Liz Kendall has offered three concessions to Labour rebels unhappy about the Green Paper cuts.  But will they be enough to sway a significant number of dismayed MPs?

The concessions

The Guardian reports that Kendall has offered the following to Labour rebels:

13 weeks payment of PIP for claimants who lose their award because of the 4-point rule.

The “right to work” scheme for those on health and disability benefits will be introduced at the same time as the bill.

“Non-negotiable” protections for the most vulnerable benefits recipients will be on the face of the new bill.

13 week payment

Usually, claimants who lose their award because of rule changes by the DWP might expect to receive payments for 4 weeks, after being found to be no longer eligible. 

13 weeks is more “generous” but of little practical use, as few claimants will be able to apply for other benefits or secure employment in that time.  As a concession, it seems ineffective.

Right to work scheme

The right to work scheme appears to be a reference to the idea outlined at para 126 of the Pathways to Work Green Paper that claimants can try work without worrying about losing benefits:

“. . . we will introduce legislation that guarantees that trying work will not be considered a relevant change of circumstance that will trigger a PIP award review or WCA reassessment. We will make these changes as soon as possible, so that they apply in the current system and as well as in the reformed system.”

It appears that this will be introduced in separate legislation to the bill imposing the 4-point PIP rule, but at the same time. 

This is a move that is likely to be welcomed by most MPs. But as the government had already said they would make this change “as soon as possible” it is, at best, a very minor concession.

Protections for the most vulnerable

According to the Guardian, Kendall has said there will be “non-negotiable” protections for the most vulnerable benefits recipients on the face of the welfare reform bill, when it is published next week.

Para 42 of the Green Paper explains that:

“. . . for those receiving the new reduced UC health element after April 2026, we are proposing that those with the most severe, life-long health conditions, who have no prospect of improvement and will never be able to work, will see their incomes protected through an additional premium.[  We will also guarantee that for both new and existing claims, those in this group will not need to be reassessed in future”

(Note: the additional premium will not be payable to current claimants as they will not have their LCWRA element reduced in the same way as new claimants from April 2026).  This very probably – though not definitely - means that the DWP severe conditions criteria are to be put into law. 

These are guidelines already used by the DWP to reduce the need for reassessment of universal credit claimants who have been found to have limited capability for work related activity (LCWRA) and whose condition will not improve.

How the severe conditions criteria work

A clamant has to meet one of the LCWRA criteria.  You can find a list of the criteria here.

In addition, all of the following criteria need to be met:

The level of function would always meet LCWRA.  So, conditions that vary in severity may not meet this requirement.

It must be a lifelong condition, once diagnosed.   So, conditions which might be cured by transplant/ surgery/treatments or conditions which might resolve will not meet this requirement. This should be based on currently available treatment on the NHS.

No realistic prospect of recovery of function.  So, for example, a person within the first 12 months following a significant stroke may recover function during rehabilitation, and would thus probably not be eligible.

Unambiguous condition. A recognised medical diagnosis must have been made.

If a claimant meets all these criteria they will be classed as having a severe, lifelong health condition and will not be subject to reassessment.

You can find further details of the severe conditions criteria in the WCA Handbook.

However, this provision was already set out in the Green Paper and due to be introduced by April 2026, in any case.  So it seems to be less of a concession and more of an earlier inclusion in the legislation than had been planned.

Money Bill

Putting this concession “on the face of the bill” may have one important effect, however. Elsewhere, we have discussed the possibility that Labour will seek to make its bill a money bill, meaning it cannot be altered by the House of Lords.

However, if the clearly non-financial severe conditions criteria are put in the bill, this would seem to make it less likely that this would be an option for Labour.

Will these concessions be enough?

None of these concessions affect the main issue that Labour rebels are unhappy about, the removal of the standard rate of the daily living component of PIP from hundreds of thousands of claimants.

So, it seems unlikely that many will be swayed by what are fairly token offers, especially as two of them were to be introduced anyway.

However, Kendall appears to have confirmed that the controversial bill will be published next week and so the first vote is likely to take place at the beginning of July, come what may.  (There’s more on how the bill will progress here).

So, we won’t have long to wait before we find out.

In the meantime, it might be worth letting your MP know whether these concessions will make a significant difference to your own circumstances, because it is now all about the battle for the support of potentially rebellious MPs.

As Guardian columnist Francis Ryan pointed out: “If you see briefings like this in the coming days and maybe think “I’ve heard this before”, remember that Kendall is not trying to inform the worried public - she’s trying to woo rebellious backbencher. That’s what the next few weeks are about for ministers.”

And for claimants and campaigners too.

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  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 15 days ago
    I was diagnosed with help from and paid for by a charity Through private healthcare, with trained DR'S. So with the New LCWRA criteria, suddenly the state will no longer recognise that I'm entitled for support for my disability. The reason I went private, was because the NHS GP recommended i do so, due to 3-5 year wait list. How degrading.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 16 days ago
    Having checked my last PIP care assessment I only score one 3 point and 3 assessments at 2 points on the current proposals I will lose the care component and the possibility of support of a carer claiming carers allowance, the 3 point award is for support bathing and washing which is I need support to do this task. Seeing the response from the Government I’m concerned, having seeing the threats to potential rebels, about withdrawing the the whip, and the recent resignation of a Labour whip who does not support this cut to PIP, having seen the farce on winter fuel payments, not sure where this is going. I’m hoping they see the light and backtrack on this idiotic proposal, disabled people have already ready lost a lot thru Universal Credit, losing out on old style Incapacity Benefit, like me I’ve lost over 40k so far luckily I’ll be on my pension in January, I can see getting my pension and losing my PIP care component. Still paying the price of the 2008 banking crisis, while they still laughing at the people who are paying for it still?
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 17 days ago
    Its appauling what labour are doing to sick and disabled people i,ve got ipf and everyday is hard for me with my breathing i rarely go out no cos i,m constantly coughing if this does go through it will drive a lot of people to suicide 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 18 days ago
    These concessions are so much BS. "Protections for the most vulnerable''. This will be limited to a very small group of people who will literally have to be dying or paralysed from the waist down to get into this group. We cannot trust anything these inveterate liars say as they desperately try to stave off a commons defeat on this issue.
    If you are able join the DPAC protest on 30 June:
    Rally in Parliament Square, SW1P 3JX
    Monday 30th June 4:30PM
    #WelfareNotWarfare
    Nearest accessible underground Station
    Is Westminster:
    Bridge Street London SW1A 2JR
    (Accessible from platform to street level )
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 17 days ago
      @Bronc I wish I could but I'm housebound 🫤
      I'm so sick of this! Last time they overhauled it all I'll bet it cost more money than what they saved, never mind the cost in lives of suicidal disabled people who have it hard enough already!! 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 18 days ago
    It's a disgrace that we even have to talk about this! 
    People (me included) have had medical after medical and always been given pip and disability. 
    Now they want to take the PIP away from all these poor people yet AGAIN. 
    A labour government into the bargain. 
    They aren't Labour there Tories with a red tie or scarf! 
    We can all make a statement with our feet and vote a different way. 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 18 days ago
    I wonder if anyone can advise: I currently work full-time. I'm becoming increasingly disillusioned with corporate life. There are various volunteer opportunities in Exeter - and from my experience working for RNIB in the past, volunteers are usually treated far better than employees.  I take it with the reforms coming through the days of doing voluntary work without been sanctioned are going to be over.  Has anyone had any experience lately of JobCentre/work coaches in this regard?
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 19 days ago
    https://www.gbnews.com/money/rachel-reeves-job-cuts-tax-national-insurance

    This doesn't make any sense to me, unemployment is at a all time high, companies are still making redundancy or not hiring so where are all the job coming from that we are supposed to go for.

    I think we should put Kermet the frog, Miss piggy and fozzy bear in charge they would do a better job than these bunch of muppets.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 18 days ago
      @MATT A jobs a job many of the people coming from abroad do social care rolls.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 18 days ago
      @GLB Social care?  Depressing job, very long hours, physically demanding and badly paid. But lots of vacancies and wholly reliant on immigrant labour. Thus, this is the type of work which work coaches will be shoehorning disabled people, not in employment, towards.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 18 days ago
      @GLB The Ulunemployment rate is 4.6% that is very low. The Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment NAIRU for the UK is believed to be 5%. Unemployment below this causes inflation and hinders economic growth due to the shortage of workers. In the past anytime UK unemployment looked like it was falling below 5% the UK increased immigration. An unemployment rate below 5% was considered to be effectively full employment and that to be a bad thing for the economy. 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 19 days ago
    Heads up on another team disabled article:

    The private eye (issue 1651 page 10)
    have a couple of excellent mini articles highlighting why these cuts will have the opposite effect (to the reasoning that Kendall & co are trying to sell the public)

    I have the screenshots but no weblink so right now can’t share link (working on that) but I think they are ideal pieces to email mps
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 18 days ago
      @D Thanks for this information 👍
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 19 days ago
      @Anniesmum "seasoned rebel MP told me anything upwards of 50 Labour MPs would be a good result"

      That would not be a good result. Labour has a working majority of 165. If 50 Labour MPs voted against it would pass by 65 votes. Unless an additional 66 Labour MPs abstained and all other parties MPs turned up and voted against. 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 19 days ago
    Have people seen the DWP social media blitz of videos?
    "Don't let a condition define the person that you are and want to be"
    Our welfare reforms will help those who can work, into work

    With messages like
    "don't give up even if you are knocked down a hundred times, it will be there the opportunity and you just have to not give up."
    "jobcentres are very good places for disabled people to come"
    "with the experience, knowledge, empathy and understanding in order to be able to help other people"
    ....
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 18 days ago
      @tintack Not to mention the fact that our disabilities and health conditions knock us down every day as it is. It's a battle on two fronts. Absolute patronising clap trap on top of daily struggles. 
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 19 days ago
      @john Oh good God, I haven't.  I'm not sure which is most patronising statement as mentioned above....
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 19 days ago
      @john The DWP also has people saying in effect. 
      I was depressed then the jobcentre got me a job and now I'm not depressed. 
      Not working made me feel worthless and then the jobcentre got me a work placement and I no longer feel worthless. 

      So if your depressed work is the cure. 
      And if you feel worthless because you not working the DWP's message is not that you are not worthless if you can't work, it's stop being worthless get a job. 

      I think the video is terrible. 
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 19 days ago
      @john "With messages like
      "don't give up even if you are knocked down a hundred times, it will be there the opportunity and you just have to not give up."

      ....even when we're the ones who keep knocking you down.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 19 days ago
    A taste of what lies ahead once the WCA is abolished?
    The Canary has reported a recording of a work coach talking to a claimant on assessment phase ESA. The claimant is on enhanced rate PIP daily living, has heart problems, lung problems, suffers mini strokes, has brain and memory problems, muscle strength problems, and is on powerful pain killers.

    "There are so many people who are disabled in the country, but are able to do some sort of work-related activities, or are able to do some sort of work even with their long-term disabilities."
    "There are people who are disabled within the… [DWP] who work as a work coach with long-term health conditions, and who are able to do some sort of work."

    "It’s not that I don’t want to work. I physically cannot work. I’m laying on a sofa at the moment under a blanket with pure exhaustion after a three-month flare-up. I’m not well. I take morphine every day. I take diazepam every day. I take heavy painkillers. So I’m not someone that needs to be told that I can sit at a computer for two hours a day and press some buttons. Like, I can’t."

    "Nobody’s telling you to touch a computer. There are other forms of work that are available that you can do… Disability doesn’t define you as a person. It’s not whether or not you’re disabled enough. It’s about what skills you have to support the nation. It’s not just to support the nation, but it’s also to support yourself as well."
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 19 days ago
    The sad truth is the narrative of undeserving poor taking advantage of the hard working tax payers, a nation under threat from hostile foreign powers, and left wing economic policies being folly, has been sold by vested interests for years and bought hook line and sinker. To the extent the newspaper polls show the population support cutting support for the ill and disabled to fund military spending. 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 19 days ago
    I feel angry for all of us going through this. I’m sure we have all had our fair share of challenges with our health and circumstances it has bought. I feel angry the government are doing this to us. We already have our fair share of crap to deal with everyday. I don’t mean this in a woe is me way. I am genuinely really bloody angry, how can the government try to hurt us like this. Their duty of care is so far removed it’s a joke.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 19 days ago
    #CallOut
    #PIP

    Please see this request for media interview on pip cuts

    BBC NW reporter Kevin Fitzpatrick would like to contact disabled people who would be up for speaking to him about the imminent cuts to PIP/disability cuts, how they could be affected and why they need their PIP. About PIP mainly he said Would be to be shown on politics north west show again.

    Please contact if you wish to speak to him
    Kevin Fitzpatrick
    Political Reporter, BBC Radio Manchester & Politics North West
    Tel: 07801 741 070
    @kevfitz21
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 19 days ago
    Blair’s Shadow Over Starmer: A Legacy That Won’t Die

    Keir Starmer didn’t enter politics as a Blairite. He spoke the language of principle, law, rights and decency. Yet since becoming Labour leader, that language has evaporated — replaced by the hollow vocabulary of “stability”, “discipline” and “electability”. The soul of the party has been quietly extracted and in its place we find something deeply familiar: the careful, calculating, media-friendly corpse of Blairism.

    Starmer’s Labour isn’t just influenced by Tony Blair. It is possessed by him — and by the same people who helped him hollow out the party the first time around.

    Start with Jonathan Powell, now Starmer’s National Security Adviser — the same Jonathan Powell who was Blair’s Downing Street Chief of Staff during the Iraq War and one of the architects of his foreign policy machine. A man whose fingerprints are all over the disastrous legacy of that war now finds himself advising Labour once again, this time under the guise of “modern security leadership.”

    Then there’s Liz Lloyd, now in charge of policy delivery in Starmer’s Downing Street. Lloyd was deputy chief of Blair’s domestic policy unit. Her job? To make sure what gets implemented reflects the “message” — and that the message is sanitised for middle England.

    Claire Reynolds, Starmer’s Political Director, is another Blair/Brown era veteran. Her presence signals a familiar strategy: top-down control, no room for dissent and every MP reduced to a disciplined foot soldier reciting the same safe phrases.

    Deborah Mattinson, Director of Strategy and now Baroness Mattinson, is the pollster who helped frame public messaging for both Blair and Brown. Under Starmer, she continues the tradition of policy by spreadsheet — where conviction takes a back seat to “cut-through”.

    Then there’s Peter Mandelson, now conveniently parked as Britain’s ambassador to the United States. Still whispering behind the curtain, still pulling strings, still chasing influence. The Prince of Spin survives, like mildew under the wallpaper — never gone, just waiting for the right damp conditions to return. Not just the price of darkness but the Prince of Spin himself — resurrected and reinstalled, as though the country has forgotten who helped dim the lights in the first place.

    Blair? He floats above it all. Knighted. Enriched. Smirking from behind lecterns at global summits, issuing strategic advice through his “Institute” and gently prodding today’s Labour into line from the wings. His legacy is the Iraq War, PFI, tuition fees, mass surveillance, the criminalising of protest and the slow, steady detachment of Labour from its working-class roots. And yet here he is — not disgraced, not exiled — but revered by the very people who should be learning from his failures.

    This is not leadership. It’s reheated cynicism. What Starmer offers is not transformation — it’s restoration. A restoration of Blairite control, message discipline, media choreography and market worship. And all of it wrapped in the same language of moral compromise and electoral caution.

    And now we see the consequences in real time.

    The proposed cuts to Universal Credit and PIP are not unfortunate necessities — they are deliberate acts of cruelty, cloaked in the language of “modernisation” and “targeted support”. Starmer and his front bench, with Rachel Reeves nodding approvingly beside him, are carrying forward policies that punish the disabled, the sick and the struggling — while claiming to be “rebuilding trust”.

    Let’s be clear: these cuts are not about reform. They’re about control. They are rooted in the same ideology that Blair advanced — the idea that welfare should be conditional, that poverty is a behavioural problem and that people can be prodded into productivity with just the right amount of fear.

    The removal of the standard daily living component of PIP and the plan to tighten the criteria under the so-called 4-point rule, will strip away essential support from people with cancer, Parkinson’s, fibromyalgia, MS, complex trauma and more. Many of these individuals are in work because of the support they receive. Remove that and they won’t find independence — they’ll lose it.

    This isn’t pragmatism. It’s punishment. It is the continuation of a cruel logic that started with Blair’s work capability reforms and has now matured into something even colder. A spreadsheet government. A party of optics. And the message is clear: you are only worth protecting if you are profitable. Everyone else can be quietly cut adrift — just so long as it’s “fiscally credible”.

    Let’s not forget, while we’re at it, the appalling record of the Conservative Party — the architects of over a decade of calculated, class-driven cruelty. A party that dressed austerity up as responsibility while stripping the country bare. They’ve underfunded the NHS into perpetual crisis, gutted local authorities, sold off public assets, normalised zero-hours contracts and unleashed the DWP as an instrument of punishment. The disabled, the poor, the precarious — all treated as economic liabilities rather than citizens deserving dignity.

    They partied through a pandemic, handed contracts to donors, let care home residents die and then looked the country in the eye and told us they’d “done their best.” They’ve used immigration as a scapegoat, protest as a threat and poverty as a behavioural flaw. Every moral fibre of the post-war social contract has been chewed through by their contempt for the people they’re meant to serve.

    So no — this is not about letting the Tories off the hook. They are the architects of Britain’s decline. But what makes Labour’s failure all the more galling is that they were supposed to be the opposition. The alternative. The conscience. Instead, we now have two parties squabbling over managerial tactics, while the foundations crack beneath us.

    We are being asked to forget. To move on. To pretend the past didn’t happen.

    But some of us remember. We remember the dossiers. The dead. The lies. We remember how public trust was sold off, how opposition was crushed and how the Labour Party began its long, slow slide into managerial politics and moral cowardice.

    Blair’s legacy should be a cautionary tale, not a template. That it has become the latter tells us more about Starmer’s vision — or lack of one — than any speech ever could.

    And as for Blair himself — let’s not mince words. The man is a war criminal. He deserves not another platform, not another whisper in government but a prison cell. Once he’s in it, the door should be welded shut.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 19 days ago
    I checked the order of business for the Commons for this week, and saw no sign of the Bill.  Does it get introduced unannounced??
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 19 days ago
      @SLB We'll know tomorrow, unless Starmer has decided to pull it at the last minute.....
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 19 days ago
    I'll be there - anyone else coming?

    This was sent to me by Richard Burgon

    This is a final reminder that your online event: ‘For Wealth Taxes, Not Cuts’ will be starting at 6.30PM today (Monday 16 June).

    Please find your link to join the online event here:
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 19 days ago
    I got an email from the APPG on Poverty and Equality this morning.  It reads as follows, and is a short summary of their findings in the report published today or yesterday.  The APPG has over 50 members, and my understanding is that 40+ are Labour.

    Dear X

    I would like to thank you once again for taking the time to submit evidence to the APPG's inquiry.

    Today we have published the final report to our inquiry on the disproportionate impact of poverty and inequality on disabled people.

    Our report found that disabled households face additional barriers and costs, including higher spending on food, heating, transport and medical support, which can amount to additional costs of over £1,000 per month. These costs, combined with inaccessible public services and a punitive social security system, already push many disabled people to the brink.
    Yet the Government’s Green Paper proposes sweeping cuts to disability benefits, most notably changes to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and the Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity (LCWRA) element of Universal Credit. Our report warns that:

    Up to 800,000 people could lose PIP support entirely
    Some individuals stand to lose up to £886 per month
    250,000 people, including 50,000 children, will be pushed into poverty (government estimate)
    The proposals could result in a £1.1 billion cut to unpaid carers' support
    Siân Berry MP and Baroness Lister, Co-Chairs of the APPG, said:

    “Disabled people already face unacceptable levels of hardship. These proposals won’t remove barriers to employment—they will add new ones by stripping people of the income they rely on to survive. The evidence is clear: these cuts will deepen inequality and force people further into crisis. We urge the government to listen to those most affected and change course immediately.”

    Our report recommends:

    Withdrawing the proposed cuts to disability benefits in the Green Paper
    Increasing benefit levels to reflect real living costs and disability-related expenses
    Ending repeated and harmful reassessments
    Co-producing a redesigned social security system with disabled people and disabled people’s organisations
    Investing in accessible housing and transport to tackle structural barriers and inequalities
    Our report urges the government to abandon its current plans and instead work with disabled people to build a system that supports equality, independence, and opportunity for all.

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