Last week, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Liz Kendall, set out the government’s plans to reform the welfare system. But what are the changes being proposed and what will be the next steps?
If you would like to read the fuller proposals, you can find the government’s green paper here.
What happened last week?
The major changes set out have been focused on health-related benefits, including Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and the health elements of Universal Credit (UC).
It’s important to note that some of the proposals announced are going to go out for consultation and may still change. Just because they have been announced, doesn’t mean there will be any immediate changes to anyone’s entitlement or how people claim until April 2026 at the earliest.
Changes to PIP eligibility criteria
There are no plans to make PIP a means-tested benefit or to freeze the amount of money awarded as PIP – despite this being widely rumoured. This is arguably a welcome retreat.
However, the government are proposing tightening the eligibility criteria for PIP meaning that it will be harder to claim. To be eligible for the daily living payment of PIP, people will now need to score a minimum of four points on one PIP daily living activity. Currently, if you receive eight points overall, regardless of how you score in any one area, you will be eligible for the standard rate or 12 points for the enhanced rate.
The areas PIP is assessed on can be things like preparing food, managing your medications, dressing or socialising. By way of example, to receive two points for the preparing food activity, the person may need to use an aid or appliance to prepare or cook a simple meal or would not be able to use a conventional cooker but could use a microwave. To receive four points for the preparing food activity, the person would need assistance or supervision to prepare or cook a simple meal.
This change could see people still receiving a high number of points overall but becoming ineligible for PIP completely because they do not score four points on one of the daily living activities.
Analysis done by the BBC estimates that there are potentially hundreds of thousands of people who will lose their entire PIP payment under this new assessment criteria.
This change could potentially be incredibly detrimental to some people in the brain tumour community and might be extremely concerning. Especially as it is not being consulted on – this change will happen.
It’s important to remember that this change won’t come into effect until April 2026 at the very earliest. And you can make a free appointment for our Benefits and Money Clinic if you would like to discuss your concerns further.
This change will not be consulted on – they will be making this change.
Scrapping of Work Capability Assessment (WCA) and changes to PIP assessment
One of the health-related changes to the UC system is the proposed scrapping of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA). This is an assessment to see what work-related activity you can undertake with your health condition. If you’re found to have “limited capability for work”, you may not be required to do as many work-related activities as someone who is found to not have any limitations. This is one change that the government are actually not consulting on. They will be making this change.
Currently, the WCA is a separate assessment to the PIP assessment which means that lots of people who are applying for both have to go through two assessments. The government are scrapping the WCA so that people just have to go through one assessment – the PIP assessment. They’re looking at making changes, alongside the eligibility changes above, to the PIP assessment so that it is fit for both purposes.
Changes to the health element of UC
The government announced that it will be reducing the payment of the health element of UC. For people who are already in receipt of the health element of UC already, the government will freeze this at its current rate of £97 per week until 2029/30 – so it won’t rise with inflation resulting in a real terms cut. The government have said this loss will be counteracted by a rise in the UC standard allowance, but this isn’t guaranteed as we don’t know what inflation will do over the coming years.
For those who’ll be newly claiming for the health element of UC after April 2026, when these changes will take place, the rate will be cut by £47 per week (from £97pw in 2024/25 to £50pw in 2026/27). This rate will then be frozen until 2029/30.
The government have, however, committed to protecting the income of those with the “most severe, life-long health conditions, who have no prospect of improvement and will never be able to work” by adding a premium. And that for new and existing claims, this group will never have to be reassessed in future.
While this is welcome for our community, it is not entirely clear how this will be assessed or who could come under that category.
The government are also consulting on delaying access to the health element of UC until someone is over 22 years old. They believe this will help incentivise young people into work or training rather than the benefits system. However, this could be incredibly worrying for young people who genuinely can’t or would struggle to work and we don’t yet know what this could look like in reality.
How is this going to affect the brain tumour community?
We know that many people in the brain tumour community rely on PIP and UC, so these proposed changes will likely be concerning.
This financial year (April 2024-March 2025), the top reason that people contact our Support and Information Line is seeking help with finances – with 28% of all our cases being on this subject.
We’re incredibly concerned that the community will be impacted by the above changes – in particular the proposed changes to the PIP eligibility criteria and the proposed changes to the health element of UC. Many people diagnosed with a brain tumour experience an impact in all elements of their day-to-day life, rather than experiencing a more significant impact on just one aspect of their life. Meaning that they would score over eight points on a PIP assessment but perhaps not over four points in any one area – and therefore wouldn’t be eligible for PIP under the proposed changes. We know that cuts to the health element of UC could negatively affect many people in the brain tumour community. It could be especially difficult for younger people diagnosed with a brain tumour if they were denied access to some of the financial support until they were 22.
What’s next?
What the government published last week is called a green paper. This means they’re consulting with people both inside and outside of Parliament on most of these changes (although not all) before announcing what they will or won’t be taking forwards.
This consultation will be open until 11.59pm on 30 June 2025 and you can find the consultation survey here, as well as more information about the consultation, including accessible formats, here.
We encourage anyone who thinks they may be affected by these proposed changes to submit to the consultation to make their views heard. It’s vital the government hear from a range of perspectives and hear the true, human impact of their proposed cuts.
We’ll also be responding as an organisation to ensure the impact of any proposed cuts to our community is heard loud and clear.
Please do remember that the proposed changes announced yesterday, or anything you may have seen in the news, won’t impact people immediately. There will be a consultation period first and then further announcements as to what will change, before a period of implementation. Nothing about your current benefits entitlement or eligibility will change until at least April 2026.
Our Benefits and Money Clinic continues to offer expert advice through our partnership with Citizens Advice. We encourage anyone who’s concerned about their financial situation to also seek help there.