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

Just to let you know, when UC ask for your documents they look at them and often delete them. I’ve had to upload the same letter 5 times so far as they keep getting my housing payment wrong and each time they look into it, the letter has been deleted “for GDPR”.
And every time they ask, they fail to add the upload button for you to use, so you have to ask for it…
 
Sending gentle hugs to everyone having to deal with sickness benefits, it is so very stressful and you feel so vulnerable. Thank goodness I get my OAP now but I remember so vividly the multiple times over the decades my husband and I had to go through the process and it's not fun. I feel for you all.
 
Dozens of Labour MPs insist there is a “moral duty” to get the long-term sick back to work through contentious welfare reform
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Ministers are acutely nervous about a Labour backlash against changes that will be fiercely opposed by disability groups. But on Monday 36 MPs are rowing in behind the government and insist the reforms are “a truly progressive endeavour”.
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Yes, truly a progressive moral duty. It's when it's fiercely opposed by the people being "helped" that you know you are being moral and upright and aware of it all.
The current system often acts as a barrier against finding work, making it riskier for people with health conditions
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Yes, totally, it's the system that is the barrier, not the health conditions. Totally makes no sense when you think about it.
There are 700,000 more people claiming benefits because they are deemed not fit for work than pre-pandemic, and the number is projected to rise by almost another million by the end of the decade.
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In a functioning legal system, when it's that clear that the reasons given for policies are fake, and that the people making the fake reasons know it's false, you now have many legal and political problems, where there was just one. But those don't really exist yet.

As is tradition: this will be cruel, dysfunctional, cost more, deliver less, and be hailed as a success. Because this is what toddler societies do, bumbling around tripping and crashing into things while aiming to go suck the teats dry.

And of course within a few years it will all become totally moot because of mass unemployment caused by AI, making this a tiny blip.

And of course they could approach this as the problem that it is, health problems, rather than the problems they want it to be, of, I don't know, being "work shy", or whatever bullshit euphemism they decide to use for the month. But they won't. Because punitive approaches aren't about results, they're about flexing power and punishing the weak. This is all as vulgar as it's popular. Because humans love vulgar cruel things, as long as they happen to others. Then it's funny. Lots of humor is laughing at other people's misfortune. But really that's just a cover for the fact that most humans relish a bit of cruelty here and there, if they are privileged enough to feel completely detached from the people suffering it.
 
This is so much like the 'war on drugs'. We fought the drugs, and the drugs won. Trillions have been handed directly to organized crime. Millions of lives ruined. Entire areas militarized and wracked by violence. All in the name of "harm reduction", while amplifying it 100x and creating entirely new forms of harm.

The goal isn't to win. The goal is simply to dominate others, of people stepping on the backs of others just so that they feel tall despite being so weak.
 
Perhaps if it had been acknowledged how many people were damaged by the covid vaccines to the extent that they cannot work, it would not be such a surprise to the government that welfare bills have risen sharply since 2021.

"There are 700,000 more people claiming benefits because they are deemed not fit for work than pre-pandemic, and the number is projected to rise by almost another million by the end of the decade." ( Times article, 10 th March, above).

Long covid too plays its part and we get back to.......no prior research on post infectious illnesses.
 
Well I think the pandemic led to a lot of people becoming disabled and unable to work.

You don’t like the fact that it’s disabled people in its thousands, to the extent they can’t work, therefore you’re going to make them poor so they have to work. I mean the alternative would be to help them get better.

You can’t get them better? Sounds like a “you” problem, not a “them” problem.
 
https://www.icontact-archive.com/ar...4b7e81a15d03a3040ca2700682dadb514b7c01a8d57f0

On Monday morning this week, Benefits and Work was contacted by a number of mainstream media outlets who had all been given to believe that the Green Paper would finally be published today.

On Monday evening Starmer met privately with backbench Labour MPs to discuss the benefits cuts.

By Tuesday morning the story had changed again, with the Green paper not now expected until next week.

So, as Labour seemingly panics about how to present its cuts without provoking a major revolt, claimants are left with yet more media speculation and growing fear and uncertainty.

We will publish any news about the cuts as soon as it is concrete and official, but not before.

In the meantime, in this edition of the newsletter, we learn that one thousand work coaches are being transferred to providing “intensive voluntary support” to sick and disabled claimants.

We discover that face-to-face assessments seriously reduce your chances of a personal independence payment (PIP) award.

And, it turns out, they have a similar effect on work capability assessments (WCAs)

And we publish a new resource listing the number of PIP awards for over 500 different conditions.

ONE THOUSAND WORK COACHES FOR DISABLED CLAIMANTS

The DWP has announced that 1,000 existing work coaches will be transferred to supporting sick and disabled claimants in 2025/26.

As a result, 65,000 claimants will get “intensive voluntary support” to move into work.

The DWP say that work coaches will be helping claimants on health-related benefits, including those who are furthest away from work.

Coaches will provide “tailored and personalised employment support” and help claimants access support with writing CVs and with interview techniques.

However, disability minister Stephen Timms has also revealed that Access To Work, which provides grants averaging £5,000 to help disabled people stay in work, has become too popular.

Labour now plans to place more of the onus on employers to pay for adjustments, because “the current style of Access to Work is unlikely to be sustainable in the long term”.

But as long as the DWP’s focus is on trying to improve the CV’s and interview techniques of disabled claimants, rather than financially supporting and encouraging companies to employ disabled people, the efforts of work coaches seem doomed.

PIP FACE-TO-FACE ASSESSMENTS SERIOUSLY REDUCE SUCCESS RATES

Claimants who had a face-to-face personal independence payment (PIP) assessment last year were almost a quarter less likely to get an award than claimants who had a telephone or video assessment.

DWP statistics show that over the last three years the gap between face-to-face assessments and telephone/video assessment success rates has been growing, rising from 11% in 2022 to 13% in 2024. The full figures are:

2022 Face-to-face: 42% Telephone, video: 53%

2023 Face-to-face: 44% Telephone, video: 56%

2024 Face-to-face: 44% Telephone, video: 57%

Part of the difference in success rates may be the opportunity for assessors at face-to-face assessments to deny points using baseless “informal observations”, such as:

“Is tanned. Suggests good health.

Overweight. Suggests good appetite.

Smartly dressed. Suggests good drive.”

Although currently only around 4% of PIP assessments are face-to-face, the proportion is set to rise from Autumn of this year

But claimants can ask to have their assessment type changed, for example because travelling to an assessment centre for a face-to-face assessment would be painful or distressing.

The right to a review of the type of assessment you are allocated, and the right to a further review, are explained at pages 105-107 of our member’s Guide to PIP Claims and Reviews, along with sample written requests for a change of assessment type.

We have also updated the section of the guide headed “What kind of assessment will you have?” at page 103, to inform readers about the different success rates for different types of assessment.

FACE-TO-FACE WCAS HAVE LOWEST SUCCESS RATE

It’s not just for PIP that face-to-face assessments lead to fewer successful claims

Figures released by DWP disability minister Stephen Timms show that claimants who have a face-to-face work capability assessment (WCA) are least likely to be considered to have limited capability for work-related activity (LCWRA) by the assessor.

Face-to-face assessments end in 53% of claimants being assessed as having LCWRA. This compares to 63% for video assessments and 61% for telephone assessments.

The statistics are worth bearing in mind if you are considering asking the DWP to change your assessment type as a reasonable adjustment.

We will be updating our guide to ESA and UC Claims to include information about assessment success rates.

PIP AWARDS BY HEALTH CONDITION

Benefits and Work has added a new resource to our personal independence (PIP) pages, looking at the number of awards for all the 500+ different conditions that the DWP recognises for PIP.

The DWP divides PIP awards into one of 20 different categories.

The figures show that the top four categories:

Psychiatric disorders: 1,406,044 awards

Musculoskeletal disease (general): 691,426 awards

Neurological disease: 470,380 awards

Musculoskeletal disease (regional): 434,670 awards

make up 82% of all PIP awards.

These 20 categories are then divided into sub-categories and divided again into 500+ different conditions.

We’ve put all these conditions into a searchable database allowing visitors to discover how many claimants have been awarded PIP for any given disability.
 
I wrote to my MP again. Pointed out why we need to know more about ME to help with the post covid lockdown benefits crisis.

Dear Gen Kitchen,
I am writing about the politics of benefits and proposed cuts. I understand feelings are running high in the PLP which I find comforting though as a whip you will have your hands full. As your constituent I want to offer the perspective of a benefits claimant.

I receive PIP (high rate both) etc because I have ME/CFIDS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome) due to which I am currently housebound.

I agree with Sir Keir Starmer, the benefits system is “unsustainable, indefensible and unfair”.

It is "unsustainable" because there are so many people claiming benefits that benefits awards are too high per head. I would gladly cope with significant cuts to my illness benefits (PIP and ESA SDP) if it meant that everyone who needed support got some.

Sanctions are "indefensible" as they are provably killing vulnerable people. Positive incentives i.e. carrots can help people out of poverty and unemployment better if government fosters an attitude of mutual respect, not polemical resent and disparagement. If incentives work for merchant bankers and CEOs why shouldn't they work for people claiming benefits? We must build claimants' confidence instead of destroying it.

Politically biased assessments are "unfair" and break human rights law. My condition means I must convalesce by pacing and resting. I have twice had to appeal against unfair assessments to avoid being coerced to be active, as this can cause my condition to deteriorate, as happened during ten years undiagnosed (1986-96) when I tried to push myself through ME to finish my delayed zoology degree and then do voluntary work with MIND, OXFAM and SCOPE such was my compulsion due to a sense of social contract but this made me much iller, until diagnosis by my GP and counselling to rest and pace activity (not push) which helped reduce deterioration.

Regarding the ballooning benefits bill, we need an inquiry and scientific investigation into why people have not returned to work after lockdown. Stereotyping people en masse as "taking the mickey" is also"unfair". Noone is a stereotype. Some people may have psychological conditions which might respond to talking therapy and mentoring but some may have longCOVID as a real immunological result of the virus which in many cases resembles ME, meaning such people must not be coerced to be active as it will harm them. We must know who has what and treat each appropriately, as individuals.

This is also why we need to know more about the nature of ME and find a cure. Once again I commend the APPG on ME to your attention, which does critically important work in this regard for the future of our country and maybe the human race but is very underrated.

Please be aware it has taken me many days to prepare to write this email and I have edited the issues I wanted to raise to address the PM's recent comments.

Yours sincerely, boolybooly Bachelor of Snacks ;)
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https://www.gov.uk/government/stati...atory-reconsiderations-and-appeals-march-2025

This is a summary of the latest Accredited Official Statistics on the outcomes of completed Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) Work Capability Assessments (WCA). The publication covers information on both initial and repeat ESA assessments in Great Britain.

This release includes:

  • Outcomes of initial and repeat ESA WCAs to end of September 2024

  • End to end clearance times for initial ESA claims to end of September 2024

  • Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) information to end of January 2025, including:
i. number of MR registrations

ii. number of MR decisions

iii. MR outcomes by type of decision

iv. median MR clearance time
 
John Mac said:
https://www.icontact-archive.com/ar...4b7e81a15d03a3040ca2700682dadb514b7c01a8d57f0

On Monday morning this week, Benefits and Work was contacted by a number of mainstream media outlets who had all been given to believe that the Green Paper would finally be published today.

On Monday evening Starmer met privately with backbench Labour MPs to discuss the benefits cuts.

By Tuesday morning the story had changed again, with the Green paper not now expected until next week.

So, as Labour seemingly panics about how to present its cuts without provoking a major revolt, claimants are left with yet more media speculation and growing fear and uncertainty.

We will publish any news about the cuts as soon as it is concrete and official, but not before.

In the meantime, in this edition of the newsletter, we learn that one thousand work coaches are being transferred to providing “intensive voluntary support” to sick and disabled claimants.

We discover that face-to-face assessments seriously reduce your chances of a personal independence payment (PIP) award.

And, it turns out, they have a similar effect on work capability assessments (WCAs)

And we publish a new resource listing the number of PIP awards for over 500 different conditions.

ONE THOUSAND WORK COACHES FOR DISABLED CLAIMANTS

The DWP has announced that 1,000 existing work coaches will be transferred to supporting sick and disabled claimants in 2025/26.

As a result, 65,000 claimants will get “intensive voluntary support” to move into work.

The DWP say that work coaches will be helping claimants on health-related benefits, including those who are furthest away from work.

Coaches will provide “tailored and personalised employment support” and help claimants access support with writing CVs and with interview techniques.

However, disability minister Stephen Timms has also revealed that Access To Work, which provides grants averaging £5,000 to help disabled people stay in work, has become too popular.

Labour now plans to place more of the onus on employers to pay for adjustments, because “the current style of Access to Work is unlikely to be sustainable in the long term”.

But as long as the DWP’s focus is on trying to improve the CV’s and interview techniques of disabled claimants, rather than financially supporting and encouraging companies to employ disabled people, the efforts of work coaches seem doomed.

PIP FACE-TO-FACE ASSESSMENTS SERIOUSLY REDUCE SUCCESS RATES

Claimants who had a face-to-face personal independence payment (PIP) assessment last year were almost a quarter less likely to get an award than claimants who had a telephone or video assessment.

DWP statistics show that over the last three years the gap between face-to-face assessments and telephone/video assessment success rates has been growing, rising from 11% in 2022 to 13% in 2024. The full figures are:

2022 Face-to-face: 42% Telephone, video: 53%

2023 Face-to-face: 44% Telephone, video: 56%

2024 Face-to-face: 44% Telephone, video: 57%

Part of the difference in success rates may be the opportunity for assessors at face-to-face assessments to deny points using baseless “informal observations”, such as:

“Is tanned. Suggests good health.

Overweight. Suggests good appetite.

Smartly dressed. Suggests good drive.”

Although currently only around 4% of PIP assessments are face-to-face, the proportion is set to rise from Autumn of this year

But claimants can ask to have their assessment type changed, for example because travelling to an assessment centre for a face-to-face assessment would be painful or distressing.

The right to a review of the type of assessment you are allocated, and the right to a further review, are explained at pages 105-107 of our member’s Guide to PIP Claims and Reviews, along with sample written requests for a change of assessment type.

We have also updated the section of the guide headed “What kind of assessment will you have?” at page 103, to inform readers about the different success rates for different types of assessment.

FACE-TO-FACE WCAS HAVE LOWEST SUCCESS RATE

It’s not just for PIP that face-to-face assessments lead to fewer successful claims

Figures released by DWP disability minister Stephen Timms show that claimants who have a face-to-face work capability assessment (WCA) are least likely to be considered to have limited capability for work-related activity (LCWRA) by the assessor.

Face-to-face assessments end in 53% of claimants being assessed as having LCWRA. This compares to 63% for video assessments and 61% for telephone assessments.

The statistics are worth bearing in mind if you are considering asking the DWP to change your assessment type as a reasonable adjustment.

We will be updating our guide to ESA and UC Claims to include information about assessment success rates.

PIP AWARDS BY HEALTH CONDITION

Benefits and Work has added a new resource to our personal independence (PIP) pages, looking at the number of awards for all the 500+ different conditions that the DWP recognises for PIP.

The DWP divides PIP awards into one of 20 different categories.

The figures show that the top four categories:

Psychiatric disorders: 1,406,044 awards

Musculoskeletal disease (general): 691,426 awards

Neurological disease: 470,380 awards

Musculoskeletal disease (regional): 434,670 awards

make up 82% of all PIP awards.

These 20 categories are then divided into sub-categories and divided again into 500+ different conditions.

We’ve put all these conditions into a searchable database allowing visitors to discover how many claimants have been awarded PIP for any given disability.
Click to expand...

Do you know what ME is logged under? Is it logged under neurological conditions or psychiatric conditions?

Many years ago when I was awarded an occupational pension by the Civil Service, my retirement was coded under "depression".
I pointed out that I had never had even a day of depression, and they said they had nothing else to code it under. So I just had to accept the coding as I was too ill to fight them over it.

I told Dr Weir this, as, he was my doctor at the time. His response was "oh, so that is where they are hiding them".
 
The Observer (tonight)

'Downing Street considers U-turn on cuts to benefits for disabled people'

'Controversial plans to cut personal independence payments (Pip) may be shelved after a tense cabinet meeting and backlash from Labour MPs'


'Ministers have left the door open to a humiliating U-turn on their highly contentious plans to cut benefits for disabled people, amid mounting uproar over the proposals across the Labour party.
Both Downing Street and the Department for Work and Pensions did not deny they were about to backtrack on plans to impose a real-terms cut to the personal independence payment (Pip) for disabled people, including those who cannot work, by cancelling an inflation-linked rise due to come into force next spring.

The plans had been earmarked for inclusion in a green paper scheduled to be published on Tuesday and had been one of several elements of a wider package of welfare cuts designed to save between £5bn and £6bn on the ballooning benefits bill.

Ministers, who are facing the wrath of Labour MPs and peers over the plans, are understood to have taken fright after being accused in meetings with MPs of planning measures rejected as unfair even by former Tory chancellor George Osborne during the Conservative years of austerity.

In his Political Currency podcast last week with former Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls, Osborne said: “I didn’t freeze Pip. I thought [it] would not be regarded as very fair. What I did try to do was reform Pip.”


Balls, who is married to the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, infuriated Downing Street by saying on the same podcast that the plan would not work if its aim was to get more people back into work, adding that “it’s not a Labour thing to do”.

At a tense cabinet meeting last Tuesday, several serving members raised their concerns about how the Labour government would be viewed if it froze Pip payments and made it more difficult to receive them.

Any plan to freeze Pip or change eligibility rules would require primary legislation, running the risk that they could become the focus of a sizeable Labour rebellion in the House of Commons and also the Lords.

Several Labour MPs have made clear to the Observer that they could not support the plans in any parliamentary vote....'

Continues on the link .....

https://www.theguardian.com/society...-turn-on-cuts-to-benefits-for-disabled-people
 
Part of the fuel for this bin fire is that they've been presenting the problem as too many people not being in work. People getting trapped on benefits, disabled people who aren't working but say they want to.

PIP's nothing to do with work, and no one needs to know much about welfare to fathom that out. If they target PIP, they're by definition targeting people who have very high support needs and will never be able to work, and people who aren't obliged to work because they're beyond retirement age. It can't be conflated with arguments about out-of-work benefits, and trying to sneak that past people will just leave them looking like idiots. Cruel idiots at that.
 
From that Guardian article:

A government programme that supported 286,000 disabled people over the past seven years who wanted to find work was only able to secure jobs for one in five.

Anna Stevenson, a benefits expert at the disability charity Turn2us, said: “These were people who, although they were unwell, thought they were probably well enough to work and really keen to work.”

Stevenson said that if the government was serious about helping more disabled people into work, it needed to change employment law.

“If you want very high employment among disabled people, one of the things you need to change is how easy it is for employers to fire people when they’re ill."
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