The welfare reforms: impact and reaction

Charities and campaigners have condemned cuts to disability benefits as the government's own figures forecast that 250,000 people, including 50,000 children, will be plunged into poverty as a result.

More than 50 charities, including Scope, Disability Rights UK, Citizens Advice, and Sense wrote to Rachel Reeves ahead of her Spring Statement, urging the chancellor to “safeguard” Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and other health-related benefits. But the pleas were ignored and thousands of disabled people are now facing hardship.

As justification, Reeves said welfare spending as a share of GDP would fall between 2026-27 and 2030 with total savings of £3.4 billion.

She said: “A changing world demands a government that is on the side of working people," adding “it can’t be right” to write off an entire generation who are out of work and claiming PIP.

But the Disability Benefits Consortium, an umbrella body representing more than 100 charities and organisations, condemned the “cruel cuts”.

Charles Gillies, the group’s policy co-chairman, said: “These immoral and devastating benefits cuts will push more disabled people into poverty, and worsen people’s health.”

Disability Rights UK said: "Our current punitive welfare system has led to the deaths of hundreds of disabled people at the hands of benefits cuts. 

“The government not only refuses to fix this – but is placing us at risk of further punishment and surveillance.”

Campaign group Disabled People Against Cuts said: “The government must drop any idea of balancing the books on the backs of the poorest and disabled people. Instead those with the broadest shoulders should be made to pay their fair share.”

Impact

The Department for Work and Pension’s (DWP) impact assessment published alongside the Spring Statement says at least 370,000 current claimants of PIP will lose their allowance when their award is reviewed after November 2026.

The actual figure could be as high as 1.5 million, as 58 per cent of new PIP claims and 52 per cent of award reviews fail to score four points on any daily living descriptors.

The four-point score has become the new benchmark for qualifying for PIP. Under the old rules, these points could be more thinly spread.

The new rules mean a higher level of disability needs to be shown by scoring four points in at least one category.

Other cuts include scrapping the Work Capability Assessment and a freeze on the health element of universal credit – with recipients losing an average £500 a year despite an increase in the standard allowance.

Initially the health element was going to drop to £50 a week from next year for new claimants. Now, existing claimants will also see their entitlement frozen at £97 a week until 2029-30.

The government is also cracking down on young people by considering delaying access to the health top-up of universal credit until a claimant is 22 years old and raising the age from 16 to 18 at which young people move from Disability Living Allowance for children to the adult PIP.

A projected 3.2 million families will be worse off because of the cuts – losing an average £1,720 a year, according to the DWP impact statement. It also says 3.8 million families will be better off but only by an average of £420 a year.

One in five of all families with a disabled person in the household will be affected. Some people, even those who work with a disability, will lose an average £4,500 a year.

Advice service Benefits and Work said in a statement: “Whatever the final figure, these cuts represent an unprecedented attack on disabled people that many Labour MPs must be desperate to avoid taking responsibility for.”

Reaction

Disabled people took to social media to express their dismay at the cuts.

One said: “I’m terrified. My son is 19 and autistic with learning difficulties. He loses pip I lose carers allowance. Our needs and roles will not change whatever.”

Another commented: “No one on PIP is abusing the system. PIP is already near impossible to receive. I got rejected and I suffer from a condition that causes paralysis…disabled people are not the f*****g problem. Leave us alone.”

And a third said: “I have never been so scared. ESA and PIP are the entirety of my income.”

Politicians and thinktanks were also united in their condemnation of the extent of the cuts. 

Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell MP warned that people could die because of the changes to PIP eligibility, adding: “There are decisions in this house that stay with you the rest of your life – this is one of them.

“The government’s plans to cut £5 billion from the support to disabled people will result in immense suffering and, as we’ve seen in the past, loss of life.”

Richard Burgon MP said: “[This is] a huge attack on disabled people. Denying PIP to those who need help to eat, wash or manage toilet needs is simply unacceptable. The government should target those with extreme wealth not those in need of support.”

Mental health charity MIND challenged health and social care secretary Wes Streeting's assertion that mental health is being overdiagnosed, saying: "Let's be clear: our mental health is getting worse and cutting benefits won't help.

"You claim mental health is being 'overdiagnosed', but where's the evidence?

"Rhetoric like this is dangerous. It reinforces stigma and stops people getting support.

"If you are serious about change, listen to those affected."

Louise Murphy, a senior economist at think tank the Resolution Foundation, said: “Too many of the proposals have been driven by the need for short-term savings to meet fiscal rules, rather than long-term reform. This result risks being a major income shock for millions of low-income households.”

‘Bogus’ consultation

The government has launched an online consultation on the changes to PIP, but campaigners point out that many of the changes – such as the new four-point requirement – are being introduced through new primary legislation without any consultation at all.

In the consultation there are no questions about:

• Scrapping the WCA
• Creating a single assessment for PIP and the UC health element
• Freezing the health element of UC until 2029/30
• Only awarding PIP daily living if you get at least one descriptor scoring four or more points
• Restarting WCA reassessments until the WCA is scrapped

The government states: “We are mindful of the impact this change (to the PIP daily living component) could have on people and so want to consider how we can best support those affected. This includes options for transitional protection for those who are no longer eligible for PIP and the entitlements linked to their award.

“In addition, we also want to consider how to support those with lower needs in a large number of PIP activities, as part of these changes. We are consulting on whether those who lose entitlement need any support and what this support could look like.”

But Benefits and Work have issued advice to disabled people saying: “The green paper consultation is so dishonest that we feel unable to recommend that people take part in the way we normally would, though we also know that the DWP may argue that lack of response means that most people do not object to the changes.

“In the green paper, the DWP claim that ‘We are committed to putting the views and voices of disabled people and people with health conditions at the heart of everything we do’.

“In fact, this bogus consultation is entirely about silencing the voices of disabled people and people with health conditions.”