Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether anyone in receipt of Limited Capability for Work and Work-related Activity benefits will receive reduced levels of payments following the reforms announced in her Oral Ministerial Statement on 18 March 2025.

To address the fundamental imbalance between the health top up and standard allowance of UC, we will legislate to take a decisive step to reset payment rates in UC over this Parliament, starting from April 2026.

For people who already receive the UC health element the rate of the UC health element will be frozen until 2029/2030 but this group will receive an increased UC entitlement in cash terms as a result of the increased standard allowance.

We will lower the rate of UC health for new claims from April 2026 – alongside increasing the standard allowance – to reduce the incentive to define yourself as unfit to work, while still providing a higher rate of benefit for disabled people and those with health conditions with extra costs.

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.