Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced big changes when she delivered the UK Government’s Spring Statement. Compared to the budget last autumn, a weaker economic and financial position required further adjustments, she said. The Chancellor chose to make a large part of these – approximately one-third – from changes to eligibility for the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) ultimately designed to “save” £5 billion.

From 2026-27, PIP claimants must score four points in at least one activity area to qualify for the daily living component. In the longer term, they will also scrap the Work Capability Assessment (WCA).

Eligibility for the health element of Universal Credit (UC) will instead be determined via the PIP assessment, an unhelpful conflation of two very different things: support for the additional costs of disability (PIP) and out-of-work income replacement payments (UC health element).

This is even though just weeks ago the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights published their concluding remarks following a review of the UK’s progress on these rights. They called on the UK Government to “take all measures necessary to reverse the adverse impact of austerity........

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