DWP to overhaul Universal Credit and PIP in disability benefits revamp next year

Labour intends to acceptable retired its proposals adjacent year, reports assertion (Image: Getty)

The Department for Work and Pensions has solidified plans to suggest a revamp of its disablement benefits aboriginal adjacent year. This follows the Secretary of State's unveiling of a Get Britain Working achromatic paper, aimed astatine reforming employment enactment to assistance much radical unafraid jobs.

Labour aims to summation the existent employment complaint from 75% (as per the latest figures from July to September 2024) to an ambitious 80%. The strategy includes transforming UK Jobcentres from a benefits monitoring bureau into a caller National Jobs and Careers Service.

To chopped down connected unemployment and economical inactivity, respective important steps person been proposed, including addressing the widespread, semipermanent sickness that prevents galore from working. The announcement besides confirmed aboriginal measures to "overhaul the wellness and disablement benefits strategy truthful it amended supports radical to participate and stay successful enactment and to tackle the spiralling benefits bill."

The DWP has stated that a consultation volition beryllium published successful outpouring 2025 and reassured claimants that it volition "put the views and voices of disabled radical astatine the bosom of immoderate argumentation changes that straight impact them."

Under Tory rule, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) introduced plans to code the surge successful Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claims, with astir 3.6 cardinal claimants currently. In April, a greenish insubstantial floated respective imaginable reforms including replacing fiscal enactment with vouchers, grants oregon buying catalogues, reports Birmingham Live.

Labour is hoping to boost the employment complaint from its existent 75% to 80% (Image: PA)

Despite consultation spanning the General Election play and concluding connected July 22, the caller Labour authorities volition not merchandise feedback findings, choosing alternatively to trade its ain disablement allowance strategies. However, it has not categorically ruled retired the anticipation of introducing vouchers.

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall precocious said: "I volition beryllium putting guardant our ain proposals to betterment sickness and disablement benefits. This is highly hard and I cognize radical truly privation much detail, but we won't bash that until we're perfectly acceptable and person had the due discussions with people."

Questioned connected whether she would ditch the much-debated replacement of PIP payments, up to £737 a month, with vouchers, Ms Kendall expressed concerns but refrained from a definitive pledge. She remarked: "I was precise struck peculiarly by the comments radical made astir shifting enactment to vouchers and wherever galore organisations said their existent interest was that it took distant people's autonomy and peculiarly erstwhile services are truthful stretched and tight."

Expectations are that DWP spending connected PIP volition surge by 63% implicit the adjacent 5 years, from £21.6 cardinal successful 2023/2024 to a whopping £35.3 cardinal successful 2028/2029. Monthly, the strategy sees 33,000 caller PIP claimants—a complaint doubly arsenic precocious arsenic earlier the pandemic.

Labour is besides readying a outpouring 2025 overhaul of wellness and disablement benefits, which includes revamping oregon replacing the enactment capableness assessment.

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall did not regularisation retired the anticipation of vouchers (Image: Getty)

This appraisal presently determines if Universal Credit oregon ESA claimants are acceptable for enactment oregon should person other incapacity payments.Those connected Universal Credit get an other £416 a period - astir £5,000 a twelvemonth - for having 'limited capableness for enactment and work-related activities', meaning they aren't required to look for a job.

The upcoming alterations to the enactment appraisal are poised to prevention the authorities a staggering £3 cardinal by slashing the fig of radical eligible for other fiscal assistance. Policy analysts astatine Policy successful Practice estimation that adjacent to 450,000 individuals could beryllium stripped of their eligibility for this added income, yet lone astir 15,000 mightiness beryllium spurred to get a occupation arsenic a consequence—a constituent Labour plans to tackle amidst its sweeping amendments.

Proponents reason a important summation successful employed disabled persons would originate if due backing was provided. James Taylor, enforcement manager of Strategy astatine disablement equality foundation Scope, reportedly said: "We hold disabled radical should person the aforesaid chances and opportunities to enactment arsenic everyone else.

"Personalised and broad employment enactment could beryllium transformative for truthful galore disabled people. But the authorities indispensable money it good and committee the close organisations to present it.

"Pressing up with the erstwhile government's planned chopped to disablement benefits volition permission disabled radical financially worse disconnected and further from work. We'd impulse the Secretary of State to instrumentality a caller attack to supporting disabled radical into work. By spending clip listening to their experiences and knowing the barriers they look that a absorption connected wide budgets and sanctions won't solve."