DISABILITY BENEFIT CUTS

1. Introduction

The Department of Work and Pensions issued a Green Paper in March 2025 – “Pathways to Work”.  The government proposes to change the eligibility criteria for some social security benefits.

This paper will address the changes to each benefit and the interaction between them, and gives examples of why it is entirely unsuitable to effectively merge the criteria for those benefits, which are designed for different purposes.

It gives examples of how these changes may affect the income of some disabled people currently in receipt of those benefits.

It should be noted that the proposals are not yet law, and therefore the implications at this point are not certain, and will only become clear once the proposals have been passed by parliament. The figures given are examples and not everyone will be affected to the same extent, therefore advice should be sought on the possible implications for individuals.

2. Benefit Reforms

The Government benefit proposals affect 2 different benefits, Personal Independence Payments (PIP)  and Universal Credit (UC).  

(In Scotland PIP has been almost completely replaced by Adult Disability Payment, the implications of this will be referred to later).

Currently PIP and UC are separate and don’t generally interact with each other. In other words someone can receive UC and not receive PIP or vice versa. Also whether or not  someone receives PIP does not have any impact on the amount of UC they receive.

3. Universal Credit

UC is made up of various different elements which added together determine the total amount someone receives. The most important element in the government proposals is what they call the ‘health element’.

A claimant receives this element (£416.19 per month, or £96 per week) if they have Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity. This means not only have they been found unfit to work, but also unfit to engage in activities which are supposed to enable them to return to work at some point in the future.

Claimants can be assessed as having just Limited Capability for Work, which means that they are unfit for work, but fit for work-related activity. Those people do not receive any additional amount of money, they simply do not have to look for work but are expected to do work-related activity.

Someone found not to have Limited Capability for Work and/or Limited Capability for Work, in other words fit for work, would be expected to look for work or lose benefit.

(NB, there are  3 possible outcomes, therefore contrary to what is said in the Green Paper, it is not a ‘binary choice’ of whether someone is fit for work or not).

The DWP decides whether someone is fit for work or not after an assessment called the Work Capability Assessment (WCA).

A different assessment is carried out to decide if someone qualifies for PIP.

The tests as to whether someone is fit for work/work-related activity are entirely different from the tests as to whether someone qualifies for PIP, therefore whether someone receives PIP does not determine the amount of UC they would receive.

The government proposal is that the Work Capability Assessment is scrapped, and there will now only be one assessment, the PIP assessment, and the additional element for UC would no longer be based on whether someone is fit for work or not, but would depend on whether they receive the daily living component of PIP.

Therefore someone being in receipt of the daily living component of PIP will become crucial in determining the amount of UC they will receive, and so any removal of the daily living component of PIP would not just mean losing PIP itself, but also losing a substantial amount of Universal Credit.

This proposal  not only leads to extreme financial hardship and substantial loss of income due to the proposed changes to PIP (explained below), but is also incoherent - the tests for PIP are different from the tests for Capability for Work, (hence some people classed as unfit for work do not receive PIP), and are entirely unsuitable to determine whether someone is capable of work.

The difference between the tests for PIP and UC/WCA is that PIP depends on the level of difficulty a person has with a specific function/test and the need for help/aids. There will clearly be many situations where a person has a medical condition which they can deal with themselves, and therefore not qualify for PIP, but at the same time clearly be unfit for work.

An example would be someone with severe incontinence problems, such that they lose control of their bladder/bowels at least once per week to the extent they would need to change their clothes. If they were physically able to do this then they would not receive any points at all under a PIP assessment, and so qualify for no additional UC. However someone in that position, especially if this happened several times per day, could not reasonably be expected to work.  Under the proposed changes they would be assessed as fit to work, and would lose any current entitlement to the health element of UC.

4. Personal Independence Payments

Entitlement to the daily living component of PIP is decided by whether someone scores enough points on various different tests (descriptors). There are 10 different daily living descriptors. (PIP also includes a mobility component for people who have difficulty making journeys or moving around, but this component is not affected.)

If someone receives a minimum of 8 points across the 10 different tests they will be awarded the standard rate of daily living (£72.65 per week).

If they receive 12 points or above then they receive the enhanced rate of daily living (£108.55 per week).

Points are awarded depending on the level of difficulty/assistance a person needs to perform an activity.

For example if someone needs help from another person to wash the lower half of their body they would be awarded 2 points for that test.

If they need help from another person to dress the lower half of their body then they would be awarded 2 points for that activity.

So, if someone scores 2 points for 4 different activities this would amount to 8 points and they would be awarded the standard rate.

If they were awarded 2 points for 6 different tests then they would receive 12 points and so get the enhanced rate.

The government proposals are that someone would only be awarded the daily living component if they score at least 4 points in at least one of the tests.

Therefore if someone’s award was based on an accumulation of 2 points for 6 different tests and they currently received the enhanced rate of daily living, under the government proposals they would lose their entire award, even if they scored 12 points, or even more.

At particular risk of losing awards will be people with mental health problems, as needing ‘prompted’ to do something only attracts 2 points, so a lot of people with mental health problems will receive PIP on the basis of needing prompting to do  a number of the activities.

In cases where an award was made due to a sufficient number of 2 points being awarded to reach a total of 8 (standard rate) or 12 or above (enhanced rate), then if there was no test where they received a score of 4, they would lose the  daily living component, part of PIP,  and if they currently received the ‘health element’ of UC they would lose that as well.

In other words they would lose the equivalent of £204 per week in income.

They would then only receive the most basic amount of UC which is £393.45 per month for a single person, a weekly amount of £90.79.

In other words in the worst cases a drop of almost 70% of their income.

At a minimum a loss of the daily living component of PIP alone would mean a loss of £72.65 per week. If that led to a loss of UC then in those cases it would be a drop of around 65% of their weekly income.

Based on our records of successful appeal tribunals the percentage of people who would lose an award of PIP if these proposals are enacted would be around  66%.

Around 40% of people who receive the enhanced rate of the daily living, the most severely disabled people by the government’s own standards would lose their PIP and so also a large amount of UC.

These figures are based on the Law Centre’s own records of clients that we have acted for.

However recently information was obtained by a Freedom of Information request made to the DWP which revealed that 87% of people in receipt of the standard rate of the daily living component would lose their entitlement to it due to not having been awarded 4 points for a descriptor, and 13% of those in receipt of the enhanced rate of the daily living component would lose their entitlement for the same reason.

As such the amount of people affected are actually more than the Law Centre’s records had originally indicated. DWP figures indicate around 1,325,250 people would lose entitlement to the daily living component of PIP, around 45% of all claimants.

5. New Claimants

The above proposals will apply to those already in receipt of UC and PIP who receive the health element at present, and will not come into effect immediately, (possibly not until 2028/29) as there will be consultations about the reforms to the PIP assessment procedure, (though not about the changes to the points system and eligibility test).

However there will be a more immediate effect on people who find themselves becoming unfit for work in future as for new claims the additional health element will be reduced from the current £96 per week to £50 per week. This will apply regardless of whether they receive PIP or not. This will take effect from 2026/27. Therefore new claimants will receive £46 per week less than those who are already in receipt of PIP and UC.

6. Implications for Carers

Someone who is the carer for a disabled person will only receive Carers Allowance (now Carers Support Payment in Scotland)  for doing so if the person they care for receives the daily living component. If the disabled person loses their daily living component then they will no longer receive any Carers Support Payment, or receive any additional element in UC. Additionally if they are claiming UC, then when the disabled person loses their PIP, then the carer is no longer treated as a carer, and would be expected to look for work.

Therefore the impact on carers will be financial, and there will also be an effect on the disabled person if their carer is no longer able to care for them as they now have to look for, or actually, work.

7. Scottish Context

The government proposals would only affect PIP. The complication is that PIP has been almost completely replaced in Scotland by Adult Disability Payment. The rules for ADP and PIP are almost identical so they are effectively the same benefit. However ADP is administered by the Scottish Parliament. The Westminster Parliament has no way of changing the qualifying rules for ADP, however any reduction in UK social security spending has a knock-on effect on the Holyrood budget. Much of Scottish public expenditure is calculated by reference to “the Barnett formula” and this is likely to reduce the sum allocated to the Scottish Government in respect of disability benefits.

The question would be whether the Scottish Parliament would follow Westminster and change the rules for ADP, or keep the rules the same and find money to pay for it from elsewhere in the budget.

However the rules on Universal Credit are reserved to the UK Parliament, therefore Westminster could change the rules on UC for people in Scotland and therefore reduce their income, even if people’s entitlement to ADP was protected by the Scottish Parliament.

8. Conclusion

It is clear that if the proposals go ahead as indicated in the government paper this will have a devastating impact on the income and lives of many disabled people. Some matters will be subject to consultation, and it is possible that as the proposals go through parliament there will be some changes which will reduce the impact, however there is no doubt that even if the proposals are mitigated to some extent, they will cause severe hardship to many of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people in the country.

Written by Gerry Loughery and Angus McIntosh, Solicitors

Castlemilk Law and Money Advice Centre, Glasgow.

May 2025

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