Samuel Thomas

It’s important that MPs are clear what they’re voting on tomorrow. This bill does nothing to protect disabled people from unnecessary and intrusive reassessments – it just substantially cuts their support. (7/7)

Paras 170-173 of the Pathways to Work Green Paper are excerpted

The government is not proposing to change this either. The green paper made this explicit – it simply says that the government will ‘improve communication’ around ongoing awards. (6/7)

In my experience ‘ongoing awards’ are very under-used. I’ve repeatedly seen disabled people being given fixed-term awards even though it’s clear their needs won’t change. (5/7)

What about PIP? Again, there is already a process for people whose needs are not likely to change or with progressive conditions to be given ‘ongoing awards’, meaning they do not have to undergo regular assessments to continue receiving support. (4/7)

The government is not planning to make any changes to this – except to substantially cut the level of support given to all new UC Health claimants who don’t meet this narrowly defined ‘severe conditions’ criteria. (3/7)

The work capability assessment has had a process for exempting people with the most severe conditions from reassessments for a number of years. The available data suggests this is only applied to very small numbers of claimants. (2/7)

I’ve seen a few people suggesting that the government is ending reassessments for disabled people with the most severe conditions through the UC & PIP Bill. It’s not true. (1/7)

Section 2 of the Bill still halves the LCWRA (‘health’) element of universal credit

Think it's clearer than ever that the existence of the Timms review is a tacit admission that the proper policy thinking on PIP reform simply wasn't done when devising 4 point rule

Keir Starmer gives in to welfare rebels by offering to water down cuts More than 120 Labour MPs have backed an amendment that would effectively kill the bill, forcing the prime minister to look at ‘improvements’ to the legislation

Need to see detail - exempting existing claimants wld be welcome but don't think this solves fundamental problem that these are arbitrary & rushed cuts that were thrown together to meet a savings target

www.thetimes.com/article/fdc8...

PIP benefit cuts may be softened to quash dissent against Reeves While ministers are holding talks with concerned MPs, they remain minded to push ahead with the policy as it is currently planned

Be very wary of any claim that the govt introducing transitional protection for PIP claimants who lose out from cuts marks a concession. This was mentioned in the green paper and would doubtless have been introduced anyway

inews.co.uk/news/politic...?

"Pursuing policies that deepen poverty will only perpetuate the ‘managed decline’ that the government has railed against."

Read our Senior Policy Advisor's blog on how rushed disability benefit cuts will harm the government's efforts to achieve its missions👇

z2k.org/mission-crit...

The UK’s Chancellor is driving disabled people deeper into poverty: she must think again - Views & Voices Planned cuts to disability benefits will be devastating for people already struggling to pay their bills, with stroke survivors, amputees and people with serious mental health conditions among the gro...

The UK’s Chancellor is driving disabled people deeper into poverty: she must think again, says Samuel Thomas of anti-poverty charity @z2ktrust.bsky.social
views-voices.oxfam.org.uk/2025/04/uk-c...

Suggestion is it will apply to all claimants, not just new ones, but the work capability assessment won't be scrapped until 2028/29, and the green paper says the government is 'considering' ways to mitigate the impact on people who lose support. Expect we'll get more details closer to the time

My reading of the green paper is that nothing will change on PIP assessment frequency. Even the measure about giving ongoing awards to people whose condition will not change is already DWP's practice, all they are proposing to improve communication about it

A lower rate of support & some conditionality for people whose health makes it difficult for them to work, and higher support & no conditionality for those with the most severe conditions. Where have we heard that one before?

Especially when combined with significant tightening of eligibility for PIP daily living & big cut to level of LCWRA/health element

Looks like this govt's version of WCA abolition is significantly less generous than previous govt plan, which would have awarded health element to those getting any element of PIP

I spoke to LBC News earlier today about the huge cuts to vital support for disabled people that government is reportedly planning

chart showing Estimated number of adults receiving ESA or UC who will lose support due to proposed changes to the Work Capability Assessment, by income decile: UK, 2028-29 .

Governments tend to focus on reducing health-related benefit in-flows by tightening eligibility criteria.

But doing so concentrates large losses among a subset of claimants - hitting some low-income families hard.

Read more➡️ buff.ly/d1u2Tkn

Indication of an increase to SA is a welcome surprise, though not without trade-offs - cutting level of LCWRA will have a significant impact

Big Q is how the huge £5bn/year PIP cuts will be implemented. Very difficult to see how restricting eligibility or introducing onerous requirements at this scale could lead to anything other than severely disabled people being denied support & plunged into deep poverty

www.itv.com/news/2025-03...

Written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament Information from UK Parliament on written questions & answers, written statements and daily reports.

Good to see clarity that this concerning measure will be tested before its introduction. Clearly a significant risk that claimants who struggle to use their journal could have their payments wrongly stopped and be left destitute

questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-ques...

There are so many challenges around the need for medical evidence for disability benefits claims.

Read more on this excellent briefing by Simon Collerton and @maddyirose.bsky.social

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/policy/publi...

900,000 children are in families receiving incapacity support through Universal Credit As the government seeks to save billions through a welfare overhaul, we look at the number of children living in households currently receiving incapacity support through Universal Credit.

New blog from us highlighting how incapacity benefit households in Universal Credit include c.900,000 children. Planned cuts to health-related benefits will inevitably impact children, and poses a major risk to the government's child poverty ambitions www.actionforchildren.org.uk/blog/childre...

Short-sighted savings won’t fix health and disability benefits Plans to bring down the benefits bill could push disabled people into poverty and away from work

We know the gov wants to bring down the benefits bill. But cutting disability benefits will push disabled people into poverty, not work.

The gov says they want to raise living standards across the UK - disabled people must be part of these plans.

My blog:
wearecitizensadvice.org.uk/short-sighte...

So OBR scoring pushes gov towards crude cost cutting not smart & compassionate policy. Can DWP can convince HMT to back them doing the smart thing, the right thing? Or are they forced into crude cuts, punishing disabled people & carers, doing little for employment or growth? 3/3

Government to overspend £8.6bn on benefits bill Labour should drop its “cruel and poorly thought-out plans” says leading charity

Our open letter warns that the new consultation for disability benefit reforms 'must not be a sham' and instead give disabled people a proper chance to respond to plans which could see them plunged into deep poverty.

Read more in @the-independent.com.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Reeves' 'growth promise' won't help children in poverty - it could make it worse As the nation went to the polls last year for a General Election, one in five people in the UK were living in poverty, including nearly one in three children.

Even very strong economic growth won't automatically reduce poverty. We need focused, determined action from the Government. Without that, poverty will continue to act as a tightening brake on growth and opportunity.

www.lbc.co.uk/opinion/view...

Benefits of welfare outweigh the cost, Labour warned ahead of cuts Sir Keir Starmer has said Labour could be “ruthless with cuts” at the upcoming Spending Review

"The narrow focus on the rising cost of disability benefits misses the bigger picture... disability benefits actually provide a boost to the economy".

Find out more about our new report with @probonoecon.bsky.social in @the-independent.com

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...