Disabled people may lose £10,000 a year under benefits shake-up

Some disabled people could lose nearly £10,000 a year by the end of the decade under welfare changes, a thinktank forecast yesterday.

- Patrick Butler Frances Ryan

Plans announced on Tuesday will strip 1 million ill and disabled people of personal independence payments (Pip) worth between £4,200 and £6,300 each, with hundreds of thousands more claimants losing incapacity benefits.

The planned cuts will deliver a series of "painful income shocks" for many people at the lower end of the pay scale with no guarantee it will help them into work, the Resolution Foundation said in a detailed analysis of the plans.

Thousands of people will be hit by knock-on impacts because Pip is a "passport" allowing claimants and carers to qualify for other benefits, cash support and services, including carer's allowance and council tax reductions. Unpaid carers face losing thousands of pounds a year if the person they look after loses eligibility for Pip. This will push thousands of households deeper into poverty, said the charity Carers UK.

There were also warnings that 3,500 young care leavers with a disability face "devastating" losses of nearly £5,000 a year under changes that will stop those under the age of 22 from claiming the incapacity element of universal credit.