Significant changes are coming to personal independence payments (PIP) in 2025, potentially changing the way the disability benefit is paid and allocated.
Work on a ‘green paper’ consultation outlining changes to disability payments is underway in Whitehall, and is reportedly set to be published in the coming months.
It has been a long wait for recipients, who first heard that a PIP overhaul was underway under the last Conservative government.
Here’s what we know about the proposals, and how they could affect you.
When will the changes to PIP be announced?
Liz Kendall has announced that the green paper detailing the government’s overhaul of PIP will be published in spring 2025.
After that, the proposals put forward will be subject to a consultation. This means that the government will gather feedback from experts and interested parties before implementing any changes.
Disability minister Stephen Timms has been keen to impress that the government will “fulfil our continued commitment to work with disabled people so that their views and voices are at the heart of all that we do.”
After the consultation window has closed, the government will take stock of the answers and then make its changes.
However, this consultation period could take several months, so recipients are expected to be waiting until at least the summer for any changes to come into effect.
What are the possible changes?
Changing who is eligible
The government has reiterated that it wants to slash the benefits bill — something that has made campaigners, charities and PIP recipients wary.
Government sources have pushed back against suggestions that PIP – which is not based on income or employment status – could become means tested, the i newspaper has reported, although they have not ruled it out.
Any change to the assessment process could mean more people have their claims rejected, or that some people will be assessed more often.
However, it could also mean those with long-term conditions may be assessed less.
While concerns are rife about what streamlining the eligibility process means, limiting the number of assessments a person has to undergo or removing them altogether, could be very much welcomed.
The intensive assessment process — which involves an assessor evaluating how well a person can perform everyday activities and how their condition affects their daily life and mobility — has been branded traumatising for the likes of veterans.
The chart above shows how many people have applied for PIP over the last 11 years, and how many claimants have been successful.
Just under a half of applications have had their new claims or reassessment claims approved over that time period, with close to half of the claims disallowed.
Seven in ten people who appeal the government’s decision to not award them PIP succeed, according to figures released by His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) earlier this year.
Tiered benefits
Another potential option is the idea of “tiered payments” for disability benefits, which would be applied to people depending on their individual condition and specific needs.
This is modelled on the system in Norway, where accessing a basic benefit requires people to provide a letter from a GP outlining the nature of their condition and the associated extra costs.
This is also commonplace in New Zealand, where the amount of disability allowance a person receives is based on a person’s extra costs which are verified by a health practitioner.
Shift to vouchers
The government could also follow in the footsteps of Rishi Sunak’s government and change some PIP payments to vouchers.
There has been growing confusion over the potential plans to switch recipients to vouchers or one-off payments to pay for certain equipment or services in their home.
Several campaigners and charities have taken issue with this approach, warning that swapping benefit payments to vouchers would be “dehumanising”.
The Disability Poverty Campaign Group said the moves implies “disabled people eligible for PIP lack the capacity to manage cash-based income”.
In October, disability charity Scope called on the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to confirm whether it is continuing to look at “concerning” proposals.
Cutting the backlog
One issue up in the air is how speedily the government will be able to cut the PIP review backlog.
The DWP has come under fire for leaving claimants waiting an average of nine months for a PIP review, according to figures released in November.
This is on top of 392,000 outstanding PIP award reviews as of May 2024.
Labour, which has already hired hundreds more staff to process pension credit claims, said it wants to address delays within the PIP system by hiring more health professionals and case managers to get money to claimants faster.
