Social Security Benefits: Reform

Some information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper has been published in the evidence pack, impacts analysis and equalities analysis at:

[https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/pathways-to-work-reforming-benefits-and-support-to-get-britain-working-green-paper]

A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

The proposals have been carefully designed to protect the finances of severely disabled people.

• There will be no immediate changes. Changes to PIP eligibility and rebalancing of UC aren’t coming into effect immediately. Our intention is these changes will start to come into effect from April 2026 for UC and November 2026 for PIP, subject to parliamentary approval.
• PIP changes will only apply at the next award review after November 2026. The average award review period is about three years. At the award review, claimants will be assessed by a trained assessor or healthcare professional on individual needs and circumstances.
• We are consulting on how best to support those who are affected by the new eligibility changes, including how to make sure health and eligible care needs are met. PIP is not based on condition diagnosis but on functional disability as the result of one or more conditions, and is awarded as a contribution to the additional costs which result.
• We also intend to launch a wider review of the PIP assessment which I will lead, and we will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this and to start the process as part of preparing for a review. We will provide further details as plans progress.