Labour’s proposed new personal independence payment (PIP) 4-point rule will lead to almost nine out of ten current standard daily living awards failing on renewal, a freedom of information request has revealed. In effect, Labour are hiding the virtual abolition of the standard rate behind a seemingly small change to the scoring system.
Labour intends to remove the daily living component from claimants who do not score 4 points or higher for at least one activity, when their PIP award is reviewed from November 2026.
The department have now revealed the proportion of current claimants who would lose out under this rule, as of January 2025:
- Out of 1,608,000 enhanced daily living awards, 13% (209,000) get fewer than 4 points in all activities.
- Out of 1,283,000 standard daily living awards, 87% (1,116,000) get fewer than 4 points in all activities.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has suggested that the number of claimants who will lose their awards will not be as high as the 1,325,250 that these figures suggest.
Instead, they argue that the actual number will be 800,000 because people will fight harder to be awarded a 4-point descriptor, including by challenging decisions.
At Benefits and Work, we think that the OBR are being much too optimistic in arguing that over half a million claimants will be able to increase their scores, because:
- there are very limited opportunities to get four point descriptors for claimants, especially with some conditions,
- the standard of assessments is very poor in many cases and there is a lack of understanding of many conditions,
- the mandatory revisions and appeals process is very long-drawn out and demanding and there is very little support available for claimants whose health conditions may limit their ability to pursue an appeal.
Whatever the final number might be, there will be vastly fewer standard rate daily living awards by the time all current awards have been reviewed. And very few new claims from November 2026 will lead to an award of the standard rate daily living component.
We know that Labour plan to scrap the work capability assessment in 2028 and replace it with a new, single assessment for PIP and the UC health element.
It now seems entirely possible that they are preparing the ground for the complete abolition of the standard rate of the daily living component altogether for new claims, when the combined assessment is introduced.
You can read the full FoI response here.
