The Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) have produced a report – Pathways to Poverty: How planned cuts to disability benefits will impact the people we support – which has been published this month (May 2025)
Extracts
Introduction: Pathways to Work green paper
The Pathways to Work green paper proposes the biggest cuts to disability benefits ever assessed by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). A green paper usually seeks feedback on policy proposals through a consultation process. However, key proposals contained in the Pathways to Work green paper are not being consulted on, including 3 major changes:
- Narrowing Personal Independence Payment (PIP) eligibility criteria so that claimants must score at least 4 points in at least one activity to receive the daily living component of PIP, in addition to the current requirement to score at least 8 points in total.
- Changes to Universal Credit (UC) rates, including freezing the rate of UC health at £97 per week for current claimants and cutting it to £50 per week for new claimants.
- Scrapping the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) and making receipt of the daily living component of PIP the sole gateway to UC health.
We’re disappointed that the most important changes proposed by the green paper aren’t subject to consultation. The decision not to consult should be reversed.