The key PIP changes and what they mean for your benefit payments (2025)

Up to a million disabled people will miss out on benefits after the government announced it would be overhauling the welfare system.

Personal independence payments (PIP) will undergo a series of changes that will limit who will be eligible for the payments, work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall announced on Tuesday.

The government said the reforms are part of its plan "sets out decisive action to fix the broken benefits system". It added that those with the most severe disabilities will be protected.

• Read our live coverage of reaction to Labour's cuts to disability benefits here

Meanwhile the Resolution Foundation (RF) said that if the government plans to save £5bn from restricting PIP by making it harder to qualify for the ‘daily living’ component, this would mean between 800,000 and 1.2 million people losing support of between £4,200 and £6,300 per year by 2029-30.

The Disability Benefits Consortium, an umbrella body representing more than 100 charities and organisations, condemned the “cruel cuts” and said they would push more disabled people into poverty, and worsen people’s health.

What are the key changes to PIP?

• PIP eligibility criteria tightened for those claiming daily living support will be tightened

• Assessment overhaul. Assessments will be now recorded to "establish trust" as part of an overhaul of the assessment system

• PIP voucher plans scrapped. These had been potentially mooted as part of a government consultation

• PIP will not be frozen or means-tested, as per previous reports, and will instead rise with inflation

Here's a more detailed breakdown of what this could mean for claimants.

PIP eligibility criteria tightened

From November 2026, those claiming the daily living element of PIP will need to score a minimum of four points during their assessment for the benefit in one single activity to qualify for support.

Currently, claimants need to score a minimum of eight points across multiple activities to reach the threshold for support.

Kendall has said this will only affect the daily living element of PIP, not the mobility element.

According to iNews, the new thresholds will exclude, among others, many autistic people, those with ADHD and mental health difficulties.

The charity Sense has called the cut "draconian", and said it is "deeply concerned" about the plans.

"Personal independence payment was never designed to help people find work," the charity's chief executive James Watson-O’Neill told Yahoo News. "It’s about helping disabled people cover the extra costs of living with a disability, which often enables them to stay in employment."

Read more: What the key universal credit changes mean for your benefits payments (Yahoo News)

PIP assessment overhaul

The PIP assessment is used to figure out how much financial support someone claiming PIP needs.

The process has been a bone of contention for a lot of claimants, who find it undignified, inaccessible, and sometimes inaccurate.

In response, the government will review the assessment to make sure "it is fit for purpose", and to "re-establish trust". It will also record assessments to "give people the confidence they're being done properly".

In addition, if you claim PIP and universal credit, you will only need to go through one assessment in the future after the government confirmed the work capability assessment (WCA) for universal credit will be scrapped from 2028.

The DWP has not released any evidence on the impact of these changes, but what we can say (based on previously-released data) is that people with conditions including learning difficulties, cerebral palsy and autism are least likely to be affected, since people receiving PIP and with these conditions are most likely to score 21 points or more in the daily living part of the PIP assessment, the Resolution Foundation found.

PIP voucher proposals scrapped

Currently, PIP payments are made as direct bank transfers to a person's account.

The Conservatives considered changing these payments to vouchers, so that people would have to use them in certain shops as a replacement for cash.

At the time, the Disability Poverty Campaign Group branded the vouchers “dehumanising” and said it would “use all possible avenues to challenge the implication that disabled people eligible for PIP lack the capacity to manage cash-based income”.

The Labour government has refused to rule out whether it will be continuing with those plans, up until this point.

Now, it has said it will be scrapping the plans to make these voucher payments.

PIP will not be frozen or means-tested

Charities have repeatedly emphasised that PIP is a benefit that helps people with the extra costs of living with a disability, whether they have a job or not.

The government has scrapped its plans to freeze or means-test PIP, which means the amount claimants receive will still rise in line with inflation. The amount you receive will also not be linked to how much you earn.