UK: Disability benefits (UC, ESA and PIP) - news and updates 2024 and 2025

Kitty said:
I'm struggling to see it like that. If this goes ahead, someone is sure to come along whose ME/CFS is every bit as much of an impairment as mine, yet they get little or no help with daily living costs while I get the full rate.

I got the maximum rate of ESA for 10 years without ever being assessed, and they may face regular assessment on UC yet get substantially less.

That's not social justice.
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It’s a relief from thinking I would certainly lose 2/3 of my income next year, and seeing those changes voted through next week.
As I said after, make no mistake we still have to fight.
 
Kitty said:
Yes if you didn't appeal, or weren't able to, you'd be affected if you had to start a new claim later.

I was once denied the mobility component of DLA despite being a wheelchair user. A working-full-time wheelchair user who'd been in continuous employment since my mid-teens, so there wasn't even a scrounger argument.

I asked for a review of the decision and they reinstated it within a fortnight of my letter. I don't know whether it was a case of trying it on or just incompetence.
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I appealed all the way up to a tribunal and incredibly, still got ditched. The rubbish they spouted was unbelievable. I don't know how they slept at nights.
 
Sasha said:
I appealed all the way up to a tribunal and incredibly, still got ditched. The rubbish they spouted was unbelievable. I don't know how they slept at nights.
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Ive just appealed the tribunal, and been granted a rehearing. Allegedly they believed I was claiming I couldn’t stand (I wasn’t) then found me to be somewhat disingenuous and that seems to have affected everything else (my reading between the lines).
In any case, the judge was critical of the statement of reasons being lacking.
I actually think the tribunal couldn't be bothered. The DWP didn’t give any reasons for not awarding points and I believe they couldn't be bothered trying to, either, so they just did a Whoopsie.
 
MrMagoo said:
It’s a relief from thinking I would certainly lose 2/3 of my income next year, and seeing those changes voted through next week.
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Nope. they have made such a Horlicks of this that I don't believe anything they say, and that they won't change their minds again. Or have made such a hash of it that they have opened the door for a certain party who think the NHS and welfare should be run on insurance schemes
The whole mess has made me feel completely unsafe and triggered my ptsd :muted:
 
Trish said:
Hugs to all who are struggling with this awful uncertainty.

The government ministers either don't have a clue how distressing this is for sick and disabled people who depend on PIP and other benefits, or they don't care.
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They don’t care.
People who have this level of intellect are capable of understanding these quite simple concepts like “uncertainty and damaging rhetoric upsets disabled people” or “PIP isn’t means tested”.
 
Eleanor said:
This is where the faked-up data about sickness benefits enabling long-term sickness comes in, so that cuts can then be presented as "compassion", as "saving" people from being "cast on the scrapheap" and "trapped" in a life of dependency.
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It’s straight out of the playbook from when they scrapped Incapacity Benefit in favour of ESA the rhetoric is identical.
 
Eleanor said:
This is where the faked-up data about sickness benefits enabling long-term sickness comes in, so that cuts can then be presented as "compassion", as "saving" people from being "cast on the scrapheap" and "trapped" in a life of dependency.
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Hang on a minute….do you mean we’re not working because “gasps” we think we can’t :oops:

Do I need to indicate sarcasm?
 
From the Benefits and Work News -

Questions the government needs to answer – and MPs need to ask​

Published: 27 June 2025
One of the major issues with the Pathways to Work Green paper is the number of questions it leaves unanswered. But now, with the government’s hastily created “concessions”, things are even more unclear. Especially whether the concessions mean current claimants are permanently protected or have just been granted a temporary reprieve.

Below are a number of questions, some of which you might want to ask your MP before Tuesday’s vote, because they should be clear what they are voting for. Or you may have others you want to ask. The important thing is to keep reminding MPs that there is still the option of voting to scrap the bill on Tuesday, regardless of any concessions offered.

But do bear in mind that many Labour MPs who signed the amendment have said they are still going to vote against the bill, as will many opposition MPs, so your MP may still be an ally.

In her letter to Labour MPs Liz Kendall writes: “Therefore, we will ensure that all of those currently receiving Pip will stay within the current system. The new eligibility requirements will be implemented from November 2026 for new claims only.”

This implies that current claimants will not be protected from the results of the ministerial review of the PIP assessment, due to make changes to PIP eligibility criteria in 2028. Given that the governments overriding concern is to halt the rising cost of disability benefits, the review can only result in a tightening of eligibility criteria – quite possibly including retaining the four-point rule . So, this concession may be no more than a short reprieve for current claimants.

Q. Will existing PIP claimants stay on the current test for life or be subject to the new criteria created by the ministerial review of the PIP assessment, to be completed in 2028?

Many thousands of adult DLA claimants are still waiting to be reassessed for PIP through no fault of their own. If things had run to the original timetable they would by now be PIP claimants and protected from the 4-point rule.

Q. If current adult DLA claimants, awaiting reassessment for PIP for many years, are finally dealt with after November 2026 will they be assessed under the current rules or the new 4-point rules?

Kendall writes “. . . we will adjust the pathway of universal credit payment rates to make sure all existing recipients of the UC health element . . . have their incomes fully protected in real terms.”

How long does this protection last?

Q. Around 600,000 current UC health element claimants do not receive an award of the PIP daily living component. When the WCA is abolished in 2028 and receipt of PIP daily living becomes the qualifying criteria for UC health element, will they continue to have their income protected? Or is the protection only temporary?

If your MP is one of the Labour rebels, they may be considering withdrawing their name form the amendment, as a number have already said they will.

Q If you are considering withdrawing your name from the reasoned amendment, does this mean that you are resigned to many thousands of future claimants being plunged into poverty, even though you think it is wrong for current claimants?

Kendall writes in relation to the review of PIP assessment criteria: “At the heart of this review will be coproduction with disabled people, the organisations that represent them, and MPs so their views and voices are heard.”

Q. If it’s important that the views and voices of disabled people are heard in respect of future changes, why are their voices not important in relation to the enormous changes in the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill?

Q. If the main aim of the government is to put disability benefits on what they view as a sustainable footing, by cutting the rise in costs considerably, what possibility is there of disabled people genuinely being listened to as PIP criteria are rewritten?

Q. The PIP four-point rule does not come into effect until November 2026, almost a year and a half away. So why is it so important to get the legislation through the Commons in the next two weeks, without consulting on it?

Q. Given that there are so many unanswered questions about the proposed reforms, and that the government is already going to have to find £3bn to fund their concessions, would it not be wiser to scrap the whole Green Paper process and start again in genuine coproduction with disabled people?
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Questions the government needs to answer – and MPs need to ask

Get the benefits you're entitled to: help with personal independence payment (PIP), universal credit (UC), employment and support allowance (ESA),disability living allowance (DLA). Claims, assessments, reviews, appeals.
www.benefitsandwork.co.uk www.benefitsandwork.co.uk

I have a Lib Dem MP, so I am assuming they are going to vote against the Bill. But worth emailing these questions to a Labour MP if you have one.
 
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