Around a million people who used to receive Pip but won’t qualify after yesterday’s overhaul stand to lose more than £4,000 a year.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall set out her plans to slash the welfare budget in front of MPs yesterday afternoon – with the focus on Personal Independence Payments.
The benefit is used to help disabled people afford all the extra costs they face as a result of their condition.
But Kendall said 1,000 people are signing on for Pip every day, which means the equivalent of Leicester – where she is an MP – is added each year.
She argued this was unsustainable, as spending on working age health and disability benefits is already up £20 billion since the pandemic and set to balloon further.
The biggest change announced yesterday impacted the qualification criteria for Pip.
Recipients of the benefit are given scores of between zero and 12 by healthcare professionals to demonstrate how difficult they find everyday tasks such as washing and eating, with their score determining the amount they are paid.
Kendall announced that from November next year, Pip would only be given to people who score a four or higher on at least one activity – in effect limiting it to the most severely disabled people.
In an appearance on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Ruth Curtice of think tank the Resolution Foundation estimated around a million people who currently receive the benefit would lose it as a result.
She said: ‘The government haven’t given us a number for how many will be affected, and because they’ve made quite a detailed change to the system, we can’t tell exactly who will be affected.
‘I think it would have been good if the government had told us yesterday, but given what they’ve told us about how much they’re planning to save, the Resolution Foundation estimate it’s around a million people who are losing their entitlement to Pip completely.’
Asked how much those people would be losing, she said: ‘Pip varies depending on exactly what you qualify for, but between £4,200 and £6,300 a year.’
The government has said the impact assessment for the full benefit reform package will be released next week as part of Rachel Reeves’ spring statement.
Speaking to LBC this morning, Social Security and Disability Minister Sir Stephen Timms said it will be ‘a substantial number’ who are affected by the changes, adding ‘and it needs to be.’
He said: ‘Some less severely impaired people will lose support. But the result will be that more severely impaired people have that support fully in place for the long term.
Disability charities and campaigners have slammed the plans, with James Taylor of Scope saying the new measures should ‘shame the government to its core’.
He added: ‘Ripping £5 billion out of the system by 2030 will be a catastrophe for disabled peoples’ living standards and independence.
‘The government will be picking up the pieces in other parts of the system with pressure on an already overwhelmed NHS and social care, as more disabled people are pushed into poverty.’
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A YouGov poll released today found 51% of Brits thought there was room for spending cuts in the benefits system – with a fifth saying the believed cuts could be made without any negative impact on services.
In an article for The Times today, Sir Keir Starmer wrote: ‘I believe every single worker should feel their contribution to the country is valued.
‘That is why I am so determined to reform work with the biggest levelling-up of employment rights in a generation. And I have seen firsthand just how many barriers are put in the way of disabled people who simply want to get on and lead their lives.
‘So I am equally determined to reform the broken social security system that is holding both our people and our country back.’
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