From what I can gather those on PIP's benefit will have their benefits cut,
(
Note: The following contains personal experience and it may be a little heavy going. I continue being a PIP claimant and have the requisite health conditions but I am in a better place today.)
That's the doom-monger's take on it. The reality is now, thankfully, a little more nuanced. If The Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill (colloq. Welfare Bill) reaches Royal Assent, which now seems more likely, then current PIP claimants will continue getting what they currently get. Claims made between now and November 2026 will be assessed under the existing rules. New claimants from November 2026 will be assessed under the new rules.
One thing I'm not clear on, and this does affect me, is how existing claimants are dealt with when their claim is up for its periodic reassessment. If that assessment is after November 2026 will it be old or new rules?
Ultimately this bill, when it comes to PIP, is tinkering. From what I've read the only change will be the requirement to score 4 points for one of the Daily Living component tasks. There are 10 tasks that have scores ranging from 0 to 12 points. 8-11 points in total from all tasks are required to receive the standard rate of Daily Living PIP. 12 pints or more for the enhanced rate. Mobility PIP eligibility criteria isn't changing at all as far as I can tell.
More detail on the current PIP Points system:
https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/personal-independence-payment-pip/pip-points-systemWhat this bill doesn't address in any way shape or form is the claim process and periodic reassessments. These will continue to be farmed out to private companies who don't give a shit about individual claimants' needs. They are box tickers doing the DWPs bidding and only care about preserving their lucrative contracts and 'performance' bonuses. They employ healthcare 'professionals' who are often anything but. These assessors very often don't have any training in the disciplines needed to understand and accurately assess individual claimants health issues. A real world example:
I was once reassessed by a healthcare professional whose day job was as a paramedic. A worthy, highly skill profession for which I have the utmost respect. But being a paramedic does not provide you with the skills to assess how mental health and mobility affect one's daily living. The training given to PIP assessors is woeful and doesn't magically equip them with the right skills for each claimant. For my reassessment I had provided as much evidence from the
actual professionals involved in my care as I could. I'd completed the form with the assistance of a welfare benefits adviser. The result of my assessment with the paramedic? I went from scoring 10 points for Daily Living at my previous assessment to 0 at this one. Despite there being no change in my health conditions as evidenced in reports from my GP, a CPN and the community MH Team. That was all ignored and all that was taken into account was the report from the DWP's (well... Serco's) moonlighting healthcare 'professional'. My income was immediately cut by more than half. My mental health took a serious dive over the next nine months. I was forced into looking for work when I wasn't suited to it. Two complete breakdowns led to two resignations. Suicide ideation became suicide planning and there was one serious attempt. During the nine months between losing my PIP and my tribunal appearance I gathered all paperwork related to my claim, including the healthcare 'professionals' report. Which, incidentally, got to me unredacted. That's how I know my 'professional' was a paramedic, as the DWP/Serco had accidentally provided me with all her personal and professional information. Her report was 'shoddy' and 'contained irrelevant information' according to the welfare benefits adviser I showed it to. She concentrated far too much on my physical capabilities. Didn't question me in any great depth on my mental health issues, and didn't allow me to bring them to her attention. The report said I was late. I wasn't, she was. She'd had transport issues and arrived 20 minutes after my appointment time - the first of the day. The report said I was rude and combative. I was stressed, made worse by the delay. That may have made me somewhat curt but she gave as good as she got. And none of that goes on to explain how she came to the conclusions that she did in her report - 0 points for every daily living task. My only explanation was it was punishment for my curtness and attempts to ask questions on the day.
At my tribunal, the panel gave me 9 points, reinstated my claim for daily living PIP and backdated the award. A relief yes and a nice lump sum. But not really recompense for what I went through during that period. Had things gone just a little bit differently I wouldn't have made it to that tribunal.
Just to pick up on a couple of points from the above
(I know I mentioned 2026, but sounds like it could be 2027 now)
You won't automatically be reassessed when the new regs come in (2026 / 2027), that will still be depending on when your award has been given until
Then, you (and everyone else) will be reassessed by whatever the guidelines are then - I am going to assume your date is before then, so you would be reassessed under the same regs as now
I don't know if you have, but if not it would be worth calling the DWP and asking for a print out of your assessment, you will see where you have "scored" your points, and off the record be aware of what you need to ensure you emphasise next time, anything you were close to scoring on you can see where you need to adjust maybe how you answer.
As for the person completing your report, they all go through the correct training and regular auditing to ensure their work is "up to standard", there are a large number that don't get to the assessment stage due to not hitting the required standard
They are trained to ask the questions that the DWP white paper etc has determined necessary, and from gaining that evidence this information is given to the DWP to make a benefit decision.
Having worked with and in relation to a "welfare benefits advisor" they are not trained and are passing comments that are not helpful, from my many years of working with the DWP and privatised companies, sadly this is part of the problem that they make an award, then push the blame onto someone else when they don't have the knowledge and training of those involved.
I will pick up on this paragraph of yours, that I do take issue with:
"These will continue to be farmed out to private companies who don't give a shit about individual claimants' needs. They are box tickers doing the DWPs bidding and only care about preserving their lucrative contracts and 'performance' bonuses. They employ healthcare 'professionals' who are often anything but. These assessors very often don't have any training in the disciplines needed to understand and accurately assess individual claimants health issues. A real world example:"
The reason the business was "farmed out" was because the DWP could not employ enough medical staff and goes back to the early 2000's. It was claimed that if the DWP were doing their own assessments, then scoring it themselves the process was open to errors and manipulating information.
I would be interested to think why you believe the person doing your assessment "don't give a shit", they would not be doing the job if they didn't care, it is a very difficult line of medical work to get into compared to many others in the medical profession.
It is 100% a false claim that there any "performance" bonuses for benefit awards, as already mentioned it is solely down to the DWP who gets any benefit and nothing to do with the outsourced companies.
Their only targets are to get people assessed within X number of days, the delays in this are down to GP's etc etc who either don't issue relevant medical evidence or even fail to reply.
You mention your score went down, do you know what evidence was supplied?, do you know if it was relevant to the DWP criteria? Had the regs changed since your previous assessment?
Again another false claim is that "They employ healthcare 'professionals' who are often anything but. These assessors very often don't have any training in the disciplines needed to understand and accurately assess individual claimants health issues"....
Everyone employed has gone through the relevant education and training to be in the medical profession
Then as above they all undertake months of classroom training to educate them on what the DWP require them to ask etc in an assessment.
They then start assessments being mentored 1-2-1, and ONLY when they are correctly completing assessments will they start doing them on their own. That process will take as long as it takes, but if the required standard is not hit within a number of months they would be offered the chance to retrain or be let go.
Next they start assessments on their own where 100% of there work is audited to check quality etc, again this will take as long as it takes, but if the required standard is not hit within a number of months they would be offered the chance to retrain or be let go.
ONLY then are they QUALIFIED to complete assessments.
Auditing still continues to ensure quality is met.
Sadly there is much misinformation about the process, and of course on
TV▸ they will only ever focus on those who clearly will never lose their benefit, but if they showed the workshy person sat in the pub all day it would not make the required headlines.
On a personal not, PLEASE do not worry, those that are unwell will not be impacted, I myself have not long been awarded PIP for a number of MH conditions, so can appreciate the angle you are coming from, but also from having worked in that sector I can see "how it should be"
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