Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
UK ministers will on Monday set out plans to squeeze benefits claimed by millions of people with long-term disabilities and health conditions, as part of a drive to cut the government’s spiralling welfare bill.
Mel Stride, work and pensions secretary, said it was time for “an adult, grown-up conversation” to make the disability benefits system more sustainable, following a surge in claims linked to mental health that would otherwise send the total bill to £28bn by 2029 — double its pre-Covid level.
The government will publish a consultation later on Monday on proposals to narrow eligibility for personal independence payments. Introduced in 2013, PIP are intended to help disabled people with extra living costs. Unlike universal credit, which is means-tested, PIP are awarded irrespective of people’s income or employment status.
About 2.6mn adults of working age now claim PIP or the Disabled Living Allowance it replaced, according to official figures, with a recent surge in claims fuelled by people with mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak suggested last week that the system was being “misused” by people who were “over-medicalising” everyday stresses and described it as a “moral mission” to reduce reliance on benefits and cut the costs of welfare for taxpayers.
Charities warned that Sunak’s comments were “deeply damaging” and would result in vulnerable people being poorer, without faring any better in the workplace.
Sarah Hughes, chief executive of mental health charity Mind, said last week that mental health services were at breaking point and that people needed “to be offered tailored support . . . not face threats of losing what little money they currently have to live on”.
Stride said on Monday that a reformed system could offer more support to those most in need but that some claimants “may have better outcomes through treatment, healthcare and support than through a cash payment”.
The current system was “very blunt”, he added, because support was fixed at a certain amount per month irrespective of people’s health condition — when some might need only small, one-off adjustments, such as the installation of a handrail in their bathroom.
Stride said the government could in future offer one-off grants or vouchers to help people who needed home adaptations or expensive equipment, as some might have significant extra ongoing costs while for others they were “minimal or specific”.
The government also wants to scrap unnecessary PIP assessments for some people with severe or terminal conditions, so that they can receive support faster.
The plans to pare back PIP are part of a broader package of reforms — most of which would be implemented only after the next election — intended to help people with long-term health conditions remain in jobs or move back into work.
Last week, Sunak set out plans to shift responsibility for authorising short-term sickness absence away from GPs, with the aim of encouraging people to work as much as possible around a health condition.
The government is already bringing in changes to means-tested incapacity benefits, which will cut support to some people with mental health conditions or mobility problems.
At the same time, it aims to ramp up “talking therapy” for people with less severe mental health problems, and pilot a new scheme to integrate health and job-hunting support.