Prepare to challenge Labour PIP cuts tweaks

Details: Published: 30 May 2025

Claimants and campaigners may want to start giving thought to how they will challenge any last minute tweaks Labour seek to introduce to the Green Paper proposals in the hope of winning over back bench MPs,

Two potential changes are currently being floated in the press.

One suggestion is to allow claimants who score 12 daily living points without getting 4 points or more for any activity to still get PIP.

This might mean that to get the standard rate of PIP you would have to either score 8 points, including one four point or higher descriptor, or 12 points made up of six two point descriptors.

Alternatively, while claimants who score ten points for five two point descriptors would get nothing, claimants who score 12 points for six two point descriptors would leapfrog the standard rate and get awarded the enhanced rate.

Either way, the changes would only be likely to affect the 210,000 claimants who currently get the enhanced rate of PIP daily living without scoring four points for any activity. It would be of no help for over one million claimants who currently get the standard rate without any 4 point or higher descriptors.

The second suggestion is to allow six months of transitional payments to claimants who lose their PIP daily living component. This time would supposedly allow the claimant time to claim other benefits – though what these might be is not specified. Alternatively it would allow claimants time to secure paid employment to make up for the loss of PIP.

There may be little time to challenge these suggestions if they are announced only as the reform bill is published, which is expected to be in June. So it may be worth claimants considering now what they would write to their MPs about these tweaks if they do indeed materialise.

Comments

7 Comments
Terms
RSS
Register

or post as a guest

Loading comment... The comment will be refreshed after 00:00.

Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
Js · 1 days ago
It isn't the loss of PIP that primarily concerns me it's the loss of LCWRA with no legal route to challenge it once they scrap the WCA. It's going to cause mass suffering and hardship on a scale I don't think they have even started to consider. It's going to cause mayhem.
- 16 Up 0 Down
- Reply
- Share
- Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
  tintack · 7 hours ago
  
  @Js
  I have no doubt the PIP cuts will be extremely bad, but it seems so far almost all the focus has been on that, whereas I don't think the changes to LCWRA have received anywhere near enough attention. The government may say there will be a new UC premium for those who can't work but we have no details about that, so we don't even know what level it will be set at.
  
  1 Up 0 Down
  
  Reply
  
  Share
- Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
  Cathedral city · 8 hours ago
  
  @Js This is my biggest worry as well,, as I didn't get 4 points on any one descriptor. I will likely lose Pip and lcwra but I'm not well enough to work.
  
  2 Up 0 Down
  
  Reply
  
  Share
Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
Gingin · 1 days ago
3rd June Cardiff consultation cancelled. Not shocking. They gave the excuse that the venue cancelled. The second venue to do this. Hmm…I wonder…
- 7 Up 0 Down
- Reply
- Share
- Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
  Mick · 1 days ago
  
  @Gingin
  Perhaps venues don't want the bad publicity and got wind that there was going to be large protests, so they've pulled the plug.
  
  Either that or DWP have realised there's going to be large protests and pulled out. Or could it be that their staff who were supposed to attend and run it all are refusing to do it? Wonder if the PCS union have anything to do with it? A few possibilities.
  
  3 Up 0 Down
  
  Reply
  
  Share
Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
Slb · 1 days ago
I don't think this is going to stop a rebellion. Those rebelling have clearly done some homework on how the system works, so aren't going to be bamboozled by these types of tweaks. And these rumours seem to me like Labour feeding ideas to the press etc so they can see the reaction from the public and their own mps.
- 18 Up 0 Down
- Reply
- Share
Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
john · 1 days ago
The 6 months transitional protection will be to enable people to apply for local authority direct payments. Which require a care needs assessment. Also many local authorities require details of what the money is spent on every 3 months. In effect the Tory planned replacement of PIP with one off payments and vouchers by the backdoor as the money will be for specific things only.
- 15 Up 1 Down
- Reply
- Share
- Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
  Old Mother · 1 days ago
  
  @john And won’t the local authorities love that! They can’t afford curent, let alone further social care responsibilities.
  
  13 Up 0 Down
  
  Reply
  
  Share
- Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
  MATT · 1 days ago
  
  @john I fear you're probably correct. I do note though that many local authorities are basically bankrupt. So where is the extra funding going to come from? Or are we supposed to pay for any specialist equipment/care etc ourselves regardless of whether we can afford to?
  
  9 Up 0 Down
  
  Reply
  
  Share
Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
john · 1 days ago
They have not said they are changing the total points needed to qualify for enhanced daily living. So I expect the 12pts will be Enhanced rate regardless of if it is 6 x 2pts. And they are trying to make their spiel about the severely disabled not being affected easier to sell on the doorstep, to alleviate MPs fears over re-election.
- 9 Up 0 Down
- Reply
- Share
Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
James · 1 days ago
I think these are desperate attempts by ruling clique to make tweaks to a system that has already been harsh which even Iain Duncan Smith resigned over during the last ruling governments terms. It appears that Labour are interested in getting rid of the standard care for people with disabilities although I think this will end up being an own goal as those not receiving the standard care will become more severely weak and disabled making the whole process a sham and also an own goal which will raise costs once they are then placed in the higher needs group.
With regards a six month transition what good is that going to do except delay the inevitable for disabled people.
The fact that the impact of the changes will be wider and much deeper in terms of housing and other passport benefits this is only going to make an already sick and disabled people worse not better. It seems like an own goal in every which way I see it.
- 15 Up 0 Down
- Reply
- Share
Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
Alex · 1 days ago
It's all divide and conquer. They will appease some of their party with small changes, and some of those will then vote for them.

I said they would do this ages ago, as it's a time honoured strategy. They have done exactly this to us - split us into existing and new claimants, split us into under and over 22 years old, claimants that don't get 4 points in one category and ones that do. Each time they do this it makes support shrink a little bit, because some of the people that are ok and unaffected will stop fighting and complaining.

This is why it's essential that we do not give up. An attack on one of us IS an attack on all of us. Today it's the under 22s, the people with less than 4 points, the new claimants. But next time it may be you.

Read and understand this old poem, it's very relevant:

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
- 23 Up 0 Down
- Reply
- Share
- Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
  John · 1 days ago
  
  @kevin The poem that omits the historical fact that first they came for the disabled. Before they came for the communist and the rest. Says a lot about attitudes towards the disabled then and now.
  
  7 Up 0 Down
  
  Reply
  
  Share
- Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
  Gingin · 1 days ago
  
  @Alex Exactly, that’s what I said a while ago, that I pledge to stick with it whether my family is affected or not
  
  7 Up 0 Down
  
  Reply
  
  Share
- Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
  kevin · 1 days ago
  
  @Alex Well said, we as a community need more than ever to stand as one and not be divided by this slight of hand tactics. We should all keep posting this poem as it is so relevant to how the labour party is to our community.
  
  First they came for the Communists
  And I did not speak out
  Because I was not a Communist
  Then they came for the Socialists
  And I did not speak out
  Because I was not a Socialist
  Then they came for the trade unionists
  And I did not speak out
  Because I was not a trade unionist
  Then they came for the Jews
  And I did not speak out
  Because I was not a Jew
  Then they came for me
  And there was no one left
  To speak out for me
  
  13 Up 2 Down
  
  Reply
  
  Share

News