Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many carers of claimants losing Personal Independence Payment entitlement under the proposals in the Green Paper Pathways to Work would (1) cease to be entitled to Carer’s Allowance, and (2) cease to be entitled to the carer element of Universal Credit; and, for each of the figures above, what proportion of the relevant current caseload this is.

In the “Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reform – impacts” document, the Department estimated that, in 2029/30, 150,000 claimants receiving Carer’s benefits would be affected by the change.

Of these 150,000 we estimate that;

• 107,000 would otherwise be receiving a Carer’s Allowance payment. This accounts for around 10% of the forecast 2029/30 Carer’s Allowance in-payment caseload.
• 96,000 would have been receiving UC Carer’s element. This accounts for around 9% of the forecast 2029/30 UC Carer’s element caseload.
• Included in these figures are 55,000 who would have received both Carer’s Allowance and the UC Carer’s element, the net effect for these claimants would be a reduction in benefit equivalent to the UC Carer’s element.

The current Green Paper consultation is considering whether transitional help should be provided to carers affected.

Notes:

a) Figures are based on modelling of the impact of requiring 4 points to be scored in at least one daily living activity.

b) Figures assume some behavioural impacts as a result of the PIP policy change.

c) Figures are based on carer’s benefits’ prevalence for the full PIP population, and are not specific to carers of people affected by the change in PIP criteria.

d) Figures have been rounded to the nearest thousand.

e) Figures are subject to change as forecasts are updated in light of more recent information, and further analysis is undertaken.