2 days ago
Three months' grace for claimants about to lose disability benefits
Disability claimants will keep their payments for three months if they no longer qualify under tougher rules, as ministers seek to placate angry MPs by promising nobody will lose out until 2027.
Sir Keir Starmer is refusing to back down over contentious reform that make it harder to qualify for disability benefits, but in an olive branch to rebels will promise transitional protections to ensure claimants do not suddenly lose thousands of pounds a year.
Claimants will be given 13 weeks before they lose either personal independence payments or linked carers' allowance once tougher rules come into effect in November 2026 that will see claimants lose an average of £4,500 a year.
This will cost about £500 million over the parliament, and will intensify concerns about a host of recent unfunded spending promises.
The extra protections for 800,000 disabled people expected to lose out through the reforms will be announced ahead of a vote expected at around the end of the month in an attempt to head off a significant rebellion among Labour MPs.
More than 170 backbenchers have expressed concerns and while ministers insist they will win the vote, there is nervousness in government about the prospect of Starmer's biggest rebellion yet.
However, leading rebels dismissed the attempt at reassurance, saying it was unlikely to shift support and accusing ministers of ignoring their key concerns.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, insisted on Thursday the government was 'not going to be changing' contentious package of £4.8 billion of welfare cuts, saying it was 'important to reform the the welfare state works' to save money.
No further changes are expected before the vote and Reeves argued: 'Even with these changes we will substantially be increasing the amount of money we are paying in sickness and disability benefits during the course of this parliament.'
The most contentious elements of the reform involve making it harder to claim PIP, payments which are not linked to work and are designed to compensate the disabled for the extra costs of illness.
Claimants will be required to score at least four points on an assessment of problems with everyday living, which would rule out some needing help eating, going to the toilet or washing below the waist.
A review of PIP criteria is expected to launch in the summer and will aim to fast-track changes to the rules around the four-point cut off to ensure the vulnerable do not lose out. A more comprehensive overhaul is expected to follow.
With disability groups pressing ministers to change course, Reeves pointed to this work, saying: 'We are reviewing the criteria to get PIPs and of course we'll take into account those representations'.
About 150,000 of those who lose PIP will also lose carer's allowance of more than £4,300 a year and ministers will promise that this will also not happen immediately, in an attempt to cushion the blow by giving them time to make other arrangements or extra work.
The protections are expected to cost about £200 million in the first year the changes are introduced, falling back to about £100 million, with a total cost in this parliament of about half a million.
While ministers will argue the changes are more generous than other transition arrangements, one leading rebel MP said: 'They're doing a lot of things short of the thing they've actually been asked to do. We had two principal demands — a clear look at the PIP criteria before we actually vote, and an impact assessment of the changes. This addresses neither of those.
'Rather than trying to listen to us and engage with us they're trying to pressure us with the power of the clock.'
However, some of those who are currently considering abstaining on the bill have said that the softening does have an impact on how they might vote. 'The timing helps, because the welfare support will be coming in earlier so people aren't left without it when they lose PIP', one MP said. 'The sequencing does matter. Once I see the detail, it could be enough — but it doesn't strike me as sufficient to change many other people's minds on the package.'
Separate figures showed 2.6 million people claiming the main incapacity benefit because they are deemed unfit for work, up half a million in a year. This includes 1.9 million on the highest rates who do not have to prepare for a job, up 100,000 in three months.
