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The Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payments (PIP) Bill is set for a parliamentary vote this week, with Labour unveiling last-minute amendments and concessions, ensuring safeguards for existing benefit users are in place. Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall highlighted two pivotal modifications in her concessions letter concerning the Bill, though further details are yet to be announced.
Sir Keir Starmer said, according to Sky News: “We’ve talked to colleagues who have made powerful representations. As a result, we’ve got a package that I think will work.”
Universal Credit
Under the original Bill provisions, the Universal Credit health component was to be frozen at £97 for those currently on it as well as people who meet the Severe Conditions Criteria until the 2029/2030 period. Meanwhile, newcomers after April 2026 would be eligible for £50 weekly, also enduring a freeze till 2029/2030.
However, a shift revealed in Kendall’s letter states: “We will adjust the pathway of universal credit payment rates to make sure all existing recipients of the UC health element – and any new claimant meeting the severe conditions criteria – have their incomes fully protected in real terms.”
This amendment reverse the proposed freeze of the health element for current beneficiaries, allowing it to increase in tandem with inflation, as reported by BBC. Additional information on this safeguard is still to be announced.
Personal Independence Payments
A change to PIP eligibility was initially set for November 2026, with a fresh stipulation that all new claimants must achieve at least four points in one of the daily living assessment categories.
Current PIP beneficiaries undergoing review after this date would also face the new eligibility, which would have seen potentially hundreds of thousands losing their daily living benefit.
Kendall’s letter assured current recipients would not face this. She wrote: “We recognise the proposed changes have been a source of uncertainty and anxiety.
“Therefore, we will ensure that all of those currently receiving PIP will stay within the current system. The new eligibility requirements will be implemented from November 2026 for new claims only.”
Despite Kendall’s assurances, an approximated 430,000 future PIP seekers are predicted to be impacted by this policy shift. Disability charity Scope articulately cautioned of the potential creation of an unequal “two-tier” benefits framework for people based on when their disability started.
