Warning issued over PIP disability crackdown that could be 'risky in the extreme'

Planned changes to Personal Independence Payments as part of the Conservative Party’s manifesto are being scrutinised by many ahead of the General Election. The proposed amendments to disability benefits are meant to help deal with the soaring costs and subsequent burden on taxpayers.

However, think tank Resolution Foundation’s latest report claims the tightening-up of assessments around disability benefits will not lessen the tax burden of benefits as intended. It also slammed the stigma around disability or incapacity benefits making it “too easy to receive support”, saying: “There is no evidence to support this claim” as it found award rates of PIP have remained steady since 2015.

The think tank cautioned government plans to restrict eligibility, saying it would leave people with “acute needs having their support and living standards cut without improving their underlying health conditions and job prospects”. Other findings in the report did note that real spending on working-age incapacity benefits has increased by 34% from 2013, when PIP was first introduced, with disability benefits spending specifically rising by 89%.

However, it found that a rising state pension age has become a surprising contributor to these figures as it boosted the working-age disability benefits caseload by 272,000 since 2013, making up for 25% of the increase over that time period. It also took into account other changes in the benefits system, such as heightened awareness around disability benefits, decreasing stigma around claiming them, and linked changes to unemployment benefit to a stronger “incentive to claim incapacity and disability benefits”.

The report revealed that unemployment benefits offered £98 a week in 2010, adjusted to 2024 prices, and suffered a real-terms cut to £91 today which the foundation dubbed a “hard-felt” loss during the cost of living crisis. Additionally, the foundation claimed the proposed targeted changes may not help the taxpayer's burden as it found the share of GDP spent on all working-age benefits "has barely changed" over the last 15 years.

Following the report, Resolution Foundation urgently warned: “Restricting eligibility for such benefits, without fully understanding the complex set of underlying drivers, is risky in the extreme, not least because those in receipt of such benefits are financially insecure.” To deliver on the manifesto’s pledge to cut spending on benefits by £12 billion a year, the Conservative Government proposed a reformation of disability benefits to “better target and reflect people’s genuine needs”.

The manifesto does not detail the proposed changes but has implied a level of restriction specifically on PIP claims from people with mental health problems according to the BBC. One known proposal is to scrap the out-of-work incapacity benefits and merge it with PIP, which provides support regardless of employment status.

Questioned by i earlier this month, Rishi Sunak said: “The welfare system should be geared to support those who genuinely can’t work, always compassionately and generously, but then to make sure that we do support everyone who can into work. And those are the reforms that I set out and I’m absolutely committed to.”