Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the proportion of standard daily living awards that would fail on renewal under the proposed four-point rule for the Personal Independence Payment.

By 2029/30, we estimate that after behavioural responses, 320,000 claimants will have lost entitlement to the standard daily living component as a result of the 4-point policy change. More information on the impact of the proposed PIP changes on current and future claimants can be found in Table 4A of the Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms – Impacts.

A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

Note:

• There will be no immediate changes. Changes to PIP eligibility and rebalancing of UC aren’t coming into effect immediately. Our intention is these changes will start to come into effect from April 2026 for UC and November 2026 for PIP, subject to parliamentary approval.
• PIP changes will only apply at the next award review after November 2026. The average award review period is about three years. At the award review, claimants will be seen by a trained assessor or healthcare professional and assessed on individual needs and circumstances.
• We are consulting on how best to support those who are affected by the new eligibility changes, including how to make sure health and eligible care needs are met. PIP is not based on condition diagnosis but on functional disability as the result of one or more conditions, and is awarded as a contribution to the additional costs which result.
• We also intend to launch a wider review of the PIP assessment which I will lead, and we will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this and to start the process as part of preparing for a review. We will provide further details as plans progress.