Anxious about news on benefit cuts

Dummie79

Does anyone know which benefits will be cut?
My son gets pip due to epilepsy and we are worried about the news disabled people will have benefits cut.
His pip was renewed last year until 2029.

TeaBee72

Nothing announced yet and probably won’t be til the budget
my Guess is that they will look at those who COULD work but the system benefits them not too, rather than those WHO can’t work for disability reasons. 

That’s not based on anything just a MSE readers guess

400ixl

Pointless worrying about one liners in the media with no substantial substance.

Wait until the budget to see if anything is announced and plan accordingly. No one will know any more than you do about any detail below a throw away comment from a government that the benefit system is no longer for for purpose and too expensive. That can mean a million things that may have nothing to do with PIP claims.

Muttleythefrog

Due to leaks we know what is the likely flavour... but there is internal debate within the government and significant upset MPs and even ministers. I could list what the leaks suggest including on what the government is likely to retreat on... but this board is not for political discussion or debate on policy and me guessing at such would I think be reckless.

We might know more with green paper coming perhaps this next week and in the spring budget towards end of the month. Inherently many are seriously worried or anxious about what is coming... I wish I could alleviate that by saying something here but unfortunately I can't and with billions in cuts being touted it would not be authentic to indicate there is nothing to fear.

Beeblebr0x

TeaBee72 said:

Nothing announced yet and probably won’t be til the budget
my Guess is that they will look at those who COULD work but the system benefits them not too, rather than those WHO can’t work for disability reasons. 

That’s not based on anything just a MSE readers guess

My severely autistic son has a lifetime award on DLA. He's yet to receive an invitation to migrate to PIP as he's not regarded as 'low-hanging fruit'. I'm not expecting any change for the worse financially under PIP.

Grumpy_chap

Dummie79 said:

Does anyone know which benefits will be cut?
My son gets pip due to epilepsy and we are worried about the news disabled people will have benefits cut.
His pip was renewed last year until 2029.

No-one can advise as there is only rumour in the press at the moment.

AIUI, the current eligibility for PIP are not means tested or impacted if in employment.  That might suggest the outcome would be unchanged from current.

Beeblebr0x

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/mar/15/downing-street-considers-u-turn-on-cuts-to-benefits-for-disabled-people

MattMattMattUK

No one, I suspect not even government really has a solid idea at the moment of what will be cut. I suspect it will be more towards what many see as the skivers, there have been hints that depression and especially anxiety will be high on the lost of conditions to see the ability to claim severely cut back. Just as in the 80s and 90s generic back pain was used by some to unjustly claim benefits the modern equivalent is the use of depression and anxiety to do the same. I am not saying that there are not people who genuinely suffer from depression and anxiety, they are real medical conditions, just that they are currently in favour with benefit fraudsters and the government will be looking to tackle that. 

The reality is that benefits need a full overhaul, they do too little to support those genuinely in need, usually the disabled, whilst they are far far to generous for those who could work but choose not to and in-work benefits in particular need to be phased out. I suspect that there is neither the will nor the ability within government to solve those issues though.

Muttleythefrog

There is one thing I will say. Repeatedly general advice on the boards regarding particularly PIP has been not to challenge decisions where doing so would not lead to a higher award and that generally has made sense... little point wasting effort and adding risks ultimately to aim to achieve nothing materially beneficial. I have always been wary of this advice in several regards but that includes the future potential for descriptor and benchmark changes that could materially affect awards. And a reminder there is nothing specific in the public domain about such changes.. we will know more soon... but it's always there in the background of possibilities. We do know the government wants to target PIP.

Rubyroobs

Beeblebr0x said:

TeaBee72 said:

Nothing announced yet and probably won’t be til the budget
my Guess is that they will look at those who COULD work but the system benefits them not too, rather than those WHO can’t work for disability reasons. 

That’s not based on anything just a MSE readers guess

My severely autistic son has a lifetime award on DLA. He's yet to receive an invitation to migrate to PIP as he's not regarded as 'low-hanging fruit'. I'm not expecting any change for the worse financially under PIP.

I'm sure the most severely affected will rightly be protected. Talk of changing the scoring criteria for PIP but the most severely disabled will likely still have enough points. As others have said there is nothing definite announced yet.

HillStreetBlues

Muttleythefrog said:

There is one thing I will say. Repeatedly general advice on the boards regarding particularly PIP has been not to challenge decisions where doing so would not lead to a higher award and that generally has made sense... little point wasting effort and adding risks ultimately to aim to achieve nothing materially beneficial. I have always been wary of this advice in several regards but that includes the future potential for descriptor and benchmark changes that could materially affect awards. And a reminder there is nothing specific in the public domain about such changes.. we will know more soon... but it's always there in the background of possibilities. We do know the government wants to target PIP.

UC will suffer a lot more than PIP (IMO).
They can spin UC in helping disabled people back to work,  with PIP they can't do that, also with PIP, there must be a vote on freezing it unlike other benefits ( even Cameron left it alone).
UC  less people will be left alone and the LCWRA will be reduced to new claimants, (maybe those who are on it now will get some sort of TP)  and both PIP & UC will tighten up the criteria around mental health.

I personally don't have an issue with some sort of reform as the driver than leads to savings, the issue I see it's the savings as the driver and looking to make reforms solely on that. As a policy it has never worked except for a very short period, and as Winston Churchill stated, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”