Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill

We are calling for all MPs to oppose the changes to PIP in the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill

About the Disability Charities Consortium

The Disability Charities Consortium (DCC) is made up of the following nine national disability charities: Business Disability Forum; Leonard Cheshire; Mencap; Mind; National Autistic Society; RNIB; Royal National Institute for Deaf People (“RNID”); Scope; and Sense.

The DCC reaches a significant proportion of the 16 million disabled people in the UK and meets regularly with ministers.

Together the DCC represents 5th biggest charitable undertaking in the UK and 3^rd biggest Third Sector employer with 18,500 employees and a further 20,000 volunteers; many of whom are themselves disabled. It provides direct services to 2.2 million disabled people.

Welfare Bill proposals

The UK Government is proposing benefits cuts because it needs to save money and to incentivise more people with long term health conditions and disabilities into work. These cuts will not deliver the expected savings, and these benefits are (in the case of PIP) unrelated to work. In fact, these cuts may actually inhibit disabled people from working or stay in work.

Poor data leads to poor decision making. This government is in danger of compounding the adverse outcomes disabled people have experienced in the past because of poor policy decisions. For example, the pandemic impacted disabled people disproportionately because the government did not adequately identify, target and include them in decision making. They were twice as likely to die or become very unwell. Care and support fell away at precisely the time disabled people needed it most, and they were forced into unacceptable and inappropriate decisions about their future.

These cuts will push more disabled people into poverty. There is insufficient understanding of the impact of these reforms to progress and no clarity on the short-term support that will be provided or long-term plan to get disabled people out of poverty, provide them with genuine employment support and address the extra costs they face.

There are clear political implications for anyone supporting these proposals. They are overwhelmingly opposed by the public.

The government needs a strategic response. The issues these costs present to disabled people and their families are not simply economic ones and require a strategic response (currently lacking) across government.

Supporting disabled people out of poverty should be seen as a key part of the government’s growth strategy

Key Asks

Consult: So that the government better understands the impact of the proposed changes; making clear evidence-based decisions that provide better solutions, that accurately represent the lives of disabled people.

Reform rather than cut welfare support: Support more disabled people from education into work and reduce the burden of additional costs to the most vulnerable. (This could take the form of a commission tasked with proposing alternatives and reforms to the structure and criteria of benefits assessments and the replacement of the Work Capability Assessment.)

Improve data on disabled households: The Disability Charities Consortium is ready to help HM Treasury, the OBR and the ONS to collect and analyse accurate statistics about disabled people and their families. Policy initiatives must more accurately modelled and their impact assessed (Scope has made a start in mapping the Disability Price Tag).

Introduce a National Financial Inclusion strategy: We will work with the government and financial services to introduce a National Financial Inclusion strategy to improve access to financial services and products and improve the financial resilience of disabled people.

Introduce Social Energy Tariffs and target domestic energy incentives such as those for insultation, heat pumps or solar at disabled households.

Consider the political impact

83% of the public has heard of the planned cuts, with 58% saying they are a bad idea and only 32% saying they are a good idea^[1].

Polling conducted by YouGov on behalf of the Trussell Trust found the vast majority (81%) of UK voters agree the UK government has a responsibility to ensure disabled people can meet their essential needs. Looking at voting intention, this includes 81% of Conservative voters, 88% of Labour voters, 91% of Liberal Democrat voters and 72% of Reform voters. At least 7 in 10 voters across the same party lines agree that social security for disabled people should at least be enough to pay for essential living costs^[2].

The DCC has voiced strong opposition to these disability benefits cuts, alongside over 50 national charities.

These cuts will impact families across the UK. You can check the impact on vulnerable and disabled people in your constituency on this This interactive map which shows the figures for constituencies across England and Wales.

Statistics and Stories

What we know:

The combined cut to disability benefits, of £7bn, is the biggest since 2015^[3]
The reforms will push between 300,000 and 400,000 people into poverty and affect 700,000 families already in poverty^[4]
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) have set out that any incentives for disabled people to move into work due to these cuts alone are weak and uncertain. Furthermore, while employment support could help 45,000-95,0000 more disabled people into work, that is only between 1% and 3% of the individuals having their benefits cut^[5]
Scope calculates that disabled people need an extra £1,010 a month to have the same standard of living as non-disabled households. That is even after accounting for receiving existing benefits like PIP^[6]
On average, the extra cost of disability is equivalent to 67% of household income after housing costs (Scope)
The Resolution Foundation’s analysis suggests that the figure for lost entitlement could potentially range from 800,000 to 1.2m people
70% of disabled people with complex needs fear having to skip a meal in winter, struggle to cope financially and worry about adequate heating (Sense)
Energy bills are the biggest concern in relation to essentials spending for people with complex disabilities (59%), followed by food (51%) and rent (32%) (Sense)
33% of people with complex needs experience low food security
33% of people with complex needs report running out of food (Sense)
50% struggle to access services on-line (Sense)
50% feel they do not get support to use public transport (Sense)
75% of people who need to use a food bank live in a disabled household^[7]
Over 50% of people with complex disabilities, in receipt of benefits, were struggling to afford an essential bill^[8]
Almost 50% of households in poverty include a disabled person
42% of families that include a disabled person receiving benefits are in poverty^[9]
40% of disabled people with mental health problems live in materially deprived households^[10]

What our asks are based on:

The figures only tell half the story. The impact of existing policies and these proposals on people’s lives and the services on which they depend is real. The DCC can provide an insight into the lived experience of poverty by Disabled people. People have told us their own story:

Storytellers:

What these stories reveal are people’s struggles to keep warm, to feed themselves or their families, to pay for the adjustments they need to lead lives with a degree of independence, dignity and purpose.

Additional costs cover:

Care and support needs at home, covering cleaning, maintenance and disability admin
The additional cost of often bespoke adaptations and their maintenance.
Thermal comfort needs being higher and therefore requiring additional energy costs
The running of equipment and adaptations raising energy needs
Dietary requirements or difficulties in preparing food which drive up the costs of maintaining a healthy diet.

To these direct pressures must be added the cumulative impact of events and policy decisions:

Successive benefit changes (Warm Homes Discount, Housing benefit changes, Winter Fuel Allowance) have eroded disabled people’s financial resilience.
Price inflation whether because of Brexit, Covid, War and Tariffs, hits the poorest in society hardest.
The loss of PIP will make it harder for disabled people to lead independent lives.
The changes to Universal Credit will make it harder for disabled people with the greatest barriers to work to get by.
The ever-widening sanctions regime takes the form of financial penalties and exacerbates a growing mental ill health crisis.
The gap in support between PIP changes coming into force in November 2026 and employment support funding being transformed into practical, tangible support could be another cliff edge for people no longer entitled to PIP
The proposed changes to PIP will have a direct impact on informal care as it is often a gateway to Carer’s Allowance

The proposed changes also have systemic implications:

Increasing poverty increases need for social care
Increased Social Care demand will increase pressures on local authorities
Increasing poverty will result in increased demands on the NHS as wealth inequalities are closely associated with health inequalities.
The rejection of claims is likely to result in further pressure on the justice system as the number of appeals and challenges rise. They will also put increased pressure on struggling local and national benefit advice and support services
Where the proposals target young people, they are likely to add to the growing mental health crisis affecting them
More (younger) disabled people will be affected by homelessness

References

^[1] JRF, ‘Where will cuts to sickness and disability benefits fall hardest?’ (2025)

^[2] online survey by YouGov on behalf of Trussell of 2,155 adults,18+. Fieldwork 13-14 March 2025. Figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults

^[3] NEF 2025

^[4] NEF (2025), JRF 2025, Guardian

^[5] Learning and Work Institute ‘Estimating the impacts of extra employment support for disabled people’ (2025)

^[6] Scope, Disability Price Tag 2024

^[7] Trussell analysis of DWP’s Family Resources Survey data from 2023-24

^[8] Sense Potential and Possibility 2024

^[9] Social Market Foundation, Time to think again: disability benefits and support after Covid-19 (2021)

^[10] Citizen’s Advice: Costly Differences