The Chancellor has presented a high tax; high rhetoric Budget that promises to “fix a broken welfare state” and “reward work”. Behind the slogans sit some genuinely significant changes, mixed with a familiar story for disabled people.
For people with ME/CFS or Long Covid, this Budget softens a few of the hardest edges, particularly for families with children but it does not repair the structural insecurity built into the benefits and social care systems.
This blog picks out the key announcements on health, social care and welfare; and looks at what they are likely to mean in practice for our community.
The big picture
There are three headline moves that matter most.
- The two-child limit in Universal Credit (and remaining Child Tax Credit legacy benefit claims) will be abolished from April 2026.
- Universal Credit standard allowances will rise faster than inflation from April 2026 but the planned reduction in the health element for new Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity (LCWRA) claimants still goes ahead.
- The government will expand DWP “targeted case reviews” to recover billions from fraud and error, with no new safeguards for people with fluctuating or poorly understood conditions.
Alongside this, there are new commitments on NHS buildings and technology, a further freeze in prescription charges, modest help with energy and travel costs, higher minimum wages, and some changes to Motability and savings schemes.
For many in the ME/CFS or Long Covid community, the question is simple: will this make life more secure, or more stressful. The answer is mixed.
Health, NHS and prescriptions
Health, NHS and prescriptions
The government has confirmed plans for 250 Neighbourhood Health Centres in England; with around 100 expected to be open by 2030. These centres are intended to bring GPs, nurses, dentists and pharmacists together under one roof, with a focus on areas of higher deprivation and on long term conditions.
Potential positives for people with ME/CFS or Long Covid:
- Joined up care; in principle, it should be easier for professionals to share information and coordinate support.
- Fewer lost referrals; if systems are integrated, it may reduce the burden of chasing appointments and explaining your history multiple times.
Key concerns:
- Travel and sensory overload; larger hubs may be inaccessible for people who are housebound, unable to tolerate long journeys, or sensitive to noise and light.
- Design and practice; unless centres are co-produced with disabled people, there is a real risk that services look modern on paper but remain impossible to use for those who are severely affected.
We will be monitoring for accessibility standards that take account of post exertional malaise, orthostatic intolerance, sensory sensitivities and the needs of people who cannot attend in person.
NHS technology fund
The Budget confirms around £300 million of capital funding for NHS technology. The aim is to reduce paperwork, improve access to patient information and support staff productivity.
For people with ME/CFS or Long Covid, technology can be helpful if it:
- supports flexible, remote consultations where appropriate
- reduces the need to repeat complex histories
- improves tracking of referrals and test results
It will not help if it simply replaces human contact with more complicated online portals that are difficult to navigate when you are exhausted or cognitively impaired.
Prescription Charges
Prescription charges in England will remain frozen for another year, keeping each item under £10.
- This avoids another real terms cut for people who pay per item or rely on pre-payment certificates.
- Many people with ME/CFS or Long Covid qualify for free prescriptions through low-income schemes but for those who do not, a freeze is still preferable to an increase.
There is no new funding in the Budget for ME/CFS or Long Covid services specifically, and no mention of expanded specialist provision.
Social care
Minimum wage and care
The National Living Wage for over 21s will rise again from April. This is good news for many care workers, who are often on the lowest legal rates despite doing highly skilled and demanding work.
However:
- There is no matching, significant increase in dedicated adult social care funding.
- Local authorities and care providers face rising wage bills but are already under severe financial pressure
For people with ME/CFS or Long Covid who rely on care and support at home, the risks include:
- tighter eligibility criteria for care packages;
- shorter visits;
- increased charges for those who are just above means tested thresholds longer;
- waits for assessment and review.
No major social care rescue package
Despite repeated warnings from social care leaders and charities, this Budget does not introduce a new, large-scale settlement for adult social care. The emphasis remains on “efficiencies” and existing funding routes.
In practice, this means that unmet need for basic support with washing, dressing, cooking and daily living is likely to remain, or increase, for many people with ME/CFS or Long Covid, particularly those who are severely or very severely affected.
Welfare and benefits
Two-child limit scrapped from April 2026
From April 2026 the two-child limit in Universal Credit and child tax credit will be abolished. All children in a low-income family will once again be taken into account when calculating benefit entitlement.
This is one of the most important anti-poverty measures of recent years. For families where a parent has ME/CFS or Long Covid and cannot work or can only work limited hours, it means:
- significantly higher Universal Credit for households with three or more children;
- reduced risk of parents having to choose between essentials for different children;
- fewer families forced into foodbanks simply because of the size of their family.
It does not change anything for single adults or couples without children but for those whom it affects, the impact will be substantial.
Universal Credit; higher basic rates, weaker health protection for new claimants
The Budget confirms that from April 2026:
- the main Universal Credit standard allowance will rise by more than inflation, so everyone on UC will see some additional uplift;
- the previously legislated reforms to UC health elements still take effect.
Under those reforms:
- existing LCWRA claimants keep their current, higher health related addition, uprated each year;
- new LCWRA claimants from April 2026 will receive a smaller health element; with the gap partly offset by the higher standard allowance.
For people with ME/CFS or Long Covid this creates a clear divide.
- If you are already on UC with LCWRA before the change takes effect; you are protected on the higher rate.
- If you become unwell and are found to have LCWRA after April 2026; your overall income support for sickness will be less than that of current claimants, even though your health problems may be just as severe.
This is a structural problem that the Budget has chosen not to fix.
Cost of living: energy, travel and other measures
The Budget includes a number of wider measures that will affect disabled people alongside everyone else.
- Energy bills; average household bills are expected to fall by around £150 a year, with some low-income households gaining more once existing schemes are included. This may ease pressure for people with ME/CFS or Long Covid who need higher heating or electricity use because they are at home most of the time.
- Transport; rail fares in England are frozen for another year, fuel duty remains cut and frozen until at least August 2026. This may help with the cost of getting to medical appointments, especially where family members are driving long distances.
Pensions and Winter Fuel Payment
- The state pension triple lock is confirmed to continue for this Parliament, which means a further rise in the state pension from April 2026.
- Most pensioners will retain Winter Fuel Payments this winter, reversing earlier proposals to remove them from many households.
Older people with ME/CFS or Long Covid will benefit from this greater income stability and help with energy costs.
Help to Save
The Help to Save scheme will be made permanent from 2028 and expanded; allowing eligible low-income households to receive a government bonus on small amounts of savings built up over four years.
This could be useful for some people with ME/CFS or Long Covid who are able to put aside small amounts from benefits or part time work, or for partners and carers. However, it is of limited use to those whose income is already too low to save.
Benefit fraud and “error” crackdown
The Budget relies on substantial savings from an expanded programme of DWP “targeted case reviews” of Universal Credit claims. The government presents this as a way to tackle fraud and error and “get welfare spending under control”.
For people with ME/CFS or Long Covid this is a serious concern.
- More case reviews mean more reassessment letters, more requests for evidence and more opportunities for misunderstanding of complex, fluctuating symptoms.
- Many people already live with constant anxiety about brown envelopes and the risk of losing essential income. This measure is likely to increase stress and uncertainty, unless strong safeguards are put in place.
There is no explicit commitment in the Budget to co-produce these processes with disabled people, or to build in protections for those with severe fatigue, cognitive difficulties or sensory sensitivities.
Motability and disability specific changes
The Budget also confirms significant changes to the Motability scheme, which will not alter entitlement to PIP or other qualifying benefits but will affect the affordability and choice of vehicles for many disabled people.
From 2026 the government will apply standard rate VAT to Advance Payments on Motability leases and will start charging Insurance Premium Tax on the insurance that is bundled within those leases; although VAT relief will still apply to the core lease cost and to vehicles that are specifically designed or substantially adapted for wheelchair users.
At the same time Motability itself has already begun removing some higher end manufacturers and body types from its price list and is signalling a tighter focus on “non luxury” cars.
For people with ME/CFS or Long Covid this combination is likely to mean higher upfront costs if they need a larger or more comfortable vehicle to manage fatigue, pain, orthostatic intolerance or sensory issues, and fewer options overall to find a car that is genuinely tolerable for longer journeys to medical appointments or essential family support.
For example, many “luxury” cars offer features such as heated seats and steering wheels, or enhanced lumbar support that enables people who struggle with pain to tolerate longer journeys with less distress. These features are not always available on “lower-end” vehicles.
For example, many “luxury” cars offer features such as heated seats and steering wheels, or enhanced lumbar support that enables people who struggle with pain to tolerate longer journeys with less distress. These features are not always available on “lower-end” vehicles.
What this means for people with ME/CFS or Long Covid
Taking these measures together, the picture looks like this.
Some clear gains
- Families with children; scrapping the two-child limit from April 2026 will significantly increase support for larger low-income families, including those affected by ME/CFS or Long Covid; and is likely to reduce child poverty.
- Families with children; scrapping the two-child limit from April 2026 will significantly increase support for larger low-income families, including those affected by ME/CFS or Long Covid; and is likely to reduce child poverty.
- Pensioners; older people with ME/CFS or Long Covid will see their state pension continue to rise under the triple lock and will retain vital Winter Fuel support.
- Prescriptions, energy and travel; frozen prescription charges, lower energy bills and fare and duty freezes will take a little pressure off many households.
Important unresolved risks
- Future claimants; anyone who becomes too unwell to work after April 2026 faces a benefit system in which the specific support for severe sickness has been weakened for new LCWRA groups, even though the basic UC rate is higher.
- Social care; without a substantial new settlement, it is hard to see how councils will maintain, let alone improve, support for people who need help with daily living because of ME/CFS or Long Covid.
- Mental health stressors and welfare benefit fraud checks; the large, planned savings from expanded case reviews indicate more frequent and intrusive checks. For a community already living with fear of not being believed, this may worsen anxiety and deter people from engaging with work or training, even where they would like to.
- Access to healthcare; Neighbourhood Health Centres and new technology could either reduce fragmentation or simply relocate inaccessible services to new buildings. Everything depends on whether accessibility for energy limited and sensory sensitive patients is built in from the start.
Overall, this Budget does more for children in low-income families than it does for disabled adults who are too unwell to work. It removes a deeply unfair cap that has harmed hundreds of thousands of children; but it leaves intact a welfare architecture that still treats serious illness as a temporary cost to be managed, rather than a reality that requires secure, long-term support.
What the ME Association will be watching
In the coming months the ME Association will:
- scrutinise the detailed Budget and welfare costings for any hidden impacts on people with ME/CFS or Long Covid;
- continue to challenge the reduction in UC health elements for new LCWRA claimants from 2026;
- push for safeguards in any expansion of DWP case reviews, particularly for people with fluctuating, poorly understood conditions;
- press for accessible design and meaningful co-production in the development of Neighbourhood Health Centres and digital NHS tools;
- work with partners to highlight the ongoing crisis in social care and the impact on people who are severely or very severely affected by ME/CFS or Long Covid.
We will also continue to gather evidence from people with ME/CFS or Long Covid and their families about the real-life impact of these changes. Your experiences remain essential in challenging policies that increase insecurity and in making the case for a welfare system that provides genuine safety and dignity when illness takes away the option of work.
Ella Smith
Welfare Rights Consultant,
The ME Association
