'You have to fight tooth and nail trying to claim PIP'

More than half of disabled people who attend a health benefit assessment feel humiliated by the process, writes Albert Toth

- Albert Toth

Sarah has just found out that she will likely be able to keep her personal independence payment (PIP) after months of worry.

The 40-year-old mother of one works from home, which allows her to juggle life with being a new parent and her disabilities.

Chronic fatigue syndrome in her joints means she regularly experiences brain fog and exhaustion, and needs help.

And it's her PIP that makes this possible, helping her to afford a carer, stay in work, and spend time with her baby. Claimed by 3.7 million people, the health-linked benefit at the heart of Labour's proposed welfare reforms is designed to help with extra costs incurred by living with an illness or disability.

The government's concessions on plans to cut welfare spending now mean that Sarah won't be subject to stricter eligibility criteria when next assessed for the benefit. Instead, from November 2026, only new claimants look set to be subject to the tighter criteria, under Labour's bill currently going through parliament.

But Sarah says she is struggling to see this as a victory. "If there's another Sarah who's born a few years later, and ended up in this situation, it's still just as appalling," she says.

"It's encouraging some disabled people to throw other disabled people under the bus. And it's vicious, because it relies on some people being scared enough to say 'well, we'll take what we can get".

And like so many others, Sarah did not find applying for PIP an easy process to begin with.

'It feels really deliberate'

"It feels like you're being tripped up constantly,” Sarah says. "It feels really deliberate, how difficult it is. It feels extremely deliberate. Because there are so many ways it can be made more accessible to disabled people."