Changes to disability benefits explained
- Published
- 02/05/2025
In March, the government published a Green Paper and consultation to set out their proposed changes to health and disability benefits.
The Pathways to Work Green Paper has a stated aim of increasing employment among people who receive health and disability benefits. But we believe that, in reality, they are proposing deep and harmful cuts that will increase hardship, not employment.
It’s important to say that these changes are not guaranteed to happen. The purpose of a Green Paper is to explore options and get feedback before making a final decision, so we do have an opportunity to influence this. And if any changes do go ahead, they won’t happen straight away.
We agree that we need to get the system working; every day we hear from people who can’t afford essentials or who are scared to try work and risk losing all their support. We need a compassionate social security system we can all trust and be proud of. But, to do this, the government must listen to people who claim social security, build trust, and provide genuine employment support.
We set out key proposed changes below, what Turn2us is doing to challenge this, and how you can get involved.
What changes are the Government proposing?
- Eligibility for PIP would be tightened. You would need to score a minimum of four points in at least one ‘daily living activity’ to get the daily living component. People judged to have lower needs only in the daily living activities (scoring three or less for each activity) would no longer be eligible for this component. This would apply to new and existing claimants.
- There would be more face-to-face assessments.
- The government is proposing to cut the UC health element for new claimants by up to 50% and to freeze it for existing claimants until 2029/30.
- Disabled young people would be able to receive Disability Living Allowance (DLA) until the age of 18. But they would not qualify for the health element of UC until they reach 22.
- A £6 per week increase to the basic rate of UC has been proposed, which is less in real terms when considering inflation.
- A ‘right to try’ would be introduced, so if someone attempts to return to work but has to stop within six months, they would be allowed to return to their previous payments without needing a reassessment or award review.
- The Work Capability Assessment (WCA) would be scrapped in 2028. Instead, the PIP assessment would be used to decide if claimants receive extra financial support for health conditions in UC.
- New Style Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and New Style Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) would be replaced with a single new benefit called Unemployment Insurance. This will be time-limited, with the duration to be decided after consultation.
- The government has announced a £1 billion employment support package to help disabled and long-term sick people back into work. It is consulting on exactly what this would look like, but it would include introducing a ‘support conversation’ to explore people’s goals and aspirations and help them to access the right support.
What would the impact of this be?
The proposed reforms in the Green Paper would create a big shift in the benefits system. Instead of making sure no one is forced to skip meals or go without essentials and supporting people to live independently, the focus would shift to getting people on benefits into work.
Some of the changes could be positive, such as better employment support, a right to try guarantee and slightly increasing the basic rate of Universal Credit. But these don’t go far enough, at a time when reliance on food banks has become widespread.
Restricting PIP, combined with cuts to Universal Credit, would plunge many into deep poverty. Any positives would be completely over-shadowed by the huge loss of income faced by those who will receive reduced or no support at all – whether they are able to work or not.
The government is yet to publish the full impact assessment, which will indicate the possible impact these reforms are going to have on people. However, their initial estimates show that:
- 250,000 people will be pushed further into poverty
- 370,000 current recipients of PIP would lose their entitlement (when they have an award review) and 430,000 future PIP recipients would not get the PIP they would otherwise have been entitled to.
- 2.25 million current recipients of the Universal Credit Health element (LCWRA) would be impacted by the freeze.
This is unacceptable.
When would this happen?
These reforms need to go through a consultation period and the usual parliamentary process so there will be no changes before 2026.
We don’t know for sure that the changes will go ahead but if they do, these are the timeframes we know about so far:
- April 2026 - The Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity (LCWRA) payment would be frozen.
- Autumn 2026 – the changes to PIP entitlement would come into effect
- 2028 - the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) would be scrapped.
What is Turn2us doing to challenge these changes?
Our social security system should be here for all of us when we need it - protecting us when we face hard times and supporting those who can work into employment. And we are working with our community to respond to the consultation, to show the government why it needs to take a different approach to make this happen.
Cuts to social security will only increase hardship, not employment. The cuts won’t magically move anyone into work. They will deepen poverty, further damage trust in the system and make health conditions worse.
But by listening to those that claim social security, building trust, and providing genuine employment support; together we can create a compassionate security system that enables us all to thrive and live with dignity.
How can I get involved?
We need to work together to show the government how strongly we feel about creating a compassionate social security system, that really works for us when we need it. To do this, we need your MP to oppose the cuts too.
Will you ask your MP to tell the Prime Minister they do NOT support cuts to disability benefits?
We’ve made it easy for you to ask for their help. Simply click the button below and fill in a quick form to send them an email.