The Work and Pensions Secretary confirmed the reforms will cut £5 billion a year from the welfare bill by 2030
Liz Kendall has announced today that Labour will toughen the criteria ill and disabled people must meet to claim Personal Independence Payment (PIP), so one million fewer people are able to claim the disability benefit.
With three million working age people currently receiving PIP, Kendall said the move will save £5 billion per year by 2030.
From November 2026, disabled and ill people who apply for PIP will need to score at least four points in one activity to receive the daily living component of PIP.
The Work and Pensions secretary ruled out freezing PIP in her speech today, but said that the health element of Universal Credit (UC) will be frozen at £97 per week until 2029/2030.
Labour will increase the Universal Credit standard allowance by £7 per week, from £91 per week in 2024/2025 to £98 per week in 2026/2027.
Kendall confirmed that Labour will scrap the Work Capability Assessment, which is used to determine whether someone claiming UC has a health condition or disability that limits their ability to work.
They will use the PIP assessment to determine a person’s ability to work instead.
‘A catastrophe for disabled people’
James Taylor, executive director of strategy at disability charity Scope, said: “the biggest cuts to disability benefits on record should shame the government to its core.”
Scope figures indicate that almost half of families in poverty include someone who is disabled.
“They are choosing to penalise some of the poorest people in our society,” Taylor said, adding that it will be “a catastrophe” for disabled peoples’ living standards and independence.
“We expect the consultation will see an overwhelming response. We urge the government to listen to disabled people and think again,” he added.
‘Immoral and devastating’
Charles Gillies, policy co-chair at the Disability Benefits Consortium, said: “These immoral and devastating benefits cuts will push more disabled people into poverty, and worsen people’s health.”
Paul Kissack, chief executive at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said: “No truly moral choice would leave disabled people without the very support that is designed to allow them to lead a dignified life, nor would it leave them facing hardship. These would be unprecedented disability benefits cuts.”
Kissack added: “Ministers should boost the basic rate of Universal Credit without taking the extra support from the pockets of disabled people receiving UC health.”
“A government that came to office pledging to end the moral scar of food bank use clearly should not be taking steps that could leave disabled people at greater risk of needing to use one.”
‘A false economy’
Responding to Kendall’s announcements, UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said “going after disabled people and vulnerable families is not the way to get the UK economy back on track, nor out-of-work individuals back into jobs.”
MCAnea said that the government should invest in the NHS to improve access to treatment and that employers “could do more by getting over their reluctance to employ disabled workers, and adapting workspaces”.
“But tweaking the rules to make it harder to claim personal independence payments is a false economy,” McAnea warned.
“Rather than help disabled people stay in their jobs, the work and pension secretary’s plans could have the opposite effect.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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