Source: Department for Work and Pensions published on this website Thursday 19 June 2025 by Jill Powell
The Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill will provide 13-weeks of additional financial security to existing claimants affected by changes to the PIP daily living component, including those who their lose eligibility to Carers Allowance and the carer’s element of Universal Credit.
The 13-week additional protection will give people who will be affected by the changes time to adapt, access new, tailored employment support, and plan for their future once they are reassessed and their entitlement ends.
This transitional cover is one of the most generous ever and more than three times the length of protection provided for the transition from DLA to PIP.
This government inherited a broken social security system, with costs spiralling at an unsustainable rate and millions of people trapped out of work. The case for change is stark:
- Since the pandemic, the number of PIP awards has more than doubled – up from 13,000 a month to 34,000 a month. That is around 1,000 people signing on to PIP every day – that is roughly the size of Leicester signing up every year.
- The surge has been largely by driven by a substantial increase in the number of people who report anxiety and depression as their main condition. Before the pandemic (in 2019), 2,500 people a month were awarded PIP for these conditions, this has more than tripled to 8,200 a month in 2023.
- Almost 1 million young people – 1 in 8 - are not in education, employment or training.
- 1-in-10 people of working age are now claiming a sickness or disability benefit.
- Without reform, the number of working age people on disability benefits is set to more than double this decade to 4.3 million.
- Spending on working age disability and incapacity benefits is up £20 billion since the pandemic and is set to increase by almost that much again by the end of this Parliament, to a staggering £70 billion a year.
