UC Bill briefing – in detail
The selection of amendments for debate in today’s Committe of the whole house means there is no way to prevent massive cuts impacting over 800,000 Deaf and Disabled people across the UK by 2029/30 and pushing at least 50,000 into poverty.
Despite the potential devastating impacts to people’s lives, this bill has been rushed through without proper engagement from Deaf and Disabled people or a chance fo MPs to adequately exercise their role of legislative scrutiny. The bill is now unrecognisable from the original draft with changes happening too quickly for MPs to keep up with. The proposals will have only negligible employment impacts, instead pushing Deaf and Disabled people further from employment and into entrenched disadvantage and destitution.
There are a few amendments selected for debate that can make things slightly less worse, although it is now too late to prevent the cuts going without a big enough rebellion against the Government.
We ask that all MPs vote for amendments NC8, NC11 and 38.
Key Points:
- The remaining cuts to Universal Credit (UC) will still impact over 800,000 people and leave Disabled people in poverty
- Even with Government concessions, proposals to cut UC will entrench inequality among Disabled people who are already most at risk of poverty and destitution
- The new Severe Conditions Criteria (SCC) is too restrictive, covering just 8% of those found to have Limited Capability for Work and Work related Activity (LCWRA – often commonly referred to as “unfit for work”). This will leave people at substantial risk exposed to sanctions and trap others away from accessing work at all.There has not been enough information provided for MPs to make an informed decision and the process has been too quick for meaningful engagement with Deaf and Disabled people and our organisations
- This Bill has been rushed through, is unrecognisable from it’s original version and requires more scrutiny
- We urge all MPs to vote against Government amendment 2 to ensure tha as many Deaf and Disabled people as possible will not be adversely affected by this bill.
Proposals still in the bill
There are a number of proposals remaining in the bill which will massively harm Deaf and Disabled people. Even with the removal of the PIP eligibility criteria, at least 50,000 people will be in poverty as a result of these proposals. We are particularly concerned about:
- Halving out of work disability benefit payments for new claimants found unfit for work. Under proposals in the bill, the “health” element of UC for new claimants found to have Limited Capability for Work and Work Related Activity (LCWRA) will be cut for new claimants from the current rate of £423.27 per month to just £217.26 per month from April 2026. Although they will benefit from the increase in the standard allowance, they will still lose an average of £2735 per year from this cut.[1] Existing claimants found to have LCWRA will meanwhile carry on getting the full rate, creating a two tier system. This cut will impact 754,000 Disabled people by 2029/30 according to the government’s own figures.[2]
- Setting up a new “severe conditions” group and additional premium. To be found to have a “severe condition”, new LCWRA claimants will have to prove their condition is “constant”. Claimants in this group, or who access UC through special measures for those with terminal illness at the end of life, will be eligible for an additional premium on top of their “health” element of UC. This will give them the same amount per month as existing LCWRA claimants. This is expected to protect just 10% of those who are found unable to work due to disability.[3]
- Freezing the “health” element on top of the standard allowance payments for Disabled people found to have Limited Capacity for Work (LCW) before 1 April 2017. This is significant because prior to this date there were to different levels of UC “health” element: the LCW and the LCWRA. Claimants were allocated to these groups according to the outcome of their Work Capability Assessment. This will impact 76,000 Disabled people.[4]
Trapping in poverty
It is unlikely that new LCWRA claimants impacted will be able to make up the significant financial loss proposed in the bill regardless of how much disability employment support they receive due to:
- Frequency and duration of untreatable levels of pain, distress and fatigue
- Hours each week spent of necessity in medical appointments, therapy and self-management each week
- Frequency of illness, hospitalisations and operations exceeding employers’ staff performance rules
- Lack of treatment and support essential in order to engage in paid work, due, for example, to NHS waiting times, lack of available social care and mental health support, and the Access to Work backlog
- Lack of available and suitable jobs with employers able to meet the support needs of Disabled employees
Currently 50% of Disabled people who receive LCWRA but not PIP are unable to meet basic needs and 89% are in a low income household. Even a freeze on their benefits over time becomes a cut to their income and risks further entrenching poverty.[5]
Work is no longer a secure route out of poverty in the UK. Reports show that there are high levels of in-work poverty in the UK. Those particularly at risk are people in either part-time or freelance employment, where Disabled workers are overrepresented.
It is unlikely that any Deaf and Disabled people in the LCWRA group will be able to earn enough through paid employment to move off benefits altogether. Employment outcomes attached to this bill will not be published until October 2025.
The perversity of a “severe conditions” group
The creation of a new “severe conditions” group will trap Disabled people in benefit dependency in a way that the current system doesn’t.
Under the current system, Disabled claimants in the LCWRA group are able to try flexible part time hours of working on a self-employment basis. This involves reporting hours and income each month. The Department for Work and Pensions calculates monthly UC payments accordingly.
Under the new system, anyone in the severe conditions group will be unable to even try any hours of work or work related activity. Because if they did, it would disprove their eligibility to be in the group. Inadequate benefit payments for new claimants in the LCWRA group will lead to deterioration and higher levels of support need for many. In this way they may end up meeting the severe conditions criteria and then not have a way back to accessing paid work.
Crucial, missing information
These proposed cuts have not had the attention they deserve because of the understandable focus on PIP.
Key information relating to impacts and wider cost implications of the proposed cuts is dangerously lacking.
The only information that has been provided on poverty impacts of these cuts are predicated on previous Conservative policy going through, which it did not.
We still do not know what the poverty impacts of cutting the incomes of some of the poorest will have.
There is still no estimation of employment outcomes and therefore no indication of how this would impact poverty levels.
These measures in themselves could be very costly.
We have received no information on the projected costs of increased Mandatory Reconsiderations and appeals. In 2022, appeals were estimated to cost the Government over £1,000 per appeal[6] and in 2025 it was found that since 2013 over £14 million had been spent on staffing costs alone to address appeals alone.[7]
With widespread reassessments likely to result in large-scale appeals it is a major oversight to not include estimated costs of the appeals process.
We are also concerned there will also be additional cost pressures on public services and local authorities.
We know that poverty results in poorer health outcomes and a lack of access to support services can result in requiring more expensive care down the line, however, there has been no information provided by the Government on the potential financial implications of public services having to take up the slack to provide for Deaf and Disabled people who have lost access to the full health element of UC.[8]
Why MPs should not be afraid to vote for and against the amendments that will best benefit Deaf and Disabled people across the UK
Last minute Government concessions have left this bill unrecognisable from what was proposed and the Chancellor will be required to rethink her approach to these reforms. The speed of these changes has left many Deaf and Disabled people unable to engage with the process and there has not been meaningful consultation with us or our organisations to inform the bill. The Green Paper consultation process has been heavily criticised and the simultaneous green paper consultation and UC Bill has left people confused about what is being consulted on and what proposals are in which bill.
Even though this bill could have a devastating impact on over 700,000 disabled people across the UK, MPs have not had the time or resources to be able to properly scrutinise this bill. There is no reliable information on what the impact of this bill will be on poverty, no information on employment outcomes, the specifics of the bill is confusing and has been changed by last minute concessions and there has not been enough meaningful engagement with Deaf and Disabled people and our organisations.
However, there is one chance to put this right.
And that is to vote in support of the combination of amendments that we recommend.
[1] Average loss of £3000 per year minus average gain of £265 per year. See p. 6 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67e3fbe29c9de963bc39b4b5/spring-statement-2025-health-and-disability-benefit-reforms-equality-analysis.pdf
[2] p. 3 https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/59-01/0267/hcb267_ia_may2025.pdf
[3] Table 6. https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/59-01/0267/hcb267_ia_may2025.pdf
[4] p.10 https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/59-01/0267/hcb267_ia_may2025.pdf
[5] Factsheet: Health-related benefit cuts | Joseph Rowntree Foundation
[6] £1,000 cost per benefits appeal is a massive money saver for DWP
[7] DWP blows £400 million in taxpayer cash on fighting PIP appeals – Birmingham Live
[8] MPs are being expected to vote without the figures for these. Poverty impacts of all green paper proposals combined were at least 400,000. The reported number of 250,000 households including 50,000 children as quoted in the Pathways to Work impacts paper was calculated by deducting from the total the number of 150,000 households who it was estimated would have been pushed into poverty by the changes to the WCA proposed by the previous government that never went ahead.
