Overview

• Some 108 MPs, including select committee chairs Dame Meg Hillier and Debbie Abrahams, signed the amendment seeking to stop the Universal Credit and PIP reform bill in its tracks.
• The amendment highlights a lack of formal consultation with disabled people or carers and notes that the Office for Budget Responsibility’s employment impact analysis won’t arrive until autumn.
• The government’s own assessment warns that tightening PIP eligibility and reducing LCWRA top-ups could push 250,000 people, including 50,000 children, into poverty.
• Claimants meeting the Severe Conditions Criteria or under Special Rules for End of Life will keep the full LCWRA payment when new rates take effect in April 2026.
• Keir Starmer and Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall argue that the cuts, projected to save £5 billion a year, are necessary to prevent the welfare state from becoming unsustainable.