Labour unveils raft of benefits CUTS with PIP eligibility to take huge hit – what does it mean for you?

A RAFT of benefits cuts is being unveiled by the Government amid a Labour revolt over the shake-up. 

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall is outlining plans in the Commons to save about £7 billion a year in welfare payments.

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Sir Keir Starmer’s Government is poised to confirm cuts to welfare on TuesdayCredit: Getty

Thousands on Personal Independence Payment (PIP) are expected to be reassessed, with some no longer qualifying.

But those with severe conditions may be spared repeat checks.

Meanwhile, jobseekers on Universal Credit who are actively looking for work are in line for a small boost – though it’s expected to be modest.

Ms Kendall told the Commons: “This government is ambitious for our people and our country, and we believe that unleashing the talents of the British people is the key to our future success, but the Social Security system we inherited from the Conservatives is failing the very people it is supposed to help and holding our country back.”

But dozens of Labour MPs are in open revolt over the changes, with several ministers confronting the PM in Cabinet last week.

The Government was forced into a U-turn on freezing PIP after the backlash over the weekend – but Downing Street yesterday doubled down, insisting there is a “moral and economic case” for reforming the “broken” benefits system.

The number of people on sickness or disability benefits in England and Wales has soared from 2.8 million to 4 million since 2019.

The spiralling welfare bill hit £48 billion last year and is on track to skyrocket to £67 billion by 2029-30 – more than the entire schools budget.

Mental health and behavioural issues also now account for nearly half of all working-age disability claims.

A new YouGov poll found 37 per cent of Britons – and most Tory and Reform UK voters – think it’s too easy to get a mental health diagnosis when nothing is actually wrong.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting on Sunday told the BBC there was an “overdiagnosis” of mental health conditions with “too many people being written off”.

• Kendall: Benefits always there for genuinely needy

  Liz Kendall has said the welfare system will always be a safety net for people in genuine need of support.

  The Welfare Secretary spoke early to assure jittery Labour MPs that she will not pull benefits for the most vulnerable.

  She told the Commons: “There will always be people who will never work because of the severity of their disability. The Social security system will always be there for people in genuine need.”

• Liz Kendall announces reforms

  DWP Secretary Liz Kendall is announcing major reforms to disability benefits in the Commons

  Liz Kendall announces welfare reformsCredit: Sky News

• Holding our country back

  DWP Secretary Liz Kendall says “the facts speak for themselves” around Britain’s broken welfare system.

  She warns that 1 in 10 people of working age are now claiming a sickness or disability benefit and almost 1 million young people are not in education, employment or training. That is one in eight of all young people.

  Meanwhile, 2.8 million are out of work due to long term sickness and the number of people claiming personal independence payments, set to double this decade from two to 4.3 million.

• PM message to welfare rebels

  Ahead of today’s welfare package, Sir Keir Starmer told Cabinet there is “nothing progressive” about letting millions more people go onto benefits.

  It appears a rebuke to bleeding-heart Labour rebels, who have been critical of the looming disability payment cuts.

  But far from being a left-wing cause to champion, the PM insisted to his top team that getting people into work is a nobler aim.

• ‘No return to austerity’, insists Anas Sarwar

  Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has rejected claims that UK Government welfare changes will amount to austerity.

  He insisted Sir Keir Starmer’s government had to act to deal with the “broken approach” to social security payments left by the Tories and to “put our finances on a sustainable footing”.

  But Mr Sarwar stressed that overall spending on welfare – both in Scotland and throughout the UK – would still increase, despite the changes being announced today.

  Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall is expected to outline plans in the next 15 minutes to get more people back to work and cut the cost of the rising benefits bill.

  Sir Keir Starmer with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar

• More young people claiming PIP, says DWP

  The number of young people claiming PIP payments has risen in the past five years while the most common conditions among the almost 3.7 million people on the benefit, according to the DWP, are:

  • Psychiatric disorders (1.4 million claimants)
  • General musculoskeletal disease (691,000)
  • Neurological disease (467,000)
  • Specific musculoskeletal disease (437,000)

  Disabling conditions involving psychiatric disorders accounted for 38.4 per cent of claimants in January 2025, up from 35 per cent five years earlier in January 2020. 

  General musculoskeletal disease accounted for 18.9 per cent, down from 20.6 per cent, and neurological disease accounted for 12.8 per cent, down from 14.4 per cent.

  The figures also show the proportion of those under 30 claiming PIP in England and Wales has increased in recent years (from 14.5 per cent of the total in January 2020 to 16.4 per cent in January 2025) while the number of claimants aged 45-59 had fallen (from 36.3 per cent to 30.1 per cent over the same period).

  It comes after Britons with acne, constipation and those who abused alcohol and drugs are claiming almost £10,000-a-year each in disability benefits from the welfare system (see post at 10.40).

• What to expect today

  The changes announced today are likely to focus on eligibility for Personal Independent Payments (PIPs), which recipients claim following an assessment to help meet daily living costs from long-term physical or mental health conditions.

  Spending on PIP, which is claimed by some people in work, is the second-largest element of the working-age welfare bill and is projected to almost double to £34bn by 2029-30.

  Top-up payments under Universal Credit linked to claimants’ health are also expected to feature in the plans. Some of the money saved is expected to be spent on helping jobless claimants back into work.

  We’ll know the exact details when Liz Kendall, the Work and Pensions Secretary, addresses MPs with her proposals just after 12.30.

• WATCH: ‘Ticking economic timebomb’

  In this video, The Sun’s political editor, Harry Cole, and Times columnist Fraser Nelson discuss the issue of welfare – and what can be done about it.

  FRASER ON BENEFITS – 1920 x 1080

• Start the job hunt in class to stop spiralling benefits bill, says veteran Tory

  A former Tory leader says children as young as 12 should be taught how to get a job in a supermarket to stop the spiralling benefits bill.

  Sir Iain Duncan Smith has called on the Government to send job centre staff into schools.

• Liz Kendall arrives in Downing Street

  Liz Kendall, the Work and Pensions Secretary, is pictured arriving in Downing Street this morning to attend a meeting of the Cabinet.

  She will make a statement to MPs about the green paper on changes to sickness and disability benefits, which is expected to take place at about 12.30pm.

  

• Brits ‘claim benefits for acne and constipation’

  Britons with acne, constipation and those who abused alcohol and drugs are claiming almost £10,000-a-year each in disability benefits from the welfare system, according to the Telegraph.

  It comes as experts warn the system is no longer fit for purpose ahead of proposed changes to be announced today.

  More than 18,500 people who were eligible for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in October last year received money to help cope with alcohol-related liver disease, or drug or alcohol misuse, according to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

  This figure has climbed by almost a third since lockdown, while the number receiving the highest amount of support of more than £9,500 a year has more than doubled, hitting 7,406 last year.

  Sir Keir Starmer faces mounting backbench discontent as the Government prepares to announce sweeping changes to the way welfare benefits are administered.

  You can follow us here for all the latest updates.

• Is it time for welfare reform – or for a wealth tax?

  Labour MP Diane Abbott said yesterday the Government should introduce a wealth tax.

  This morning Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, is making a similar argument in an article for the Daily Mirror.

  She says: “That is not the sort of society that we want to live in. I can’t understand why we’re making these types of decisions, whether it’s winter fuel cuts or looking at taking Pip away from people with disabilities.

  “Why are we making those decisions prior to us looking at things like a wealth tax, prior to us looking at things like a profits tax? The richest 50 families in Britain are worth £500bn. That’s the same as half the wealth of Britain. That’s the same as 33 million people in Britain.”

  Labour MP Diane Abbott is calling for a wealth tax to be introducedCredit: AFP or licensors

• Labour has ‘duty’ to reform welfare system, says veteran minister

  In his interview on the Today programme earlier this morning, Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister who served in Tony Blair’s government, suggested Labour MPs had a duty to support the changes to sickness and disability benefits being announced.

  Asked what he would say to backbenchers minded to vote against the plans, he replied: “Look, I’m not going to deny that in the history of the Labour party, these issues about welfare and support have sometimes been difficult.

  “But when you get elected on a platform of change, and when you tell the public, the electorate, that you believe you have inherited a situation which needs change, then my message to any colleague in that position is, we have a duty to make those changes. It was the word on our manifesto.”

  “And part of the change that we need is a welfare state that is better suited to the 21st century, that is sustainable for the future, that is there for people who need it, and that puts work at the heart of it.

  “And that is fully in line with the values of the Labour party.”

  Pat McFadden, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is urging Labour MPs to back the reforms

• SNP calls for ’11th-hour U-turn’

  Sir Keir Starmer has been urged to perform an “11th-hour U-turn” on reports that he plans to slash billions from the welfare budget.

  The SNP warned that any “return to austerity will haunt the Labour Party for the rest of its time in government”.

  On Monday, John Swinney urged the Prime Minister to “think again” and abandon cuts that would “punish” the most vulnerable people in the UK.

  The First Minister said: “I’ve seen a lot of speculation. I don’t like the look of the speculation that I’m seeing because I think that has the potential to have an effect on the resources that we have available to invest in social security.”

  He added: “What I would say in general is that, at this particular moment in time, I don’t think that the right thing to do is to punish those who face vulnerability in our society by the type of cuts that have been talked about by the UK Government.

  “I would encourage the UK Government to think again.”

  Credit: Getty

• Cutting PIP was ‘not a Labour thing to do’

  Diane Abbott, one of Labour’s veteran MPs, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that she agreed that cutting Pip was “not a Labour thing to do”.

  The Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP also said she had “no sympathy” with those who said claiming welfare was a “lifestyle choice”, adding: “I think being on welfare is very depressing. It’s very humiliating. It sort of brings you down.”

  She suggested the Government should consider a 2 per cent wealth tax on the richest in society instead of the welfare cuts, as a means to control public spending.

  Credit: PA

• Number 10 denies plans are result of the UK’s fiscal situation

  Downing Street said earlier that there is a moral and economic case to overhauling the system.

  Number 10 has also denied that the plans are purely as a result of the UK’s difficult fiscal situation.

  The Prime Minister’s official spokesman told reporters: “I think the Prime Minister has been clear there is both a moral and an economic case for fixing our broken social security system that’s holding our people back, and our country back.

  He added: “That is why tomorrow the Government will set out plans to overhaul the health and disability benefits system so it supports those who can work to do so, while protecting those who are most in need, and put the welfare system back on a more sustainable path.”

  Asked if the reforms were being carried out because of the UK’s fiscal backdrop, the spokesman replied: “No, I think when you look at the fact that we have the highest level of working-age inactivity due to ill health in western Europe, we’re the only major economy whose employment rate hasn’t recovered since the pandemic, there is a duty to fix the broken system that is letting millions of people in this country down.”

• PM says he has ‘moral’ duty to cut benefits

  Sir Keir Starmer has warned Labour rebels he has a “moral” duty to cut benefits – as it emerged a million will be blocked from health and disability support.

  The PM is pushing ahead with £5billion in welfare cuts.

  That is despite a Labour civil war brewing over the overhaul.

• Andy Burnham urges ‘caution’

  Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham urged “caution” on benefit changes.

  Writing in The Times newspaper, Mr Burnham said he agreed that the welfare system needed “a radical overhaul”, but said the Government should focus on helping people into work rather than simply cutting benefits.

  He said: “I would share concerns about changing support and eligibility to benefits while leaving the top-down system broadly in place. It would trap too many people in poverty.

  “And to be clear: there is no case in any scenario for cutting the support available to disabled people who are unable to work.”

  Credit: EPA

• PM faces backbench discontent

  Sir Keir Starmer faces mounting backbench discontent as the Government prepares to announce sweeping changes to the welfare system this week.

  Several backbenchers expressed frustration at a lack of communication from ministers.

  One described “engagement sessions” held by Number 10 as “a tick box exercise” and another saying many of their colleagues had made it clear they would vote against such proposals.

  A spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions said: “We have been clear that the current welfare system is broken and needs reform, so it is fairer on the taxpayer and helps long-term sick and disabled people who can work to find employment, whilst ensuring it provides support for those who need it most.”

  Credit: PA

• What is PIP and who is eligible?

  Households suffering from a long-term illness, disability or mental health condition can get extra help through personal independence payments (PIP).

  The maximum you can receive from the Government benefit is £184.30 a week.

  PIP is for those over 16 and under the state pension age, currently 66.

  Crucially, you must also have a health condition or disability where you either have had difficulties with daily living or getting around – or both – for three months, and you expect these difficulties to continue for at least nine months (unless you’re terminally ill with less than 12 months to live).

  You can also claim PIP if you’re in or out of work and if you’re already getting limited capability for work and work-related activity (LCWRA) payments if you claim Universal Credit.

  PIP is made up of two parts and whether you get one or both of these depends on how severely your condition affects you.

  You may get the mobility part of PIP if you need help going out or moving around. The weekly rate for this is either £28.70 or £75.75.

  On the daily living part of PIP, the weekly rate is either £72.65 or £105.55 – and you could get both elements, so up to £184.30 in total.

  You can claim PIP at the same time as other benefits, except the armed forces independence payment.

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