Ahead of the government’s consultation later today on the future of the benefit, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) explains what the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is, who receives it and the context for expected reforms.
Founded in April 2013, PIP is a benefit to help people with the additional costs of having a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability. In addition, it can aid help people who struggle completing day-to-day tasks or getting around because of their condition. Currently, it is not a means-tested benefit, anyone of working age can receive it. Depending on the results of the PIP assessment, people can receive a minimum of £29 a week and a maximum of £184.
As of January 2024, there were 3.3m claimants receiving PIP in England and Wales. From March 2022, the Scottish government began to replace PIP with the Adult Disability Payment (ADP), so any reforms announced will be unlikely to affect claimants in Scotland.
PIP is a big share of many claimants’ income. Cutting the financial aid will lead to a big hit to future claimants living standards. On average PIP makes up around a fifth (21%) of incomes for households where someone receives it and this increases to one-third for those on the very lowest incomes (bottom 20% of incomes) (HBAI, 2021-22).
More broadly, almost two thirds of people in destitution – the most severe form of hardship – live with a chronic health condition or disability.
A key driver of reform is, it would seem, controlling expenditure rather than a genuine desire to help people lead healthier lives. According to the latest research, the number of new PIP claims has increased rapidly in recent years, from a historic average of 15,000 new claims a month in England and Wales between 2017 and mid-2021 to averaging well over 30,000 a month more recently.
The PIP caseload in England and Wales has increased from 2.4m in January 2021-21, to 3.3m in January 2024, and is forecast to increase to 4.7m by 2028-29.This increased caseload is reflected in increased expenditure. In today’s prices: in 2023-24 the government spent £21.8bn on PIP, up from £15.6bn in 2020-21.
Spending is forecast to rise by around £11bn in real terms in the next 5 years, to £32.9bn by 2028-29.
What could happen to PIP?
The Prime Minister set out the outline of reforms he wishes to make to PIP in a speech on 19 April. He said he wanted the assessment to be:
And that the government will:
Effectively, this means tightening the eligibility for PIP for new claimants.
The government’s consultation might suggest:
We await the consultation due to be published this afternoon for further details.
What should the government do?
The government is focusing on controlling the disability and incapacity benefit expenditure by limiting eligibility for potential claimants. This approach has been trialed previously and failed. We believe authorities would do better to focus on the underlying drivers of rising ill-health in the population – including rising deep poverty, rather than to dismiss it and seek to minimise recent trends. It should focus too on supporting people who want to work into employment, engaging with benefit claimants instead of ‘writing people off’.
Rather than haphazardly cutting incomes from potential claimants, the government should also recognise that the harshness of our social security system could potentially be pushing people towards the extra support that PIP and incapacity benefits can bring, as some experts have suggested . When the basic rate of Universal Credit is so inadequate, it is no surprise that people look elsewhere for support.
JRF is calling for an essentials guarantee that would embed in our social security system the widely supported principle that, at a minimum, Universal Credit should protect people from going without essentials. Developed in line with public attitude insights and focus groups, this policy would ensure everyone has a protected minimum amount of support in Universal Credit to afford the basics needed to survive.
Images: QuinceCreative and Nick Kane
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