a workshop.

Any payments you receive from this are subject to tax and National Insurance contributions. You are responsible for disclosing payments to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and any queries on these arrangements should be taken up with HMRC. These payments will not be pensionable.

Additional advice for individuals in receipt of means-tested benefits

Voluntary participation in this workshop is not considered to be ‘work’ for the purpose of means-tested benefits. However, if you receive benefits, you should inform your work coach or local Jobcentre before taking part. If you are unsure whether participation may affect your claim, you should seek advice from the office that administers your benefit. Universal Credit claimants can do this through their online journal.

Once you have been selected for this workshop, we can provide you with a letter detailing your participation in the workshop to support this conversation.

Due to the value and nature of these payments, they will be treated as earnings and could affect benefit entitlement, depending on your individual circumstances. You should consider the impact on your earnings or benefits by speaking to your work coach or local Jobcentre before you sign up. You can also participate in the workshop without the payment or ask for a lower amount to be given, once the payment and expense guidance for this activity has been shared with you.

Information for workshops in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland

The Timms Review steering group wants to hear from disabled people and people with long-term health conditions across the UK.

PIP is the responsibility of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in England and Wales.

PIP is a transferred matter in Northern Ireland, which means it is the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Executive. But there is a long-standing principle of parity between the social security systems of the Northern Ireland Executive and the UK government. It is therefore important that the Review hears from disabled people in Northern Ireland.

PIP is devolved in Scotland and has been replaced by Adult Disability Payment (ADP). However, DWP continues to provide some “reserved” social security benefits in Scotland, such as Universal Credit. Some disabled people in Scotland have experience of PIP before it was replaced by ADP. It is important to the success of the Review that disabled people in Scotland have a chance to feed into the Review, to ensure that we fully understand how the reserved and devolved landscapes will interact. Shaping recommendations workshops in Scotland will be tailored to reflect this.

How you can register your interest

To register your interest, you’ll need to complete and submit the ‘about you’ form.

We are committed to making reasonable adjustments to make sure potential participants are not disadvantaged during the application process - this includes allowing you to submit your ‘about you’ form in different formats. Any requests for reasonable adjustments to support your application and any questions related to the process should be directed to timmsreview.shapingrecommendations@dwp.gov.uk.

Registration of interest will open Wednesday 12 August 2026 at 10am and close Friday 21 August 2026 at 5pm. We aim to let selected participants know via email by 4 September 2026.