Over 4.4 million people claim an incapacity or disability benefit. For more than 10 years, Personal Independence Payment (PIP), the health element of Universal Credit (UC), and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) - have been key pillars of the disability benefits system for working age disabled adults. Disability benefits are a lifeline for millions of disabled people. Nearly a third of disabled people are in poverty, with working age disabled adults almost twice as likely to live in poverty, compared to non-disabled people (33% compared to 17%). In 2025 we found that a further 700,000 disabled households would be pushed into poverty without PIP.

But over a decade of research tells us that accessing disability benefits is a stressful, degrading, and an arbitrarily complex experience. The system is not working for disabled people with too many delays, degrading and inaccurate assessments, overwhelming forms and inadequate support.

Major reforms to disability benefits are being developed over the next year. The Sir Stephen Timms Review, known as the Timms Review, of PIP is exploring the reforms the Government has proposed. These include the abolition of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) in 2028 and restricting eligibility for the health element to only those who receive the PIP daily living component. Both benefits would then be assessed using only the PIP assessment.

It is crucial that such significant reform to the benefits system is based upon, and consistently informed by, the needs and experiences of disabled people. For this Futureproofing Benefits report, Scope has gathered the views of disabled people on their thoughts on the current system and the proposed reforms. Disabled people have told us clearly that these priorities must be incorporated to reform and futureproof the disability benefits system:

1. Assessments for PIP and capability to work must be kept separate. More than 2 in 3 disabled people (71%) do not want PIP to assess capability to work.
2. Extra costs benefits (PIP) and income support for disabled people unable to work (UC health element) must be kept separate. 4 in 5 disabled people (79%) fear losing support following changes to disability benefits.
3. The benefit system needs change, not cuts. Combining PIP and the UC health element would mean cuts for over 740,000 disabled people. Benefit cuts will push disabled people into poverty, not jobs.
4. The benefit assessment system is punitive and degrading. 4 in 5 disabled people (80%) want any reforms to make the system more dignified.
5. The benefit assessment system is ineffective and overly complex. Over 2 in 3 disabled people (70%) want any reforms to help prevent unnecessary reassessments.

Years of successive cuts, piecemeal changes, and restrictions to eligibility have led to stagnating progress in the welfare system. Problems that were identified more than 10 years ago have persisted and cuts have done little to improve the major challenges that disabled people face. Scope is clear that cutting disability benefits and restricting eligibility will never be the answer to the ongoing challenges within the welfare system.

Instead, the Government must commit to long term and wider systematic reform. This must place trust and the social model of disability at the foundation of the benefits system, address the full scale of the extra costs of living with disability, and address the wider problems of extra costs for disabled people and barriers to and lack of opportunity for employment.

A benefit cutting approach to reform will continue to fail disabled people, and 2025 showed cuts have little parliamentary or public support.

We are calling on the Government to reform the benefits system by focusing on what disabled people need to live good, safe and healthy lives. Not how to reduce costs through cuts.