WITH the Labour government’s controversial welfare bill beating the odds and making it through a vote in the Commons, many will be looking to their MP to see how they voted. So how did Cornwall’s MP’s vote on the bill?

In an effort to cut spending and as part of the ‘Plan for Change’, according to the government the bill aims to ‘fix our broken social security system so it supports those who can work to do so while protecting those who cannot.’ Though this has been met with hefty backlash, with many claiming that the proposed changes would see some of society’s most vulnerable put at risk.

Despite this, the bill passed by 335 votes to 260 votes.

While the recent changes to the bill - following widespread controversy - mean that there are no immediate changes to Personal Independence Payments (Pip), there is a planned review of the system which will be led by disabilities minister Sir Stephen Timms.

The review will not be published until the end of 2026.

One of the most controversial parts of the package was the plan to tighten eligibility for Pip. The government had planned to make it more difficult to claim by raising the the level of support needed to qualify for the payments.

Pip is paid to support people with a long term physical or mental health condition or disability.

It's not connected to whether or not you can work, and is designed to cover the additional costs associated with being disabled or long-term sick.

People are assessed for Pip through questions about their ability to do different daily tasks independently, with each task scaled on a scale from zero to twelve.

They currently need to score eight points across the ten different categories for the standard rate, or twelve for the higher rate.

However, new claimants must score a minimum of four points on at least one daily living activity to be eligible for the daily living component.

For example, an individual who needs help washing their hair or their body below the waist would score two points and therefore no longer qualify, but needing help washing between the shoulders and waist is worth four points.

However, one aspect which will be changing following the bill’s success will be Universal Credit.

People with a limited capacity to work because of a disability or long term sickness, get a universal credit top-up payment of £416.19 a month.

But for new claimants from next year, the payments will be cut from £97 a week to £50 a week in 2026-2027.

While the top-up is being cut for new claimants, the basic rate of universal credit will rise from around £92 a week to £106 a week by 2030.

As well as this, under-22s will also no longer qualify for the health element of universal credit.

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