LABOUR have been criticised for failing to publish an impact assessment of sweeping cuts to disability benefits.
Following confirmation from Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall that £5 billion of cuts would be made to welfare, the UK Government released a green paper entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working.
However, the paper does not contain any impact assessments of these cuts or details of the new rates, with Kendall saying they will not be published until the Spring Statement next week.
It means we do not currently know how many people will be affected by the cuts and how much worse off they will be.
The announced cuts mean only the most severely disabled will be able to claim Personal Independence Payments (PIPS), the key disability benefit that is not linked to work.
The eligibility criteria for this is drastically changing, yet the UK Government has currently left the public in the dark about who and how many people this is going to affect.
The transition from Disability Living Allowance to PIP under the Welfare Reform Act 2012 was, in contrast, accompanied by detailed impact assessments.
Labour have subsequently been accused of hiding the impacts of their cuts and causing more uncertainty for those affected.
Yup this strings out the past week for another week https://t.co/nnGz5wjSE5
— James Taylor (@Jamestaylor2) March 18, 2025
Ben Walker, co-founder of poll aggregator Britain Elects, said on Twitter/X: “This speaks to the whole comms strategy of a Government not even one year in – let the void run rampant and the uncertainty consume us all.”
Momentum, a grassroots movement on the left of Labour, said the true scale of the damage these cuts will cause is being hidden from people.
“The Government's cuts to welfare are being carried out without any transparency at all,” the organisation posted.
“The true scale of the damage being caused is being hidden from the public eye, without any publicly available impact assessments - hardly the sign of a confident Government.”
James Taylor, executive director of campaigns and strategy for disability charity Scope, said the lack of impact assessment will “string out the past week for another week”, suggesting frustration at the ongoing limbo disabled people are being left in.
Kendall confirmed in her speech to the House that applicants for PIP will now need to score a minimum of four points in at least one activity to qualify for the daily living element.
While PIP is being phased out in Scotland, with the devolved Adult Disability Payments (ADP) administered by Social Security Scotland expected to fully replace it by the end of 2025, the UK welfare cuts will reduce the money returning to Scotland for ADP.
Elsewhere, the “complex” and “time-consuming” work capability assessment (WCA) for Universal Credit is to be scrapped in 2028. This is to be replaced by a single assessment considering the impact a person’s disability has on daily living, rather than their fitness to work.
The UK Government will bring in a “permanent, above-inflation rise” to the standard allowance of Universal Credit as well as legislating to “rebalance” payments for the benefit.
Going forward, Universal Credit claimants with severe, lifelong disabilities will not usually face benefits reassessments.
The UK Government will consult on merging jobseeker’s allowance and employment support allowance which will allow people who have paid into the system to get higher benefit payments for a period of time.
Labour have said they will legislate for a “right to try” initiative, which will allow people to try to get into work without instantly losing their benefits.
Kendall confirmed the Government will not freeze personal independence payment (PIP), as had been rumoured.
