Ministers must listen to concerns over benefits changes

To say that the Government's package of reforms to sickness and disability benefits are causing mounting disquiet is a bit of an understatement, especially the bits relating to Personal Independent Payments (PIP).

- Joan Walley-former MP for Stoke-on-Trent North

Although proposed changes won't take effect until November 2026, the legislation is to be debated in Parliament before the summer recess. Now is the time to understand and influence what should be done. We should not shy away from a robust debate.

The charity More in Common, when setting out the proposed changes (among them, new rules for eligibility for PIP for people with disability, scrapping the Work Capability Assessment, cuts to Universal Credit for new claimants) claimed this will represent the biggest cuts to disability benefits since 2010 and the largest social security cut since 2015. In their questionnaire, when asked if the changes meant some people who need help to feed themselves, wash themselves or go to the toilet would no longer be able to claim disability benefits, 79 per cent thought this would be a bad idea.

Across North Staffordshire 26, 801 people receive PIP or the health element of Universal Credit. By 2029 some current recipients could lose out on the daily living component by as much as £4,500 a year. Understandably this is causing real consternation among those affected.