Benefits claimants with serious, lifelong illnesses face a cut to universal credit payments without protections from the Government, MPs and campaign groups have warned. They have urged the Government to pause a planned cut to universal credit until it can reassure disabled people with such illnesses that they will be protected. People with degenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis (MS) could see their out-of-work benefit payments halved under the reforms, warn backbench rebels and disability campaigners. They are worried that those with serious mental health conditions such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia will also miss out on the universal credit health element – worth around £3,000 a year. Labour rebels told The i Paper it was not too late for Sir Keir Starmer to look again at how new criteria is implemented, despite the welfare reform bill being approved by Parliament. (Photo: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters)

The new criteria from next April

MPs on the Work and Pensions Committee have called for the cut to new claimants’ universal credit to be halted until an independent impact assessment on the changes can be carried out. The select committee said it was worried that people with serious fluctuating illnesses – including those with serious mental health conditions – might lose out under the new criteria coming in from April next year. Current universal credit claimants with serious conditions and illnesses – who get the health element worth £423.27 – will be protected from the looming changes under the welfare reform bill. But Starmer’s Government is halving the sum for new claimants to £217.26. Only those new claimants who meet a “severe conditions criteria” will get the full amount. Rates will also be frozen for new claimants, taking the full loss to around £3,000 a year. (Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA)

730k new claimants possibly affected by cut

The Government’s own analysis in March found that 730,000 new claimants of the health element will be affected by the cut by 2030. Around 50,000 of them would be pushed into poverty as a result, it was estimated. But the estimates did not take into account the new protections for people with severe, lifelong conditions that ministers are also introducing. Disability groups have warned that those with degenerative illnesses or fluctuating conditions, which can vary day to day, may still fall foul of the changes, since the new criteria demands that a health condition be constant. Labour rebels made clear it was now too late to force any further changes to the welfare bill, which has cleared both the Commons and Lords and is awaiting Royal Assent. (Photo: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters)

Jon Trickett: 'Find a new direction'

But several Labour MPs told The i Paper it was not too late for the Government to delay and improve implementation of the reforms. They urged ministers to pause the universal credit cut and make sure those will serious, lifelong conditions can qualify. Jon Trickett, Labour MP for Normanton and Hemsworth, said it was not too late to “avoid a crisis” for people with fluctuating conditions who might miss out. Trickett said the Government should “use the summer recess to find a new direction based on Labour’s traditional values of social justice,” adding: “Accepting the [work and pensions] committee’s recommendations would be a good start.” (Photo: Getty)

Kim Johnson: 'Unjust and unnecessary'

Kim Johnson, Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, said the committee was “absolutely right” to call for a delay. She said the cut could push thousands of disabled people with fluctuating conditions into poverty, calling it “a move that is both unjust and unnecessary”. Johnson added: “We must be the party that protects – not punishes – the sick and disabled.” (Photo: Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty)

Andy McDonald: 'A two-tier system'

Andy McDonald, Labour MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East (pictured), called on ministers to “create the space” to look again at the criteria for the higher rate of universal credit. “The bill creates a two-tier system which will result in people with identical conditions being treated entirely differently, based on an arbitrary cut-off point. There is no justice or equity in that. It’s simply not the right thing to do,” he said. Ian Byrne, Labour MP for Liverpool West Derby, also said it was “reckless to go ahead with the planned cuts” without an impact assessment. (Photo: Ian Forsyth/Getty)

A 'very worrying' universal credit cut

Samuel Thomas, policy adviser at anti-poverty charity Z2K, said the Government’s severe conditions criteria was “really narrow” suggesting someone had to be impaired at all times. “We’re concerned it will exclude serious, lifelong conditions like Parkinson’s and MS will not be protected from the cut,” said the expert. “The point at which someone is not able to work may come before they are affected 100 per cent of the time by those progressive conditions.” Thomas said the charity also worked with people affected by serious mental health conditions which fluctuated. “It’s not uncommon that people with schizophrenia or bipolar have short periods of recovery before precipitous decline,” he added. “There may be situations where people with anxiety and depression may not be able to meet this definition because symptoms can vary day to day, even if they have a really serious level of need.” Mikey Erhardt, campaigner at Disability Rights UK, also called for a pause in the “very worrying” universal credit cut. “When you have people with serious, degenerative conditions like Parkinsons or MS, we’re worried that if symptoms are not constant, you could be pushed into the lower group and getting less money than you need,” he said. Charlotte Gill, the MS Society’s head of campaigns, said MS was a “debilitating, exhausting and unpredictable condition, and symptoms often fluctuate from day to day”. People with the condition would be “pushed into poverty” by the universal credit cuts, she warned. (Photo: Wiktor Szymanowicz)

Debbie Abrahams: Delay and assess

Labour MP Debbie Abrahams, chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, urged ministers to delay and assess the health element cut. “The lesson learned from last month should be that the impact of policy changes to health-related benefits must be assessed prior to policy changes being implemented to avoid potential risks to claimants.” Neil Duncan-Jordan – one of four MPs recently suspended by Starmer over his rebellion against the welfare reforms – said fears for those with progressive or fluctuating conditions show exactly why the bill “should have been paused”. He added: “It has to have been one of the worst thought-out pieces of welfare legislation in decades.” (Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty)

A series of U-turns

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has estimated that its benefit reforms will lift 50,000 people out of poverty overall. It follows a series of partial U-turns in July, mainly to personal independence payment (PIP). The Government vowed to press on with its planned welfare reforms. A spokesperson said reforms would “rebalance universal credit rates to reduce the perverse incentives that trap people out of work”, alongside “genuinely helping disabled people and those with long-term health conditions into good, secure work”. (Photo: Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty)