DWP rule change for PIP claimants could see £5,600 payment replaced with vouchers

People living with disability and long-term sickness could lose out on more than £5,600 per year of government financial assistance, under proposals laid out following a fortnight of attacks on Personal Independence Payments (PIP). Disability rights advocates have criticised the plan, calling the government "obsessed with austerity, sanctions and conditionality".

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) policy paper proposes removing cash payments from disabled people and the long-term sick, in exchange for vouchers that could only be spent in specific shops on specific items, removing entirely the personal independence point of PIP. The Tory-designed disability benefit replaced Disability Living Allowance in 2012 with the intent to support "disabled people to lead independent and active lives."

However, in the week since the Prime Minister attacked PIP in a speech at the Centre for Social Justice, the widely claimed benefit has become a payment for the "extra costs" of disability rather than a tool for independence and, as such, could be limited to a one-off payment for accessibility equipment. In the foreword of the green paper, Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride said the document would "open a new chapter in the next generation of welfare reforms."

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The reason for the increase in political rhetoric around the help the state gives to 3.3 million disabled and sick people in the UK is the spiralling benefit bill faced by the government, with the number of people living with a PIP-eligible disability ballooning in the years following the pandemic.

Mel Stride MP continued: "With almost a quarter of the adult population (23%) reporting a disability in 2024, up from 16% in 2013, we believe that now is the time for a new conversation about how the benefit system can best support people to live full and independent lives.

"I am concerned about the sustainability of the current model. Over the coming 5 years, PIP spending is expected to grow by 63% (£21.6bn to £35.3bn, 23/24 to 28/29). There are now over 33,000 new awards for PIP per month compared to 17,000 before the pandemic."

Other alternatives to the just over £100 per week that disabled people get through PIP proposed by the DWP include: an expenses-style receipt system where disabled people can claim the cost of equipment back from the government, and one-off grants to help people purchase home adaptations or expensive equipment.

Disability Rights UK, responding to the green paper, said: "The government is aware of the mental anguish our threadbare welfare system causes.

"Coroners have warned Mel Stride that the system can worsen symptoms of mental illness after a man whose 'anxiety was exacerbated by his application for Universal Credit' died by suicide. The number of secret reviews into the deaths of benefit claimants carried out by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has also more than doubled over the past three years.

"Rather than focusing on blaming us, it is the policies of the DWP that are not working. Their punishing approach, which is obsessed with austerity, sanctions and conditionality, has fuelled increases in disability and sickness by under-resourcing not just the social security system but also health services, social care, education, housing and transport, excluding us from opportunities and driving us into poverty.

"The social security system should be an essential public service that ensures everyone has access to the right support when they need it. But after years of dire cuts and reforms, it has been torn apart. We will not hold our breath to see England’s political parties push back against the tide of misinformation, demonisation and disablism that this government and its media outriders launder."

The paper, titled 'Modernising support for independent living: the health and disability green paper' is now open to public consultation, with anyone affected encouraged to take part in the consultation. You can find it here.