Key Announcements: MP Liz Kendall, Secretary of State for DWP confirms the government plans on welfare reform

Yesterday (18.03.25), the government announced a series of significant changes to benefits, most of which significantly affect disabled people.

Changes have been proposed for several main benefits as follows:

Personal Independence Payment (PIP)

The eligibility criteria to be awarded Daily Living component of PIP has been restricted to people who gain at least 4 points in a specific activity. This means that people who receive PIP Daily Living and have been awarded at least 8 points in the Daily Living component now also have to get at least 4 of those minimum 8 points from just one activity to still qualify.
Many people with diverse and complex needs receive PIP as they gain a few points across the activities assessed in PIP Daily Living, which then add up to the current 8 or more points needed to qualify. This new restriction means that only people with significant needs in at least one activity will be able to continue to meet the eligibility criteria.
The government has stated that those with the most severe, long-term conditions will not have to face any further reassessments. It is very unlikely that many people with M.E. will fall into the type of criteria that is usually used to consider this type of claimant. No further information is available about this at present.
There is also a proposal to raise the age for those receiving Disability Living Allowance for children to PIP, from the current 16, up to 18.

Carers Allowance

Any impact on PIP Daily Living is going to have a knock-on effect for people receiving Carers Allowance as this is one of the most common ways for carers to qualify for support. Anyone receiving Carers Allowance for someone who loses their PIP Daily Living component will now be unable to qualify for their benefit either.

Universal Credit

The government has announced an uplift in overall standard payments to those receiving Universal Credit. This is very welcome as the rate of payment has fallen far below the true cost of basic living and forced people into extreme hardship.
However, although the overall standard elements of UC are to be raised, the health-related elements of UC are going to be frozen at £97 per week so existing claimants will not receive any inflation adjustment increases until 2029/30. New claimants from 2026/27 who receive a health-related element in UC will only receive £50 per week.
The government says that this is to address the imbalance between the income of those on health-related benefits and those who are seeking work. It has been suggested that so many people seek health-benefits because they financially incentivise people to be sick.
There is a proposal to introduce a new premium in UC for those with severe, life-long conditions who will never be able to work. No details for this are available at present.
Under 22s will no longer be eligible for any health element in their UC award.

The Work Capability Assessment (WCA) is scrapped (2028)

There have been multiple consultations looking at scrapping the WCA previously and the government has stated that this will be happening in 2028, and they will not be consulting further on it.
The WCA is used to decide whether someone can look for work, or whether they are classed as sick. This affects people on benefits like UC, where the WCA is used to decide if they get the health element added to their UC award. It is also used to decide whether people are entitled to ESA. This currently affects people who have conditionality for their benefits; this means that there is a requirement to do some activity in exchange for receiving their benefit.
From 2028, the only assessment that people with additional health needs will go through is the PIP assessment. All extra financial support for health needs will be made through this and will be considering the impact on daily living rather than on ability to work.
The “Right To Try” Guarantee has been proposed to enable those with health issues to try out working without worrying that they will either lose their benefit or trigger a reassessment.

Contribution-Based ESA/JSA and the new proposed Unemployment Insurance replacement

Although it is no longer possible to apply for income-related ESA as this was replaced by UC, it was still possible to claim CB ESA if someone had enough NI credits. The government intends to scrap CB ESA and replace it with a more general non-means tested benefit for those with enough NI credits. This would be time-limited, unlike the current situation where if you are put in the Limited Capability for Work Related Activity Group (LCWRA) through the Work Capability Assessment, as long as you are deemed to have limited capability, you continue to be eligible.
This change will affect many people in couples who have a partner earning an income which means they are not eligible for UC, as they are assessed together as a joint household for means-tested benefits.

The government can not achieve these changes without “primary” legislation, which means they need to change the existing law. They have stated that they will do this in this parliamentary session, so there will be a chance to lobby MPs about their vote in advance of this happening.

Scotland and Northern Ireland have some devolvement of benefits and therefore the impact of these changes on those living in these areas is dependent on how the NI Assembly and Scottish government decide to approach this. The UK government will be reducing the amount of budget accordingly but there is some scope for the devolved benefits such as Adult Disability Payment to be decided on independent to the changes announced today.

MP Liz Kendall's Speech

Ella Smith
Welfare Rights Adviser,
The ME Association