The British ministers have plans for a radical reform of well-being for the sick and the disabled-intended to reduce expenditure for health-related services by 5 billion GBP, a new obligation for applicants to deal with programs to support jobs, and an investment of 1 billion GBP in back-to-work programs.
Liz Kendall said work and pension secretary The changes I would make sure that sick and disabled people had “the same rights, decisions and opportunities as everyone else” while supporting support for those who have never been able to work due to the difficulty of their conditions.
Analysts say, however, that if the government pushes forward in view of the violent resistance of Backbench Labor MP, about 1 million people have their income reduction – but only a small proportion will get to work.
How will the current system change?
The government would like to ensure that the services have a financial incentive to work, to receive a lot of better support to help them find employment, and not risk losing an important income if they try a job and does not work.
This means to record the “work capacity evaluation” for non-profit services and to lead all applicants by evaluating “personal independence payments”, the main advantage of the disability, from 2028-29.
The idea is to decouple financial support from people’s work status, but the change means that some people lose eligibility.
There will be a new “right to attempt”, with the guarantee that this will not be “in itself” a health reeviation or a loss of services.
People who receive incompetent advantages will receive new “conversations” to find out more about the available work that is available to you, with potential sanctions if you are not committed.
The government also wants to increase the basic figures of the unemployed advantages and reduce the benefits of inability to remedy what it calls “perverse incentives”.
But it will only give £ 7 per week to the standard sentence of unemployed services in the universal credit system and will take over it from 91 to 98 GBP in 2026-27. In the meantime, the health element of UC for new applicants is reduced by 47 to 50 GBP per week and frozen for existing recipients – with young people under 22 who are completely excluded, subject to the consultation.
The biggest change is a significant tightening of the authorization for disability advantages. Changes to the evaluation for personal independence payments mean that people only qualify for their “daily life” element -up to 108.55 GBP per week -if they have major obstacles to execution daily tasks such as cooking, washing, reading or visiting the toilet.
Who will lose?
Overall, it will provide less financial support for people with a variety of health conditions who have a lot more narrower for new applicants and some existing beneficiaries if their claims are re -evaluated.
People who in 2026-27-von £ 7 per week for people who claim unemployed benefits without health support, and give a larger, temporary thrust for people with a work history who suffer a larger, unemployment magic.
But Louise Murphy, Senior Economist at the memory factory of the Resolution Foundation, said that these “tiny profits” would be “completely overshadowed” by the extent of the income that is reduced or preserved without support.
Between 800,000 and 1.2 million people probably seemed to lose justice for PIP, especially for those with musculoskeletal diseases that often have to struggle with a number of tasks, but have no serious difficulties in a single area.
Stephen Evans, managing director of the Learning & Work Institute, a research organization, said that over time up to 1 million new applicants of 2,000 per year, less could receive less than today, since only those who have passed the PIP rating would receive the health-related element of the UC.
Young people could be hit particularly hard if they themselves were excluded from the reduced rate of health -related support from UC, Murphy noticed.
How much do the changes save taxpayers?
Kendall said that the reform package would “more than 5 billion GBP” spared the taxpayer by 2029-30.
She said that without the changes, the government would spend more than £ 70 billion for inability and disability advantages in five years.
Officials say that the majority of the savings are taken into account on PIP, but the green paper does not give any breakdown.
Instead, the office for budget responsibility will enable the government’s costs if it publishes new fiscal forecasts in the spring declaration of next week.
Analysts say that the OBR will be more convincing that savings from preliminary sections occur to pip and incapacity advantages that do not depend on the consultation. The fiscal watchdog will be skeptical of speculative savings if they bring people to the workforce.
But Tom Waters, deputy director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies Think-Tank, warned that the fiscal effects of the parcel and in previous welfare reforms would be uncertain because people would change their behavior in response to new incentives.
He would now give a much greater incentive to claim PIP as the only route to the health -related advantages, and the tightening of the justification for PIP could simply change the way people have been to the assessment.
Will reform help people to work?
Political analysts say that measures are urgently needed to improve employment support and less risky attempts to return to work.
David Finch, deputy director of the Health Foundation Think-Tank, said that the need for trust with disabled people “puts the claims”.
Arun Veerappan, Interim Research Director of the Disabled Policy Center, said that the savings savings would be compensated for by increased pressure on the NHS than people sought to take the complaint for alternative support and the legal costs.
Earlier experiences indicate that only a small part of the people who have been unemployed for more than two years are returning due to health problems.
Waters warned: “The risk is that exactly the people who receive health-related advantages who are least responding to financial incentives for work-and maybe most who need additional financial support.”
