What cuts to disability social security means for you

The government is currently considering feedback received from the Green Paper consultation and says it will announce its decisions in a White Paper later in 2025.  

On 30 June 2025, the government announced that it would be postponing any changes to PIP until the outcome of the Timms Review.  This means that for the meantime, there is no change to PIP eligibility rules.  To qualify for the daily living component of PIP you will continue to need to score a total of 8 points for the standard rate and 12 points for the enhanced rate. The usual reassessment schedule will apply to you.  There is no 4-point requirement even as part of your PIP review. 

The mobility component is not changing either. 

Face-to-face assessments are set to increase under the Green Paper proposals.  During the pandemic, assessments switched to video or telephone, and this is being switched back to a priority on face-to-face assessments for most people. 

The proposals are that after the Timms Review (likely to conclude in November 2026), a new 4-point eligibility rule will be added to the daily living component of PIP for new claimants.   

The basic structure of PIP remains but you will need to score at least 4 points in a single daily living activity to qualify for the daily living component of PIP as well as the existing total requirement for 8 points for the standard rate and 12 points for the enhanced rate.   

The mobility component is not changing. 

Money-at-risk: not getting the PIP standard rate daily living component will be a cut of £346 per month (2025/26). 

The Green Paper announced the government’s intention to ‘reduce the need for some people with very severe health conditions and disabilities to undergo a full PIP functional assessment.’  For example, a person who has had ‘very severe conditions’ since childhood and in receipt of Disability Living Allowance who is then transferred over to PIP as an adult.  For someone in this situation, the ‘full PIP functional assessment’ may no longer be necessary. 

Currently, some PIP claimants receive 10-year PIP awards.  Typically their conditions would be severe, unlikely to change and/or only get worse; or who are around or over state pension age.  These claimants are not subject to regular re-assessments, but shorter ‘light touch reviews’ near the end of the 10-year award period.   The Green Paper announced the intention to review and improve the communications around light touch reviews. 

Further detail will be forthcoming as a result of the Timms Review and/or White Paper.  

TIP: check your PIP award to see if it has an end-date or is ‘ongoing’. 

The Green Paper announced several proposals for change in relation to LCWRA status.  

The  LCWRA element will be known as the ‘health element’. 

If you have LCWRA status by April 2026, eligibility will continue to be based on the work capability assessment (WCA) until at least 2028.   

From 2028, new PIP-based eligibility will be used to decide eligibility for the health element. Eligibility will not be assessed by the WCA but instead by having the PIP daily living component. The government says it plans to scrap the WCA.  It is not clear how or exactly when this change will happen or what transitional protection will be in place.  

As well as this change to eligibility, expect a WCA reassessment sooner rather than later because reassessments have been on hold and are being restarted.  Those who qualify on the ground of ‘substantial risk’ are being prioritised.  Contrary to indications during 2024, substantial risk will remain a legitimate method of achieving LCWRA status while the WCA remains. 

Face-to-face assessments are set to increase under the Green Paper proposals.  During the pandemic, assessments switched to video or telephone, and this is being switched back to a priority on face-to-face assessments for most people. 

The UC standard allowance will be increased above inflation for all UC claimants to £106 pw in 2029-30 (would have been £101 pw by then). 

Your LCWRA element will rise in line with inflation every year from 2026/27 to 2029/30 

The work allowance and earnings taper remain. 

Tip: obtain your most recent WCA report from DWP so you can see the suggested reassessment date.  If necessary, you can use a ‘right of access request’ to get this document.   

Tip: if you don’t already get PIP daily living, consider whether you might be eligible and seek advice. 

From April 2026, the LCWRA element will be only £50 pw instead of £97 pw (2024-25 rate) for new claimants.   

A long-standing UC claimant with LCWRA whose UC stops for 6 months or more because their income exceeds their maximum UC entitlement, will be treated as a new claimant if they then have to reclaim UC.   

This means, after a 6-month break in your UC due to income, you will be subject to a new work capability assessment and if found to have LCWRA again, you will only receive the £50 pw amount.  

If you claim UC within a 6-month break in UC due to income, the break will not cause a new WCA and your LCWRA element will be paid at the old higher rate.  See also ‘Right to Work’ section below.

If your UC or LCWRA element stops for any period for a reason other than income, such as capital over £16,000, you will be subject to a new assessment and if found to have LCWRA again, you will only receive the £50 pw amount. 

Until 2028-29, health element eligibility will be assessed using the WCA, as it is currently. 

From 2028-29, you will need PIP daily living to get the health element on UC, subject to the outcome of the Green Paper proposals.  

The work allowance and earnings taper remain. 

Money-at-risk: the cuts to the health element mean a newly eligible claimant or those that reclaim will lose £227 per month (2025/26). 

The UC bill sets out the reduction of work capability reassessments for those with severe conditions. Eligibility for this group depends on a work capability assessment, despite the WCA being abolished for most new claimants who want to access the health element. How this will work in practice is yet to be seen.  

To qualify for this group, you will need to meet the ‘severe conditions criteria’. The WCA process and criteria will be used to establish entitlement, plus a new requirement that the condition is ‘life-long’, has been diagnosed by an NHS service and that a LCWRA descriptor applies ‘constantly,’ which is defined as ‘at all times or, as the case may be, on all occasions on which the claimant undertakes or attempts to undertake the activity described by that descriptor.’  

For example, if you are unable to walk 50 meters reliably, safely, repeatedly and in a reasonable time, this must be the case all the time for the severe conditions criteria to be met. The Green Paper announced that some claimants in this group will get an additional premium in Universal Credit on top of the health element however further detail is required. 

Note, if you don’t meet the severe conditions criteria, you can still qualify for LCWRA on the existing basis (such as unable to walk 50 meters reliably, safely, repeatedly and in a reasonable time for the majority of the time) you may still qualify for LCWRA but your assessments will not be ‘turned off’ and you will not receive the additional UC premium.

Regulations are currently being amended to establish in law the principle that work will not trigger a reassessment for the purposes of UC, ESA and PIP. The Green Paper also announced a commitment to  ‘increase awareness of the rules about working whilst in receipt of benefits.’ For more information about rights to work, see ‘Right to Try’ section below. 

From 2027-28, there will be new work requirements.  The end of the work capability assessment (WCA) means that another method is necessary to decide who should be subject to which work-related requirements, and we do not yet know what this will be.  We are extremely concerned that it may not include the legal right to appeal. 

DWP propose a minimum level of engagement, and they are consulting on whether it should be a requirement for payment. 

DWP say: 

The UC standard allowance will be increased above inflation for all UC claimants to £106 pw in 2029-30 (would have been £101 pw by then). 

From 2025-26, UC will increase checks on self-employed earnings via UC Prevent (Self-employment Income and Expenses) by asking a proportion of self-employed UC claimants to upload proof of earnings and expenses to be verified.  

If you get income-related ESA (irESA), you will be moved to UC as part of the ongoing compulsory managed migration process, and the section ‘you currently get UC with LCWRA’ will apply to you. 

If you get contributory ESA (cESA) but not either irESA or UC as well, you can continue to do so based on the WCA until at least 2028.  DWP say you will be protected beyond 2028 with potentially indefinite cESA if you are in the support group, but it is unclear how that would sit with scrapping the WCA.   

A new Unemployment Insurance Benefit (UIB) is proposed from 2028 which encompasses contributory ESA and contribution-based Jobseeker’s Allowance.  We do not yet know what that looks like, but the government has proposed that it will be time-limited (see A new Unemployment Insurance Benefit).   

From 2028-29, a new time-limited Unemployment Insurance Benefit (UIB) will replace contributory Employment & Support Allowance (ESA) and contribution-based Jobseeker’s Allowance for new claimants.  It is likely to last 6-12 months and be paid at the higher ESA rate (currently £138 per week) with no health assessment and based on the existing system of national insurance.  The self-employed will be included.   

The end of the work capability assessment (WCA) means that another method is necessary to decide who should be subject to which work-related requirements during UIB, and we do not yet know what this will be.   

If your work fluctuates, it is possible that the new UIB will cover periods of no work, but the details are not clear. 

There is no detail on how existing contributory ESA or contribution-based JSA claimants will be protected during the transition, but DWP say the end of the indefinite entitlement to cESA will only apply to new claimants.   

Amendments to UC, PIP and ESA regulations are being made to ensure that undertaking work should not trigger a reassessment for those in receipt of these benefits.  

It should be noted that even now, before these amendments, working does not automatically trigger a reassessment in law.   Rather, the DWP have wide powers to suspend and investigate benefit claims if they have reason to believe there has been a change of circumstance that may mean the benefit recipient is no longer entitled. Often, it is a medical assessor or decision-maker’s assumptions about work which wrongly influence the outcome, and the current changes to regulations do nothing to change this.  We hope the Timms review will go some way to address this, but we do not yet know the outcome and it is yet  be to be seen whether the ‘right to try guarantee’ will protect claimants in practice.  

Remember that new UC rules mean that lose your right to retain your LCWRA status if your UC stops for 6 months or more because your income exceeds your maximum UC entitlement, for example, because of taking work.  If this applies to you, get advice from us.  

More information about your rights to work can be found in the following sections: 

ESA permitted work: see National Insurance Contribution-based social security | Equity and scroll down to ‘Permitted work’ section.  

UC LCWRA and work: Universal Credit | Equity – see ‘Working and the WCA’ section  

PIP and work: see Personal Independence Payment and work 

The new Universal Credit Act will around £3000 a year taken from future long term sick and disabled claimants, at a time when the extra living costs associated with disability are set to rise by 12% in the next 5 years. It is estimated that the cuts will push 50,000 disabled people into poverty.  

At Equity we believe that no cuts to disability social security are justified. We are deeply concerned about the regression to disabled people's rights, including breaches of international human rights law.  

We urge members to continue to campaign against these cuts and to get involved with local and national disabled people’s groups, such as Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC).  See also #Taking the PIP for further campaigning resources including a MP email template.