Current personal independence payment (PIP) claimants under state pension age would be subject to a much harsher assessment system under plans unveiled by Reform UK today. In addition, some disabled claimants could face sanctions including indefinite loss of benefits, for failure to carry out duties such as “pothole and patching gang labouring”.
Under Reform UK’s plans, the current PIP assessment system and the work capability assessment (WCA) would be abolished. They would be replaced by a new disability needs assessment (disability needs assessment) .
The assessment would decide three things:
Whether you are eligible for the new PIP/Health Security Allowance (PIP/HSA).
Whether you are eligible for additional disability-related costs to be met through a Disability Support Account (DSA).
What work requirements you would face if you are a UC claimant.
The disability needs assessment would begin with “structured medical evidence” gathered by a GP, which Reform UK say would cover “diagnosis, severity, duration, prognosis, treatment history, expected recovery or deterioration, treatment burden, functional impact, mobility, supervision, safeguarding risk and evidenced additional costs.”
It is not clear what the rest of the disability needs assessment would consist of.
However, some conditions would automatically qualify for the highest level of support under the disability needs assessment, including “profound untreatable deafness, blindness, severe physical or intellectual disabilities, and terminal disease.”
Reform UK say that those expected to pass the assessment and be eligible for the new PIP/HSA payment would include:
“those suffering from terminal illness, severe permanent physical disability, profound learning disability, severe autism with high support needs, severe enduring mental illness, major neurological disease and serious brain injury. It would also include those who are highly dependent on support for daily living, have irreversible or highly unlikely-to-improve conditions, or otherwise suffer from serious, unstable or deteriorating conditions where prognosis, treatment burden or safeguarding risk justified continued cash support”.
Some claimants would be subject to enhanced scrutiny at assessment, including those living with ADHD, anxiety, and depression..
Current working age PIP claimants with “mental health or trivial conditions” would be targeted for a disability needs assessment first and brought into the new system over the next three years. No definition is given of trivial conditions.
After three years, other existing PIP claimants would begin to be reassessed using the disability needs assessment. Current claimants who pass the “severe, enduring or high-risk gateway” would keep the current cash value of their awards. However, awards would not be uprated using the current system. Instead a new measure will be introduced which will increase benefits by around 0.6 percentage points less on average a year than the existing CPI.
Reform also says the new HSA would be means-tested under standard UC rules, taking account of the claimant's earnings, their partner's earnings and their assets. It says this would “not affect existing grants until reassessment”.
New claimants with severe conditions would initially be entitled to a single flat-rate payment of £429.80 a month at 2026/27 rates, subject to the proposed means test, in addition to the standard elements of UC.
As well as their cash payment, HSA recipients would be considered for a Disability Support Account (DSA) to cover the verifiable additional costs of their disability. However, existing claimants who retained the cash value of their current PIP/UC Health awards would not receive a DSA on top.
Not all claimants who get the HSA would also get the DSA and, conversely, some claimants would get the DSA without being eligible for the HSA.
In addition, whilst those who are eligible for the HSA would have “no ordinary work-search or work-preparation requirement”, people receiving the DSA could be given work requirements as a condition of receiving UC.
The DSA would be administered by local authorities or mayors and would not necessarily be in cash. It would cover things such as equipment, aids, adaptations, mobility support, transport, communication support, personal assistance, employment-related adjustments or other approved services.
It would not include unmodified motor vehicles, as currently provided by Motability.
Child DLA would be changed for new claims involving anxiety, ADHD and depression, so that they were treated in a similar way to working-age disability payments. Existing child DLA claimants would not be affected by this change, nor would claims involving other conditions.
Reform UK say they would “reinvest around one-fifth of the child DLA savings into treatment options directly targeted at these mild conditions.”
The two child benefit cap would be reinstated by Reform.
Separately, fewer people receiving PIP or child DLA would mean fewer households were exempt from the overall benefit cap, potentially causing a further loss of benefits.
UC claimants in the Seeking Work conditionality group who had been continuously claiming for more than 12 months would be required to work 20 hours a week in placements assigned by local councils. Tasks could include:
- Fly-tipping clearance
- Litter bin emptying
- Household waste recycling centre (HWRC) assistant
- Beach, riverbank and towpath cleaning
- Pothole and patching gang labouring
- Cleaning of council premises
“Failing to participate, absenteeism, poor performance, or on-the-job misconduct” in a work placement would result in immediate sanctions which could include “full non-time-limited revocation of benefits”. Reform UK say that this is “a much harsher sanction” than in previous workfare schemes in this country or abroad.
A new sickness benefit, Return to Work Cover, would provide support for two years after Statutory Sick Pay ended. Most employers would have to insure against this cost, although larger employers could provide the cover themselves and DWP would provide it for the self-employed and employees of small firms. The payment would be equivalent to the lower UC LCWRA rate, except in certified severe cases when it would be paid at the HSA rate.
The changes would cover England, Wales and, Reform UK assumes, Northern Ireland. In Scotland, disability benefits are devolved. But if the Scottish government does not follow Westminster Health Security Allowances will be lower and disability support accounts would not be provided.
Foreign nationals would be prevented from claiming most welfare benefits.
Reform's costing assumes that just 47% of existing working-age PIP spending would be protected as cash entitlement, with the remainder allocated between DSA and no-cash groups. It estimates that 2.89 million unique PIP and UC Health claimants would be affected by reassessment under the new system.
For new child DLA claims involving ADHD, anxiety and depression, Reform's costings assume that only the most severe 10% of cases would continue to qualify. Because those children tend to receive higher awards, Reform calculates that around 22% of spending on the affected claims would remain.
It is notable that Reform UK have waited until after the Clacton byelection to unveil this attention-grabbing plan, which may suggest they fear it will not go down well with some of their core voters, although no doubt many will be delighted.
For the rest of us, the possibility of a future in which disabled claimants could be required to fill in potholes or face losing their benefits indefinitely is one we will strive hard to prevent ever becoming a reality.
You can download a pdf copy of Making Welfare Work from the Reform UK website.
