The following Statement was made in the House of Commons on Monday 30 June.
“With permission, I will make a Statement on the Government’s welfare reforms.
This Government believe in equality and social justice, and we are determined to build a fairer society in which everyone has the chance to fulfil their potential and achieve their ambitions, no matter where they were born or what their parents did. We know, as all Labour Governments have known, that the only way of unlocking the potential of individuals, and of our country as a whole, is to collectively provide real opportunities and real support.
I am proud of the steps that this Government have already taken to deliver on our promise of a better future for all. We are creating more good jobs in every part of the country, including through our modern industrial strategy and plans for clean energy. We are investing in our vital transport infrastructure and in skills, and getting the NHS back on its feet. Our landmark Employment Rights Bill will improve the quality of work, and our increases in the national minimum wage are helping make work pay. But alongside these vital steps, we need to reform the welfare state.
The principles set out in our Pathways to Work Green Paper are rooted in values that I know many MPs share: that those who can work must work, but often need proper support to do so; that those who can never work must be protected; and that the welfare state must be fair both for those who need support and for taxpayers, so that it is sustainable for generations to come. But the system we inherited from the Conservative party is failing on all those fronts. It incentivises people to define themselves as incapable of work just to be able to afford to live. It then writes them off, and denies them any help or support. The result is 2.8 million of our fellow citizens now out of work due to long-term sickness, and almost 1 million young people not in education, employment or training, which is a staggering one in eight of all our young people. The future sustainability of the system has also been put at risk, with the number of people on personal independence payment set to more than double this decade to over 4 million, with awards increasing at twice the rate of increases in the prevalence of disabled people in our society, adding 1,000 new PIP awards every single day.
I know that Government Members have welcomed many aspects of our reforms: our plans to bring in the first ever sustained, above-inflation rise to the universal credit standard allowance—the first permanent, real-terms increase in the headline rate of out-of-work benefits since the 1970s—which is an historic change in the direction of public policy; the biggest ever investment in employment support for sick and disabled people, quadrupling what we inherited from the Tories to £1 billion a year; our plans to ensure that people with severe, lifelong health conditions will never be reassessed, removing all the unnecessary and unacceptable anxiety this brings; and our plans to legislate for a right to try, guaranteeing that trying work in and of itself will never lead to a benefit reassessment and giving people the confidence to take the plunge and try work, which many organisations have called for years.
However, there have also been real concerns about our initial proposals. We have listened carefully, and we are making positive changes as a result. First and foremost, many Members of the House, alongside disabled people and their organisations, have been very concerned about requiring existing claimants to score a minimum of four points on at least one activity to be eligible for the daily living component of PIP when they are reassessed after November 2026. They have also been concerned that the pace of change was too fast. I fully understand that even though nine out of 10 people claiming PIP when the changes come in would be unaffected by the end of this Parliament, this has caused deep and widespread anxiety among existing claimants, because they rely on the income from PIP for so many different aspects of their lives. So we will now ensure that the new four-point requirement will apply only to new claims from November 2026. This means that no existing claimants will lose PIP because of the changes brought forward in the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill, and existing claimants of passported benefits such as carer’s allowance will continue to get them, too.
Some people have said they are concerned that this will create a two-tier system, but I say to the House, including Conservative Members, that our benefits system often protects existing claimants from new rates or new rules, because lives have been built around that support and it is often very hard for people to adjust. For example, some people still receive the severe disablement allowance, which was closed to new claims in 2001. When Labour introduced the local housing allowance in 2008, existing claimants stayed on the old, higher rates of housing benefit, and many people are still on disability living allowance, which PIP replaced in 2013. We believe that protecting existing claimants, while beginning to focus PIP on those with higher needs for new claimants, strikes the right and fair balance.
The second important question raised by Members was about seeing more details of our wider review of the PIP assessment before being asked to vote on the changes in the Bill. Many MPs also want to know that the views and voices of disabled people will be heard at the heart of our plans. So we have today published the terms of reference for our wider PIP review, led by the Minister for Social Security and Disability, to ensure that this vital benefit is fit for the future, taking account of changes in society since it was first introduced. The review will look at the role of the PIP assessment, including activities, descriptors and the associated points, to ensure that they properly capture the impact of long-term health conditions and disability in the modern world. It will be co-produced with disabled people, their organisations, clinicians, other experts and MPs before reporting to the Secretary of State by autumn next year, and implemented as soon as possible thereafter.
The third issue of concern was that our plans to freeze the universal credit health top-up for existing claimants, and for future claimants with severe lifelong health conditions and those at the end of life, would not protect incomes in real terms, even with the increase in the universal credit standard allowance. I can today confirm that we will ensure, for those groups, the combined value of the universal credit standard allowance and the health top-up will rise at least in line with inflation, protecting their income from these benefits in real terms, every year, for the rest of this Parliament. Together with the changes to our proposals for PIP, that will ensure that no existing claimants are put into poverty as a result of the changes in the Bill.
Finally, while there has been widespread support for the extra investment that we are putting into employment support for sick and disabled people, I know that many Labour Members have been concerned that that is not enough. I can today announce that we are putting an additional £300 million into employment support for sick and disabled people. We will be delivering a total of £600 million for support next year, £800 million the year after and £1 billion in 2028-29, increasing our total spending on employment support for sick and disabled people to £3.8 billion over this Parliament, because disabled people who can work should not wait to have the same rights and chances to work as everybody else. The measures that we are announcing today will cost around £2.5 billion in 2029-30, and the overall savings and costings of our reform package will be certified by the Office for Budget Responsibility in the normal way at the next fiscal event.
Welfare reform is never easy, but it is essential because there is no route to equality or social justice based on greater benefit spending alone. The path to a fairer society, where everyone can thrive, where people who can work get the support they need and where we protect those who cannot work—that is the path we seek to build with our reforms. Our plans are rooted in fairness for those who need support and for taxpayers. They are about ensuring the welfare state survives, so that there is always a safety net for those who need it and that it lasts for generations to come. Above all, our reforms are rooted in our fundamental belief that everyone can fulfil their potential and live their hopes and dreams if we provide them with the right help and support. This is the better future that we seek to build for our constituents and our country. I commend this Statement to the House”.
My Lords, I apologise for the repetition, but for 32 years I dedicated my working life to helping people into work, not just by finding them jobs but by opening their eyes to the opportunity, purpose and dignity that meaningful employment brings. I do not rise today to lecture the Minister on the challenges that her department faces, nor do I believe that it serves this House to relay political refrains about the past 14 years, which do little to address the pressing realities we face.
We all recognise the scale of the task ahead, which is why yesterday’s events were so concerning. In response to widespread unease across Parliament, key elements of the Bill were withdrawn. The result is a significantly weakened piece of legislation that now faces serious questions about its purpose, scope and impact. Even with those changes, more than 40 Labour MPs felt compelled to vote against it. That should give us all cause for concern and cause to pause. It reflects not just concern with the process but discomfort with the overall direction.
I genuinely do not envy the Minister. Ministers were asked to defend proposals that have since been fundamentally altered. In the process, the Government have not only damaged their credibility but opened a £4.5 billion hole in their fiscal plans.
These Benches are clear: urgent welfare reform is necessary, but it must be long-term, evidence-led and considered. Reforming PIP or any other benefit should never be reduced to short-term savings driven by arbitrary fiscal targets. We were told that the Bill would reform personal independence payments, but this approach to welfare has been crude and alarmingly hasty. Both the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Resolution Foundation confirm that the revised proposals will deliver no net savings this decade. This is not just a missed opportunity but a collapse of any clear policy.
Welfare is a vital lifeline for people facing illness, disability or disadvantage. Reform must focus on strengthening this support, securing long-term financial sustainability and maintaining public confidence. This starts with asking the right questions. Is the current system sustainable? No. Are eligibility criteria fair and effective? No. Why are 3,000 people entering incapacity-related benefits each day? How do our costs compare internationally and are those differences justified? How do we strike the right balance between compassion and cost? These are not questions for headlines or quick fixes; they are serious questions about complex and long-term governance, requiring thoughtful cross-party collaboration.
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Stedman-Scott, for introducing questions on the Statement. She quite rightly talks about missed opportunities of not only the current Government but the previous Government.
Welfare provision is a broken system. We should not proceed until we hear from the Timms review. I hope the Minister will comment on that. There is no doubt that we are abandoning valuable members of our society. People within the leadership of the Labour Party who described PIP as “pocket money” should know better. We are enshrining in law that we have a system that all disabled people are equal, but some are more equal than others—this is an early proclamation by the pigs who control government in Animal Farm; the phrase is a comment on the hypocrisy of Governments.
Let us be clear: the proposals are a leap in the dark and not even the Ministers know where they are going to land. The proposals are ill thought-out, rushed and continually amended. As days, weeks and months pass, we will see the unedifying and unintended consequences.
The access to work scheme for those with a disability needs to be urgently fixed. Could the Minister tell the House what consultations have been made with carers about this legislation?
The Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill sends a message to disabled children that those who have gone down the path of their disability degenerating to the extent that they can claim PIP will be over the line, but those youngsters who know they have a degenerative condition can look forward to no PIP under the Bill.
PIP is a passport to other levels of support, such as blue badges or railcards, which give people the opportunity of getting out and living their best lives. Perhaps the most passported benefit from PIP is the carer’s allowance. On these Benches, we have grave concerns about the Bill’s impact on those families who will no longer benefit from carer’s allowances. They will be robbed of up to £12,000 a year.
My Lords, I thank both noble Lords for their contributions. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Stedman-Scott, for the tone of her contribution. She and I may sometimes disagree on analysis and solutions, but we both recognise the system is flawed and want to find ways of making it better, and I am grateful to her for that.
Before I turn to the specifics that were raised, it is worth reiterating the principles behind our reform, because that is what the noble Baroness challenged me to do—to have a principles or evidence-based approach to reform. Our principles are quite simple: those who can work should work; if you need help into work, the Government should support you; if you cannot work, you should be supported to live with dignity.
The Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill sets out to do two things: to reform PIP and to reform universal credit. As was announced yesterday, and I suspect most noble Lords will know by now, we will now be looking at PIP in the round, in the context of the review being led by my right honourable friend Stephen Timms. I will return to that and the question from the noble Lord in a moment.
The rest of the Bill makes crucial changes to universal credit, so our social security system can offer the right incentives and support to sick and disabled people. It introduces the first-ever sustained, above-inflation rise to the universal credit standard allowance. According to the IFS, that is the largest permanent, real-terms increase in the headline rate of out-of-work benefit in decades. It ensures that those with severe, life-long health conditions, who we do not ever expect to work, will never be reassessed.
The changes in the Bill are part of a wider package of reforms, including our right to try guarantee, scrapping the work capability assessment and our massive investment in employment support for sick and disabled people.
My Lords, I have power of attorney for two adults, close relatives, who are in receipt of PIP. As a carer and a mother, I have had to deal with the DWP for most of my life and most of theirs.
I just say to the noble Baroness that I was as critical of the Conservative Government’s methodology in reforming disability benefits as I am of this Government’s. If I ask her just one thing in this short period, it is this. When my noble friend opened on behalf of the Conservatives on this Statement, her experience shone through. There are ways of helping people who have lifelong disabilities to get into work, even people who have been out of work or never been in work. I have raised many of these issues with the noble Baroness; she knows my criticisms. Please, train the people in Jobcentre Plus. Use the examples that charities use—for example, to get autistic people into work—because they know how to do it. Please do it. The money will seem far less over time once those methodologies have been changed.
As a carer, I am exhausted. I am exhausted by having to try to explain to people who are really anxious about their financial futures, “Don’t worry about it, it’s all going to be sorted out—it’ll be all right”. In fact, I am genuinely worried. I am 80 next year and, like many elderly carers, I do not want to leave my relatives for whom I have responsibility with this sort of mess.
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This also highlights the limits of top-down approaches. Tackling entrenched unemployment, or an ever-increasing PIP bill, requires more than a new set of policies; it requires moral leadership, cultural awareness and deep community engagement. If we are to tackle the welfare challenge, policy must be person-centred, culturally intelligent and grounded in the lived experience of the communities it seeks to serve. Real fiscal gains come from reform: a smarter, outcome-focused approach that helps people to move into work. That is how we reduce the welfare bill: not by crudely cutting support but by reducing the need for it, while protecting those with serious health conditions.
I urge Ministers to take stock. Do not confuse speed with strategy. Do not mistake cuts—much needed as they are—for reform. Go back, reflect, consult widely and return to Parliament with a plan that meets the scale of the challenge, with the care and responsibility it demands.
We recognise the benefit system is broken and needs resolving, but it needs to be co-designed with disabled groups and carers groups to make sure that we get it right for our people.
The root of the problem, sadly, is the NHS, which is where a lot of these problems start. We really need to sort out the National Health Service and social care. They are part of the problem and the solution. This so-called reform sticks a piece of sticking plaster over it, pats it on the head and says, “Now leave it to Auntie”. Sadly, Auntie has not a clue.
I absolutely agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Stedman-Scott, that this cannot be done top-down. We are working with councils, regional authorities and mayors to try and build these from the bottom up by getting local “Get Britain working” plans and devolving support working in partnership. What helps you to get to work in Liverpool is not the same as in Lincoln or in parts of Cornwall. We are doing that and making sure that it works.
However, this is going to be a record amount of money: across this Parliament, a total of £3.8 billion of health and disability support. This remains an important piece of legislation, and we all seem to agree that the current system is clearly in need of reform. But the truth is that welfare reform is never easy. If I ever thought it was, I now know that it definitely never is. It is perhaps particularly hard for Labour, because a lot of my colleagues care passionately about this and it really matters. I know other colleagues do as well.
We always said that we would listen: to disabled people and their organisations, and to MPs, and no one can say we have not been listening. We have definitely listened. Having listened carefully, we have tabled amendments in the other place to remove Clause 5 from the Bill, and the corresponding provisions for Northern Ireland. That means that we will move straight to the wider PIP review, mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Palmer, and will let that conclude before we make changes to PIP.
The noble Baroness, Lady Stedman-Scott, mentioned how we got here. The reality is that we are doing the difficult work required to fix a fundamentally broken system. I know she knows how hard this is. She is right—we do not want to throw bottles at each other—but her Government invented PIP to try to solve the problems with DLA, and now PIP has the problems that we see here. Having inherited a system that is not working, we have to try to find a way to make it work properly.
We also have to do something about proper employment support. One of the many things the last Labour Government did, through measures such as the New Deal for Disabled People, was narrow the disability gap. I am sorry to say that when the coalition came in and scrapped it, the gap began to widen and has never really shifted since. We have to give good, proper investment in employment support of the kind that I know the noble Baroness has experience of.
I think one speaker asked about the fiscal consequences. Obviously, we are well aware that these changes will have a cost, but the cost will be certified by the OBR in the usual way. However, the real prize here is long-term reform. It is long-term reform that will start to shift the dial on the way we approach social security.
To answer the questions about the Timms review, it will be led by my right honourable friend the Minister for Social Security and Disability, and it will be co-produced with disabled people, disability charities, other experts and parliamentarians. We have already published the terms of reference. The work begins now and I hope that reassures the noble Lord about the work that it will be doing. Our aim is to get a new assessment that commands the widest support possible so that we can ensure that PIP is fit for the future in a changing world.
While the work begins on the Timms review, the Bill presses ahead with important reforms to universal credit. Crucially, it addresses the disincentives to work that have been allowed to build up. Because the previous Government froze the standard allowance repeatedly, we ended up in a situation where someone who gets the health top-up in universal credit gets more than double what a single person just getting the standard allowance gets. That traps some people in the system entirely unnecessarily by incentivising people to define themselves as incapable of work. Our permanent real-terms increase to the standard allowance will mean nearly 4 million households getting an income boost worth around £725 a year by 2029-30 for someone aged 25 or over. That is balanced by a reduction in the health top-up for new health claims from next April.
I also listen because some people expressed concerns about our original proposal of a freeze to the health top-up for existing claimants. We are committed now, in another change, to ensure that the combined value of the standard allowance and the health top-up rises at least in line with inflation for existing claimants. That will protect their income and these benefits in real terms every year for the rest of this Parliament—that is, for existing claimants. That will also apply to those who have severe lifelong conditions who we do not expect ever to be able to work, and those near the end of life. We think that strikes the right and fair balance.
I have probably answered most of the questions. To make a general point, however, we have just closed a consultation on a Green Paper. There is a lot of reform going on. We have this Bill, with all the universal credit measures still here, but with the Timms review looking at PIP, which will be engaging and co-producing it with disability organisations and other experts. There is also a big consultation out on major changes in this space. But for all of us, the country needs us to get this right. We know we need to get it right. I am one of those people in politics who thinks listening is a good thing. If you listen and you want to change your mind, you change what you are going to do. That is what we have done. I think we are doing a better job and I commend this Statement to the House.