Social Security Benefits: Advisory Services
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, on (a) benefits advisory services and (b) charities.
Answered by Sir Stephen Timms
Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper has been published here 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.
There will be no immediate changes. Changes to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) eligibility and the rebalancing of Universal Credit (UC) are not 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.
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.
We have also announced 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.
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