Planned disability benefit reforms
Will the Green Paper reforms close this gap? The reforms include £1 billion annual additional funding for employment, health and skills support, but this is dwarfed by the cuts to disability benefits described below. At £5 billion, they are the largest on record. They have been justified as a way to remove barriers into work, but are likely to have the opposite effect.
Why target PIP?
The bulk of the savings come from tightening the eligibility conditions for personal independence payment (PIP): from November 2026, to qualify for the daily living component, you will need to score a minimum of four points from at least one activity. It is estimated that by 2029/30, 800,000 fewer people will receive this component than under the current rules.
But why target PIP? It is paid to working-age adults to cover the extra costs of disability; and is paid regardless of whether or not you are in work. In fact, PIP can make the move into work easier, precisely because you may be able to keep the benefit once you have done so. Cutting PIP – costing claimants an average of £4,500 per year – will thrust more into poverty and debt. This will make a move into work less, not more, likely; the opposite effect from that intended.
Caring and working
Furthermore, the DWP estimate that 150,000 people will not receive carer’s allowance, or the universal credit carer amount, as a result of the PIP change. Many carers are already balancing their caring responsibilities with work, and are often penalised for doing so.
Thousands of carers have faced court action because of carer’s allowance overpayments. If you earn a penny over the earnings limit, you lose all your carer’s allowance that week. A government wanting to assist carers to get and stay in work would remove this cliff edge, not remove entitlement to the benefit.
Cutting health-related support
The government plans to abolish the work capability assessment in 2028. After that, any extra health-related support in universal credit will be based on your eligibility for PIP instead. They plan to freeze the value of this support for existing claimants until 2029/30 and reduce it (by about half) for new claimants from April 2026 (followed by a freeze until 2029/30). They will consult on plans to deny eligibility for the support to those under 22. The universal credit standard allowance will be modestly raised.
This has been justified ‘to address perverse incentives and encourage more people into work’. But once the work capability assessment has been abolished, this statement cannot be true – since you may keep your eligibility to PIP and to the health-related support as you move into work. Reducing this support will not incentivise work; it will only increase poverty.
Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits & Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper; Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms – Impacts