PIP Daily Living Component Change

Overlaying an off-white background, the words, ‘PIP Daily Living Component Change’ in bold, black text. Underneath are the words, ‘The second of a series of blogs exploring the key details of the recent government Green Paper, ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working’. Underneath the text are several small purply blue graphic images relating to daily living activities, a knife and fork, a prescription bottle and foil tablet packaging, a coat hanger, speech bubbles and a toilet. Equal Lives’ logo is in the top right corner.

This is the second in a series of blogs about specific elements of the government’s ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper and the proposed cuts. Through these blogs, we aim to garner responses from our Members that we can share with MPs.

We are extremely concerned by the proposal to cut support to those who do not score four ‘points’ or more on any Personal Independence Payment (PIP) daily living activity.

PIP daily living activities encompass preparing food, eating and drinking, managing treatments, washing and bathing, using the toilet, dressing, communicating, reading, socialising and managing money.

Nearly half of poverty in the UK is already related to disability, and the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) have estimated this change to PIP scoring will cause 800,000 people to lose the daily living component of PIP. These people with disabilities will lose several thousand pounds each year, affecting their already precarious access to food, energy, daily living aids, mobility aids, housing, social care, healthcare, transport, and other essentials for life.

We are confident that policymakers have underestimated the number of Disabled people who are currently ‘scraping by’, but are only doing so with the help of PIP to absorb additional costs of managing their disabilities. Cutting benefits to Disabled people who currently score fewer than four ‘points’ on any daily living activity will drive many people out of the work that they currently do. It will also lead to more people appealing assessment decisions, and may result in new Universal Credit claims.

As yet, policymakers have provided no evidence that this strategy has been calculated using any credible analysis of Disabled people’s needs, nor any explanation of how this loss of income will enable greater engagement with work. In fact, there are examples of disability benefit cuts made in recent years using similar framing, and they did not 'incentivise' Disabled people to work, they simply increased financial hardship and mental illness.

We are being told by ministers that we must wait until a later time for the analysis and evidence of how these cuts and reforms will help Disabled people to engage with work, once MPs have voted and presumably, once these cuts have been enacted. How are we to believe these reforms are about anything other than saving money short term, when policymakers did not conduct this analysis before opening the consultation?

In December 2024, Ellen Clifford, a Disabled activist and author, took the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to court over the 2023 consultation on proposed changes to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA). The High Court ruled that the consultation had been unlawful, as it had failed to explain that the planned reforms would lead to 424,000 Disabled people receiving lower benefit rates, and that the true or primary motive behind the consultation was to reduce spending on disability benefits, which was not disclosed.

Consulting on all twenty-two of the proposals in this 2025 Green Paper would open it up to similar legal ramifications, so it is likely this is why less than half of them are being consulted on.

This proposed change to PIP scoring is reckless and discriminatory, and policymakers choosing not to consult on this demonstrates a lack of interest in co-production.

How do you feel about this change to the PIP Daily Living Component?

How will this change affect you?

If you are of working age and think you might be able to work with the right support in place, do you think this change to PIP will make it easier or harder for you to attempt work?

How do you feel about the government not consulting on this change?

Please email us at communications@equallives.org.uk. We will anonymise your submissions, and send them to every MP across Norfolk and Suffolk.

Same motif as the first graphic, but with the words, ‘As yet, policymakers have provided no evidence that this strategy has been calculated using any credible analysis of Disabled people’s needs, nor any explanation of how this loss of income will enable greater engagement with work'.