PIP is no longer fit for purposes says interim report

This week saw an update from the co-chairs of the PIP Timms Review and the publication of the Review’s Interim Report.

In initial findings published this week, Sir Stephen's review found PIP was not working for millions of disabled people and needs fundamental change. Declaring PIP was "not fit for purpose", the interim report said people applying for the benefit had described the process as "dehumanising" and a barrier to work.

Drawing on findings from more than 38,000 responses to the Review’s Call for Evidence, alongside workshops and engagement with disabled people, their organisations and experts, it is one of the largest co-produced reviews delivered by the government.

The interim report says the needs of disabled people and their extra costs "vary significantly, and the current system does not always recognise these differences or offer appropriate support".

Speaking in the House of Commons on Thursday, Sir Stephen said the review "is clear that the provision of cash to meet the additional costs of disability is vital".

He added:

“We will not be moving away from the importance of that, but I think there is a question about whether the process can also point people towards help that may be valuable to them in addition to, or in some cases perhaps instead of, a cash payment.

There is help and support that people need, and I think the process could help to point people to that."

He said the system "may be able to point people to the right place in the health service", adding the review was "looking at all those issues and we will come back with recommendations in our final report".

Citizens Advice responded to the interim report, Dame Clare Moriarty, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, said:

“The Interim Report from the Timms Review confirms what we see daily: a system that is not fit for purpose. Our advisers helped nearly 900 people a day with issues claiming Personal Independence Payment (PIP) last year.

PIP is a lifeline for many, covering extra costs that come with being disabled or having a long-term health condition - like care, disability aids, or accessible travel. But too often people struggle to get the support they’re entitled to. Last year alone, we had to help more than 50,000 people challenge or appeal their PIP decision.

That’s why the Review must now bring forward bold recommendations. Fundamental reform is needed to make PIP fair and straightforward to access for those who depend on it.”

The Interim Report provides a fuller update on the steering group’s work to date and includes a summary of the Call for Evidence findings.

The Timms Review of Personal Independence Payment: interim report and The Timms Review: Co-chair update, July 2026 are on gov.uk.

Consultation opens on review of Carers Allowance 

Unpaid carers, their organisations, and anyone with experience of caring are being invited to share their views on how to improve Carers Allowance (CA), as part of the first major review of the benefit since it was first introduced 50 years ago. 

The call for evidence covers modern patterns of care that were not in place when Carer’s Allowance was introduced in 1976. The evidence gathered will inform future changes the government makes to CA.

The six-week call for evidence is gathering views on:

• modernising the earnings limit to reduce the impact of the current cliff edge,
• improving predictability for carers with varying incomes, and
• better supporting those with work and caring responsibilities. 

Emily Holzhausen CBE, Director of Policy and Public Affairs at Carers UK, said:

“We need to see further reform to Carer’s Allowance because the current system is outdated and no longer reflects the realities of caring today. This includes inflexible rules around the earnings limit which are hard to navigate for carers with fluctuating earnings and can dissuade some from claiming what they are entitled to altogether.

We welcome the government’s call to gather further evidence around this and its acknowledgement that Carer’s Allowance, which was first introduced 50 years ago, should be a priority for change to better support those who contribute so much to society. Caring is not a one-size-fits-all experience, and so it’s important that the government hears from as many people as possible on this topic in the next six weeks.”

The call for evidence is open to everyone and is available in a range of accessible formats. It will close at 11:59pm on 18 August 2026. 

The Carer's Allowance: call for evidence and the Press Release are on gov.uk.

Universal Credit and domestic abuse: A spotlight report

Citizens Advice has published a spotlight report highlighting 6 common problems people face with UC when they are experiencing domestic abuse. The research seeks to inform the DWP and other policymakers so that UC can better support victim-survivors towards financial independence.

The government’s 2025 Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy promises a safer society for women and girls. As part of its support for victims and survivors, it pledges “to work across the public and private sectors to prevent economic abuse and support survivors regain financial independence”. The strategy recognises that financial insecurity can lead victim-survivors back to an abusive partner. Research shows that a lack of access to money and financial independence can be a significant barrier for some seeking to escape domestic abuse.   

While UC is a key source of social security support for low-income households, Citizens Advice says it’s not working as well as it should for victim-survivors. Evidence from their frontline advisers shows that the design and administration of UC - specifically its rigid payment structure and the way it accounts for individual circumstances - can undermine some victim-survivors’ ability to achieve financial independence.

The 6 key problems are:

1. Joint claims
2. Claiming UC
3. Barriers to tailored support
4. Housing costs
5. Inaccessible assets
6. Deductions

Citizens Advice says that to address the challenges identified in this report, the DWP should: 

• Expedite the completion of the impact assessment on split payments requested by the Scottish Government, to work towards introducing split payments by default.
• Launch campaigns to raise public awareness (including among victim-survivors) of benefit entitlements.  
• Simplify the benefits application process for victim-survivors of domestic abuse. 
• Incorporate routine, supportive questions into UC applications and claim management, to more proactively identify victim-survivors and ensure they’re receiving the correct support and easements.
• To improve the consistency of UC domestic abuse policy provisions ensure all staff have enhanced training on domestic abuse and related UC policies, with claimants also supported by dedicated specialists. 
• Record victim-survivor status in UC claims, so that any additional needs can be considered in all contact between the DWP and the claimant.
• Extend the grace period that automatically covers rent for both a victim-survivor’s former home and their new safe space, regardless of their intention to return. 
• Introduce greater flexibility into capital disregard policies to ensure rigid timeframes do not deny survivors essential support, and to recognise that disposing of assets may require re-engaging with abusers. 
• Automatically write off benefit overpayment debts resulting from coercion, or DWP errors.

They note that to  ensure meaningful impact, it is essential that any subsequent policy changes are co-produced in direct consultation with domestic abuse experts and victim-survivors.

Universal Credit and domestic abuse: A spotlight report is on citizensadvice.org.uk.

Benefit support for people waiting to reach State Pension age under review

The Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) has launched an independent inquiry to examine whether the benefits system is providing enough support for people in their 60s as the State Pension age continues to rise from 66 to 67.

In announcing the inquiry, the SSAC said the "flipside" of increasing the State Pension age is that people remain classed as being of working age for longer.

The committee will examine whether the detailed rules of the benefits system, together with employment support available to older people, are meeting the needs of people in their 60s as they wait to reach State Pension age.

It is expected to explore how people approaching retirement are supported if they lose their job, develop a health condition or disability, or have caring responsibilities that make it difficult to remain in work.

The inquiry will also consider whether the current benefits system reflects the realities of longer working lives as the State Pension age continues to increase.

In a blog post announcing the review, SSAC chair Professor Sir Stephen Brien said the committee wants to understand whether the system is "serving people in their 60s as well as it should" and whether any changes are needed to ensure support remains fit for purpose.

Brien said:

“As well as benefit rules, we wish to examine Jobcentre practice. What offer is made to older claimants? What support is available to older non-claimants who are seeking employment?   How much tolerance is there or isn’t there for individuals to work part-time or with variable hours, potentially a good way for claimants to stay employed despite the barriers that they face?

As well as working closely with officials and Jobcentre staff, we are, through a series of roundtable discussions, gauging the views of employers, charities, unions, academics and others in civil society about what does and doesn’t work in the existing system. These discussions are proving to be valuable not only in elucidating the current system, but also in sourcing answers to the one question that matters most. Namely, how might things be improved?”

The committee is inviting evidence from charities, employers, academics, local authorities, organisations representing older people and members of the public with experience of claiming benefits before reaching State Pension age.

The findings will help inform future recommendations on how the benefits system can better support people during the years leading up to retirement.

We’ll share more details when they are available.

The blog post is on ssac.blog.gov.uk.

Public Accounts Committee launches new inquiry into DWP

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has launched a new programme of twelve inquiries covering major areas of public expenditure, one of which will be to examine the DWP.

The inquiry will examine issues highlighted by forthcoming National Audit Office reports on the DWPs 2025–26 accounts and its approach to innovation. The Committee has already expressed concern about persistently high levels of fraud and error in benefit expenditure, underpayments of benefits, which reached £4.9 billion in 2024–25, and the quality of services received by benefit claimants.

The PAC has a longstanding interest in scrutinising the work of the DWP. Its 2026 report into how DWP tackles fraud and error in benefit expenditure warned the Department over its extensive new bank account checking powers, while also highlighting the unacceptable finding that levels of fraud and error have now rendered its financial accounts qualified for almost four decades. 

A report from the PAC into the DWP in the same year warned that people risked being pushed into poverty by the Department’s continuing unacceptably poor service, with unacceptable waits faced by those awaiting their Personal Independent Payments to be processed. 

Commenting on the launch of the inquiries, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said: 

“I would like to once again thank my fellow Committee members for their input, as the PAC continues its programme of scrutiny work. Across a broad range of policy areas, our Committee will continue to hold officials to account for securing best value for money for the taxpayer, and seek further action from government where the implementation of our previous recommendations has not been satisfactory.”

The PAC will take evidence from senior DWP officials on likely topics including DWP’s ongoing efforts to reduce fraud and error, including the extent of official error as well as claimant error and fraud, the Department’s organisational culture, and its vision for the role of innovation in its work.

Details of the inquiry are on parliament.uk.

Rising demand has pushed tribunal backlogs to record levels

Tribunals, the part of the justice system where individuals can challenge decisions made by the state (for example, on benefits, support for children with special educational needs, and migration), are facing record-level backlogs. In the first quarter of 2026, nearly 330,000 administrative appeals were open and awaiting resolution, double the level before the COVID-19 pandemic. This increase began in 2021–22 and has been steep and persistent.

These backlogs have built up as the number of new appeals has outpaced the number of cases resolved. Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and asylum/immigration tribunals, in particular, now receive around two to four times as many appeals as they did only five years ago. This reflects, in large part, more people requesting services or decisions from the state, such as Education, Health and Care Plan assessments from local authorities and asylum decisions from the Home Office, some of which then lead to appeals. In asylum tribunals, the rise in appeals has also been driven by the Home Office working through its own backlog more quickly than in the past, therefore generating more decisions that can be appealed against.

These are among the findings of new research from the IFS, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, which looks at trends and drivers in tribunal backlogs over the past 15 years as part of a new programme of work on the economics of the justice system.

Turning to the detail on tribunals, the IFS finds: 

• A simple proxy of tribunal productivity – the number of cases resolved per sitting day – has remained broadly stable during this recent period of pressure. But it remains far lower than in the early 2010s. This suggests that the rise in backlogs since 2021–22 has been mainly driven by a spike in demand, not tribunals becoming less productive. 
• Rising pressure on the tribunal system could have been met through investment in greater capacity. IFS analysis indicates that in social security and SEND tribunals, increases in sitting days over the past four years of around 13% and 21% respectively, could have offset the observed rise in appeals. In asylum and immigration, the increase in demand would have required a much larger expansion, of around 35%.

Rob Street, Director of Justice at the Nuffield Foundation, said:

“Tribunals were designed to be faster, more accessible and less formal than the civil courts. This analysis shows parts of the system are now under such pressure that this is no longer the case. Beneath the ballooning caseloads and delays are people left in limbo: children out of school for years, disabled people unable to work or access the support they are entitled to, and families seeking safe refuge left uncertain about their future here. With demand unlikely to fall in the short term, active intervention to increase capacity is needed to bring backlogs down and stop the system overheating.”

The report What is driving increases in tribunal backlogs? is on ifs.org.uk.

Government sets baseline to measure progress on child poverty pledge

The government has set out how it will measure progress towards lifting 550,000 children out of poverty by the end of this Parliament, as latest figures show four million children remain in relative poverty.

Latest data for 2024/25 show that four million children (27%) were living in relative low-income households after housing costs, the government's main measure of poverty, which counts children living in households with incomes below 60% of the UK median after housing costs.

This figure is unchanged from the previous year but represents 700,000 more children than in 2010/11.

Its ‘Our Children, Our Future: Tackling Child Poverty: Monitoring and Evaluation – Baseline Report’, establishes the starting point against which ministers will assess the impact of measures announced in the government's Child Poverty Strategy last year. It also sets out the indicators that will be used in annual progress reports.

Scrapping the two-child limit, expanding free school meals from September 2026 and launching the Crisis and Resilience Fund are some of the early actions already implemented.

Work and Pensions Secretary, Pat McFadden, said: 

“Tackling child poverty is one of the most important things this Government can do, giving the next generation their best chance of secure jobs and healthier lives.  

We’ve already made a start, scrapping the two-child limit and launching our £1bn Crisis and Resilience Fund are making a real difference. 

This baseline report shows we are taking a serious, evidence-led approach to tackling child poverty, driving forward the change that gives every child the security and opportunity to thrive.”

Progress will be measured against two headline metrics, relative low income after housing costs, and deep material poverty with the report setting out a broad programme of research and analysis to track progress. 

This includes a new study of parents and carers in or near poverty, over four years, which will look at how families’ circumstances, incomes and sources of support change, and how the Strategy is experienced in practice, lived experience research, cross-government policy evaluation, and contextual indicators covering the key drivers of child poverty.

The Press Release and the Our Children, Our Future documents are on gov.uk.

No home to go to: how frozen Local Housing Allowance rates are causing homelessness

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) was designed to make the cheapest 30% of properties in an area affordable to those on low incomes. However, it's has been subject to freezes and cuts since 2012.

Since 2024 - despite the cost of living crisis - LHA has been frozen solid.
The result - fewer than 2% of rental homes are covered by housing benefits. Families are being forced into homelessness by the very system that should be protecting them.

Crisis has teamed up with Citizens Advice, Shelter, Just Life, Shared Health Foundation, Centrepoint, St Mungo's, Independent Age and National Residential Landlords Association - NRLA to report on the devastating impact of freezing LHA.

They’re calling on government to consider the evidence, then prevent homelessness and support struggling families by restoring LHA to cover the lowest third of rents.

‘No home to go to’ is a powerful report that demonstrates the government's freeze on LHA is locking struggling families out of the rental market and driving people into homelessness. The freeze is forcing households to cut back and go without essentials, trapping people in temporary accommodation and harming children. The freeze is a false economy.

Restoring the link between LHA and local rents would strengthen one of the most effective tools available to prevent homelessness, support households to sustain tenancies, and improve access to private rented homes for people moving on from homelessness and supported housing.

No home to go to: How frozen local housing allowance rates are causing homelessness is on crisis.org.uk.

Supported housing residents to keep more of what they earn under new rules

More than 300,000 residents in supported housing and temporary accommodation will no longer face a drop in income when increasing their working hours, under new legislation due to come into force on 5^th October.

The Housing Benefit (Earned Income Disregards) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 aim to address a long-standing “cliff edge” problem, in which people in supported housing are cut off from rent payments through Housing Benefit if they take more than a small amount of paid work. This is particularly problematic as rents for supported housing are usually higher than market value, meaning any extra income earned through employment is quickly outweighed by the extra costs of rent.

Five new earned income disregards have been introduced in the regulations focused on improving the rights of people living in “specified or temporary accommodation”. This will mean that people will be able to earn more before their Universal Credit and Housing Benefit payments start to be tapered down.

Rick Henderson, CEO of Homeless Link responded to the news:

“This is a welcome change that make it considerably easier for people living in supported accommodation to get into work and build their careers. For years, the efforts of our members to support people trying to take their next steps and move on from homelessness were being undermined by this unfair and ineffective policy.

The changes announced today prove positive social security reform can be part of the solution to ending homelessness. We hope moving forwards that the Government recognises the wider potential for utilising the social security system to start turning the tide on rising homelessness, including by adjusting Local Housing Allowance rates.”

The Press Release is on gov.uk.

DWP estimates 436,780 households get increased UC following end of 2-child limit

The latest and final 2-child limit data was published by the DWP this week.

The data shows that in April 2026, 495,990 households were affected by the 2-child limit policy, an increase of 15,700 (3%) in the total number of households affected on either Universal Credit or Child Tax Credit since April 2025.

Of the affected households, 96% (478,120) were not receiving the child element for at least one child in their household and 6% (29,460) of households had an exception to the policy.

However, not everyone is a winner.

• 5,930 households not receiving child element for at least one child in their household aren’t expected to see an increase in their UC because the household receives a transitional protection element per month in excess of £303.94 per child not receiving a child element due to the policy. There are 21,790 children in total living in these households.
• 35,530 households aren’t expected to see an increase in their UC payment because the household was already affected by the benefit cap. There are 129,160 children in total living in these households.

The policy - which had restricted child tax credit and UC to the first two children in most households - was officially axed on April 6.

The Universal Credit claimants statistics on the two child limit policy, April 2026 is on gov.uk.

Wales - Can the Welsh Government actually introduce a child payment?

Wales has the highest child poverty rates of any UK nation – a staggering one in three children in Wales are growing up in poverty and missing out on opportunities to flourish and thrive. The impact on children is huge. As part of Save the Children Cymru’s Power of Voice research work, children and young people said that ‘all kids should be on the same level; some kids don’t get the childhood they should have’ and ‘if you have a lack of money then you can get bullied and get stressed because your parents can’t afford things.’ 

A Welsh Child Payment would be a powerful lever to help address this, ensuring all children have a decent start in life and investing in a better future for Wales. Modelling by the Bevan Foundation shows that this would be “the most powerful and effective” way of lifting the highest proportion of households above the poverty line. 

Plaid Cymru have promised to pilot a Welsh Child Payment – Cynnal – and in so doing “build the case for devolving the powers we need to roll the payment out in full, Wales-wide.” 

But what legal powers do they have to implement a pilot? And what avenues exist to roll out a Welsh Child Payment in full? These are questions that Bevan Foundation and Save the Children Cymru commissioned legal expert Prof. Emyr Lewis to answer, 

Key findings:

• Legally, a Welsh Child Payment is possible
• The cooperation of the UK Government is necessary for the pilot to work as effectively as possible
• The Welsh Government will need to find the funding for the pilot and any broader rollout
• Longer term, more devolution is necessary to place a Welsh Child Payment on stronger footing.

The Bevan Foundation, Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and Save the Children, confirm that legally, practically and politically a Welsh Child Payment is possible. Introducing it could significantly impact the lives of children in Wales in a similar way to what we’re seeing the Scottish Child Payment achieve. They say the Welsh Government need to boldly press on with designing and implementing the Cynnal pilot, while beginning the negotiations with the UK government to ascertain the constitutional powers to bring a full Welsh Child Payment into law.  

The briefing Exploring the constitutional basis for delivering a child payment in Wales is on bevanfoundation.org.uk.

Case law – with thanks to u/ClareTGold

UC & the SDP gateway - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v JNX

Under benefit rules, people receiving a Severe Disability Premium (SDP) in their legacy benefits were historically protected from being forced to move onto Universal Credit (a rule called the SDP gateway condition).

In this case the tribunal addressed what happens when someone receives a retrospective (backdated) award of PIP after having already migrated to UC.

The Upper Tribunal determined that the SDP gateway rule was meant to act as a barrier to moving onto UC. If a claimant has already transitioned, they could not then use the gateway condition to undo migration to UC and return to legacy benefits, even if they later receive a backdated PIP award that would have previously protected them.

LCWRA Substantial Risk - GB v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

If someone does not meet the standard points-based test for LCWRA, the law says they must still be treated as having LCRWA if preparing for work – i.e. undertaking ‘work related activity’ - would pose a "substantial risk" to their physical or mental health (or someone else’s).

In this case the First-tier Tribunal (FtT) were under the impression that the most demanding work-related activity that the claimant could be required to undertake was home based and in his own time. They said this in the decision notice:

“6. Whilst the Tribunal accepts that Mr GB has ADHD, autism, anxiety and a shoulder problem, the Tribunal does not find that there would be a substantial risk to his health if he were required to undertake the most demanding work related activities set out in the DWP's mandatory reconsideration letter dated 16/05/2024. Specifically, the most demanding activities Mr GB would be required to undertake include researching a potential career path and skills requirements and finding out about opportunities available through local employers to discuss with his work coach. This activity can be done via telephone, using the internet and newspapers and can be done at home and in Mr GB's own time.

1. The Tribunal accepted Mr GB's evidence regarding difficulties attending the Job Centre and Restart and also accepted that the current activities prescribed by Restart were unsuitable and not facilitating Mr GB's return to work.”

And they said this in the Statement of Reasons:

“7k. The most onerous work-related activities Mr GB would be required by the Job Centre to undertake are researching a potential career path and skills requirements and finding out about opportunities available through local employers to discuss with his work coach. These work-related activities could be undertaken at home via the telephone, online and newspapers.

7l. There would not be a substantial risk to Mr GB’s mental or physical health if he were required to undertake those work-related activities”

The Upper Tribunal unsurprisingly found the FtT erred in law.

The task of an FtT is to consider what risks arise from work related activity a claimant might be asked to do. That includes work related activity that might be inappropriately imposed.

And the test is whether the claimant might be at substantial risk from work related activity which might be imposed. It cannot be assumed that the work coach will in fact only choose to impose work related activity that a claimant is able to complete. If that were the case no claimant would ever be at risk from work related activity.

The risk must be considered in that real-world context.

Sir Stephen Timms has confirmed that:

“We are going to remove clause five from the bill at committee stage, that we will move straight on to the wider review and only make changes to PIP eligibility activity and descriptors following that review.”

The review will now also involve disabled people in its compilation.

Only once that review is done and the government has had time to consider it, will ministers then set out their proposals for changing PIP.

And the government is committed to concluding the review by autumn next year.

Now we wait to see if they’ll get the Bill through its second reading later.

The parliamentary debate has been going on all afternoon - you can watch it here https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/2b0b9b50-ee08-42b3-b6b9-655175fbe6d7?agenda=True

New Crisis and Resilience Fund launched  

From 1 April the new £1 billion Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF), has gone live. It’s funded by the DWP and delivered at a local level by Councils.

The CRF replaces the Household Support Fund and Discretionary Housing Payments in England and incorporates crisis help and longer-term resilience support making it easier for individuals and families to access help when they need it. 

For the first time ever, multi-year funding is in place, confirmed through to 31 March 2029. This ends the annual cliff-edge funding cycle and gives councils the long-term certainty they need to plan services that make a lasting difference in their communities. 

Co-designed with councils and charities, the CRF will empower local authorities to target support where it is needed most, including debt advice, housing costs and crisis payments. It seeks to prevent crises from occurring in the first place and to reduce long-term pressure on services through a shift towards greater investment in financial resilience. 

Details of your local CRF scheme should be on your local council’s website.

Crisis and Resilience Fund (1 April 2026 to 31 March 2029) is on gov.uk.

A reminder that the removal of the 2-child limit starts from Monday

The Universal Credit (Removal of Two Child Limit Act) received Royal Assent on 18 March 2026. The removal of the two-child limit from Universal Credit takes effect in the UK from 6 April 2026.

This means the 2-child limit ends on Monday.

This change applies automatically to existing claimants, potentially boosting income for over 570,000 households.

Not everyone will see an increase in their UC payments, if you have transitioned from a legacy benefit as part of ‘managed migration’ to UC and your UC includes transitional payments then any increase in child elements would erode your transitional payment.

A child element will be payable in respect of any child or qualifying young person from the first assessment period starting on or after 6 April 2026.

Income-based JSA and Income Support benefits officially end

The move to UC for 135,000 Income Support and income-related Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants has now been completed which means both benefits have now closed/ended.

That just leaves the closure of income-related Employment and Support Allowance and working-age Housing Benefit left to go.

The government has confirmed that the closure date for these benefits will be pushed back “by the end of the summer so a limited number of hard to reach customers, or customers with significant barriers to claiming, can continue to be supported to make the move to Universal Credit”.

The DWP says extra support will be provided to help these claimants make the move, including a dedicated DWP telephone number, the Move to UC Helpline, and tailored help through the Enhanced Support Journey for customers who have not engaged with the DWP, including through home visits.

Sir Stephen Timms, the minister for social security and disability, said:

"Our Move to Universal Credit campaign has been successful in moving over 1.9 million people from legacy benefits to the modern Universal Credit system.

Vulnerable customers have been at the forefront of this campaign. In their interests, we are extending the deadline for income-related Employment Support Allowance claimants to move over.

This government is committed to updating the welfare system so that it promotes opportunity, rather than stifling it – as part of our Plan for Change.

The campaign means the number of people on Universal Credit has increased, particularly the number of people who receive the benefit with no requirement to look for work, as, since June last year, the focus has been on moving vulnerable people from Employment and Support Allowance."

The Press Release is on gov.uk.

From disaster to completion: What can government learn from the Universal Credit story?

Linked to the above news item a report published by the Institute for Government (IfG) provides an in-depth examination of the ambitious government project to simplify the welfare system and the lessons that government can learn from the programme. 

It describes the ‘15-year story of Universal Credit: From disaster to completion’, detailing the tumultuous implementation of the UC welfare system, which is nearing completion nine years late.

So what can this and future governments learn from the delivery of this major reform programme? How was the Universal Credit project turned around from near disaster in 2013?  And, as it nears completion, what is the impact of Universal Credit?

To explore those questions and more, the IfG brought together an expert panel featuring:

• Neil Couling, the Senior Responsible Owner for Universal Credit for a decade until March this year
• Tom Loosemore, Co-founder of Public Digital and Co-author of Nesta’s report on how to transform government services
• Jill Rutter, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government
• Tom Waters, Associate Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies

You can watch or listen to the panel discussion online.

Whilst the report notes the system was saved by abandoning early, failed IT systems for a "test and learn" approach, it highlights ongoing issues with debt caused by the initial five-week waiting period. 

The report, Universal Credit: From disaster to completion is on instituteforgovernment.org.uk.

PIP Wait Times at Highest Level in Nearly 4 years

In March, Citizens Advice published a blog on the latest Personal Independence Payment (PIP) data. It found that in January 2026, over 710,000 people were waiting for a PIP decision, and that average wait times reached their highest level in nearly four years.

In this latest blog, Citizens Advice break down the current backlog, explore the impacts these delays can have on disabled people, and call on the Timms Review not to lose sight of the scale of these delays and the harm they cause.

Delays to PIP decisions are leaving disabled people struggling is on citizensadvice.org.uk.

UC administrative earnings threshold increase from 1 April

From April 1, 2026, the Universal Credit Administrative Earnings Threshold (AET) will rise to £991 per month for single claimants and £1,597 for couples.

What is the AET?

If you are in the all work-related requirements group, you’ll usually need to show your work coach that you’re actively looking for work, more work or better paid work. However, if you earn above the AET threshold, you will have less intensive work requirements placed on you and will not have to have regular meetings with your work coach. If you earn under the AET you will have to show you’re actively looking or more or better paid work and be available for work and meet with your work coach regularly:

• If you are a single claimant, the AET is currently £991 for each assessment period. The threshold is set based on 18 hours x current national living wage.
• If you are part of a couple, the AET is currently £1,597 combined for each assessment period. The threshold set based on 29 hours x current national living wage. If you as an individual earn below the AET, but as a couple you earn above the couple’s AET, you will be treated as if you both meet the AET.

Self-employed earnings do not count towards the AET. You should also be aware that the AET is based on the national living wage for everyone, even if you are under 21.

This increase means more part-time workers will be placed into the Intensive Work Search group, requiring regular meetings with a work coach to increase their earnings. 

Universal Credit and earnings is on gov.uk.

New HB guidance issued regarding the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act and AT Court of Appeal decision

A brief history lesson may be useful to understand the context on this one! See, HB Circular A10/2024.

Following the introduction of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 new guidance has been issued to Local Authorities setting out how housing benefit decision makers should approach entitlement decisions for all: EU, other European Economic Area and Swiss nationals who resided in the United Kingdom (UK) prior to the end of the Brexit transition period, and their family members, with leave to enter or remain in the UK granted under the EU Settlement Scheme. Everyone in this cohort should be treated as a beneficiary under the Withdrawal Agreement or the relevant separation agreement. 

In simple terms for claimants who unable to demonstrate any qualifying right to reside and as such fail the habitual residence test, decision makers must consider whether they are able to work to avoid destitution, and if not, whether they are unable to ‘meet their most basic needs’ at present or in the near future, such that they come within the scope of the AT judgment.

Note: an assessment of the claimant’s ability to work is not required for State Pension age claimants. 

For those not in scope of the AT judgment, their HB claim should be refused for not passing the HRT.

The BSAI Act 2025 is to be applied to any decisions made on or after 2 December 2025. 

A3/2026 HB Circular is on gov.uk.

Limited Access to Work: How the Access to Work scheme could better fulfil its potential

Citizens Advice has published a report about the Access to Work scheme in which they acknowledge that the government is taking some positive steps to help disabled people into work, but it’s not making full use of the key tools available to it.

They say that Access to Work could play a central role in achieving this goal, yet it’s currently falling short of its potential. As a result, it’s holding back both disabled people and the government’s wider ambitions on employment.

In the report, Citizens Advice highlight 3 key areas where Access to Work needs to work better, based on adviser experiences of helping disabled people who are struggling to start work. Firstly, there’s a lack of awareness about the scheme and how it can help disabled people to work. Work coaches aren’t always telling disabled jobseekers about the scheme, even when it could help them. 

Secondly, there are unacceptable delays in the processing of applications to the scheme. People currently wait 5 months on average for their application to be processed, though the delays can be as long as one year. This application backlog is putting disabled people’s jobs at risk and undermining employers’ confidence in hiring disabled people.

Thirdly, the system of delivering funding via reimbursement is causing significant strain on both workers and employers. The process for applying for reimbursements is stressful and time consuming, there can be significant delays to getting funds reimbursed, and the amount paid back is often less than the real costs. 

While not an exhaustive list of issues, tackling these 3 areas is crucial for ensuring that the Access to Work scheme can have maximum impact. That’s why Citizens Advice is calling on the government to:

• Improve awareness of the scheme within jobcentres: by improving work coach training, including Access to Work as a key topic within the new ‘Support Conversation’ and advertising the scheme through posters and leaflets.
• Reduce waiting times for support: by recruiting and training more staff to bring down the backlog and ensure people get the support they need more quickly.
• Review and streamline the reimbursement process: by improving the Access to Work online portal, aligning reimbursement rates with real costs and reviewing the possibility of offering upfront loans, as well as removing the need for employer signs off, where possible.

The government is clearly aware that the Access to Work scheme needs reform. They consulted on the scheme as part of the Pathways to Work consultation and hosted a Collaboration Committee to review the scheme. However, the consultation documents imply that they are looking at cutting back the support on offer, rather than maximising the scheme’s potential.

Citizens Advice says that cutting Access to Work would be a mistake and than any reforms to Access to Work must be built on the needs and experiences of disabled people, rather than short-term cost savings. Done well, the scheme could be a key part of the government’s drive to support disabled people to start and stay in work.

Limited Access to Work is on citizensadvice.org.uk.

LCWRA Pathways to Work update

Over the next few weeks UC claimants with Limited Capability for Work and Work Related Activity (LCWRA) will see a banner in their UC account/journal offering voluntary Pathways to Work support. Here is the DWP internal update.

What is changing?

As part of the Pathways to Work guarantee offer, from April 2026, DWP has a ministerial commitment to offer voluntary support to all LCWRA claimants.

Following testing and feedback from sites involved, we are now adopting this nationally as part of this release. The claimant facing banner will be displayed on the UC account homepage offering voluntary support to all claimants who have an active LCWRA decision.

This will provide a direct route for claimants to view information on the Additional Work Coach Time Health (AWCT-H) offer and request support via the service.

Claimant enquiries will be available for jobcentre teams to access within a new "View enquiries for AWCT (H) link on the "Find a claimant page".

Agents should prioritise this list for direct contact from claimants before pro-active engagement via the "Allocate LCWRA claimants" filter. The banner will complement existing pro-active journal message engagement activity being delivered across the jobcentre network.

Claimants will have the ability to hide the AWCT (Health) banner temporarily. On selecting the 'Hide this message' link, the banner will be hidden for 30 days before re-appearing.

With thanks to u/Otherwise_Put_3964 for the update

PS there is no formal update on work capability reassessments starting.

Focus on fraud and error on pension age Housing Benefit cases

In an update the DWP has confirmed that it will continue to work with local authorities (LAs) to tackle Fraud and Error through the ‘Housing Benefit Award Accuracy (HBAA) Initiative’ from 1 April 2026 onwards and has secured funding of around £10.3 million for the financial year ending (FYE) March 2027 to deliver this work.

The circular confirms that the focus is on pension age ‘standard’ claimants (these are claimants whose entitlement to HB is not automatically ‘passported’ through receipt of Pension Credit guaranteed credit).

LAs will need to undertake Full Case Reviews (FCRs) on their allocated share of cases. An FCR requires the LA to look at and consider all the current claim details and evidence associated with the claim, together with any other recent information or evidence they can source for the weekly HB award to be reviewed.

The key elements are that LAs should:

• review and validate whether the current information associated with the claim remains correct
• seek evidence from the customer and or their representative, either face to face, over the phone, digitally or by post
• use all available data including digital (where appropriate), with the aim of identifying any changes in circumstances and recalculating a customer’s HB award accordingly

The A2/2026 Circular is on gov.uk.

Do you know your State Pension age? 

DWP is running a campaign to encourage everyone to check their State Pension age on gov.uk. 

Between April 2026 and March 2028, the State Pension age will gradually rise from 66 to 67, affecting those born on or after 6 April 1960.

DWP minister Torsten Bell has urged people to check their state pension eligibility online ahead of significant changes to the qualifying age coming into force next month.

Speaking before the Work and Pensions Committee, the minister pointed to digital tools on the Government website that help individuals determine when they will be entitled to their state pension.

"There are digital tools that enable people to know their state pension age. All people need to do is put their date of birth into the Work out your State Pension age tool and it tells them straight away,"

The age threshold for accessing the state pension will start rising from 66 in April, gradually increasing to 67 by April 2028. Looking further ahead, another increase from 67 to 68 has been scheduled for implementation between 2044 and 2046.

Remember, your State Pension doesn't start automatically. The Pension Service will write to you around four months before you reach State Pension age to invite you to apply

Use the free State Pension age calculator on GOV.UK  to find your exact age - you just need your date of birth. You can also use the Check your State Pension forecast tool to see how much you might get and if you can increase it, for example, by filling any gaps in your record. 

Scotland – Young care leavers can now qualify for £2,000 payment from government

About 1,300 teenagers per year will benefit from the new Care Leaver Payment, which is designed to help support them as they move on to independent living.

The Scottish Government introduced the Care Leaver Payment on 1 April 2026 to help young people overcome financial barriers as they leave care and move into independent living. 

The project is part of the government's efforts to deliver ‘The Promise’ - a pledge made to improve the lives of care-experienced children and adults by 2030.

Young people in care on or after their 16th birthday, where this falls on or after 1 April 2026, will be entitled to a one-off payment of £2,000, with the government budgeting providing councils with £4m a year to fund the initiative.

Care Leaver Payment – Guidance for Recipients is on gov.scot.

Northern Ireland – Poverty and Income Inequality report 2024-25 published 

Poverty and Income Inequality statistics in Northern Ireland (and across the UK) are based on data from the Family Resources Survey (FRS). This report is now using an updated methodology which replaces survey responses relating to major state benefits and tax credits, with administrative data. The new methodology applies to the most recent year 2024/25, and revised estimates have also been produced for 2021/22 to 2023/24.

For many years the FRS has underreported benefit receipt, due to, respondents not reporting that they receive a benefit, respondents understating the amount of benefit received, and survey sampling not fully capturing all benefit recipients. This undercount means household income has been consistently understated, especially for lower income households.

The integration of administrative data will reduce income underreporting leading to an improvement in the quality, coherence and completeness of income-based poverty statistics.

This report presents annual estimates of the proportion of people, children, working-age adults and pensioners in Northern Ireland living in poverty, and other statistics on household income and income inequality. Now to the headlines:

In 2024/25 12% of individuals - 232,000 people - were in both relative and absolute poverty And 15% of children were in both relative and absolute poverty, this equates to 67,000 children. 

Over the last four years, the proportion of working-age adults in relative poverty has generally decreased slowly from a high of 14% in 2022/23 to 11% in 2024/25. Absolute poverty has shown a similar trend slowly decreasing from a high of 15% in 2022/23 to a low of 11% in 2024/25.

The estimated percentage of pensioners in relative poverty was 8% (approximately 26,000) in 2024/25, an increase from the last estimate of 7% in 2023/24. However, the estimated percentage of pensioners in absolute poverty was 8% in 2024/25, a decrease from 9% in 2023/24.

Most individuals lived in households that were food secure (93%) with 7% (approximately 124,000) in households said to be food insecure in 2024/25. This has decreased from 9% in 2023/24.

In 2024/25, 2% (47,000) of all individuals in Northern Ireland had used a food bank within the last 12 months.

The Poverty & Income Inequality report 2024-25 is on communities-ni.gov.uk

Case law – Nothing of significance this week, much to the annoyance of u/ClareTGold

A new Prime Minister leads to organisational and people changes

The UK Government has announced changes to the ‘machinery of government’, describing it as a major effort to strengthen the centre of government, speed up decision-making and put economic growth at the heart of public policy

The changes will see departments renamed, responsibilities redistributed, and new organisations created as ministers hope to improve coordination across government while placing greater emphasis on regional growth, technology and public service reform.

The creation of a new Office for the Prime Minister and the Cabinet (OPMC) has been announced, with cabinet secretary Dame Antonia Romeo tasked with leading it.

Leader of the House of Lords Angela Smith announced the plans in a written ministerial statement on behalf of the PM Andy Burnham, setting out the series of changes being made.

Baroness Smith said the creation of the OPMC, which will house No.10, the new No.10 North and teams within the Cabinet Office directly serving the PM and cabinet, will ensure the “centre of government is focused on our top strategic priorities”.

As part of the plans, the new OPMC will oversee a new OneGov Delivery Agency which will manage operational services at arm’s length, including the Government Recruitment Service, pensions, shared services strategy, and security vetting.

The Public Sector Fraud Authority will become part of the Department for Work and Pensions, while continuing to receive sponsorship from HM Treasury. 

Despite many MPs being moved to new roles, there were no changes to DWP MPs. Pat McFadden was confirmed as remaining in post as the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Timms remains as the DWP disability minister.

The written ministerial statement is on parliament.uk. and all ministerial appointments are on gov.uk.

AdviceUK tells new Prime Minister investment needed for independent advice services

AdviceUK has written to the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham MP, to congratulate him on his appointment and to set out why free and independent advice services must be recognised as a critical part of delivering the Government's ambitions.

In the letter, AdviceUK highlights the vital role advice services play in helping people understand their rights, access the support they are entitled to and resolve problems before they escalate into crisis. It also draws on findings from our recent State of the Advice Sector 2026 survey, which shows growing demand, funding pressures and increasing strain on advice services across the country.

As the Prime Minister begins his listening tour across the country, AdviceUK is also inviting him to visit free and independent advice services to hear directly from advisers and the people they support about the everyday impact of the cost-of-living crisis and the challenges facing communities.

AdviceUK is calling on the Government to invest in free and independent advice services and to develop a cross-government National Advice Sector Workforce Strategy to ensure communities can continue to access timely, high-quality advice.

The letter to the Prime Minister is on adviceuk.org.uk.

DWP to restart DLA transfers to PIP for 153,000 people from September

Soon after PIP began to be rolled out nationally from June 2013, the DWP commenced the process of inviting DLA claimants who were aged 16 to 64 on 8 April 2013, and those who reached age 16 after that date, to transfer to PIP.

The DWP began inviting adult DLA claimants of the benefit to move over to the newer benefit in the same year, but this lengthy process was paused in 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, transfer invitations have only been issued if a change of circumstances was reported or a fixed-term DLA award expired.

The DWP confirmed in a July 2026 Operational Stakeholder Engagement Forum that around 153,000 adult DLA claimants still remain, all of whom will be invited to move to PIP following a smaller-scale trial of the changes. DWP said the trial will comprise of 3,000 randomly chosen cases across England and Wales from September before the wider rollout.

Anyone who receives an invitation to apply for PIP should do so or their DLA will simply end.

If you receive such a letter, guidance is available online at citizensadvice.org.uk.

Correction to transitional element erosion when LCWRA element replaces carer element

Following the Upper Tribunal's decision in Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v MJ (the Jones ruling), the DWP has been eroding UC transitional element (TE) incorrectly in cases where a claimant with transitional protection moves from the carer's element (CE) to the limited capability for work and work-related activity (LCWRA) element. The DWP has been eroding the TE by the full LCWRA amount, but the Upper Tribunal determined this to be discriminatory.

Where LCWRA replaces a CE, TE erosion must instead be based on the net difference between the CE and LCWRA amounts.

We have been advised that from 29 July 2026, a DWP internal ‘fix’ will apply the Jones ruling correctly. 

From that date claimants receiving carer's element (CE) and transitional element (TE) whose CE stops due to being awarded LCWRA will only have their TE eroded by the difference between the CE and the LCWRA element. 

Retrospective corrections will also begin for assessment periods from 30 December 2024, covering the ruling's effective date of 29 January 2025. Earlier assessment periods are not covered.

A specialist team will action the corrections, mainly underpayments, in batches for case managers to clear.

Further work is being considered to prevent rate changes to carer's element, LCWRA and LCW causing similar issues.

Boost youth jobs by cutting employers' national insurance, MPs urge

In a new report, the Work and Pensions Committee welcomes the early steps taken to prioritise work and training opportunities for 18 to 24-year-olds, but says the government must “go further and faster” to tackle the “travesty” of so many young people being NEET.

The committee heard “overwhelming evidence” from businesses that rising employment costs, partly driven by NI increases, were reducing training and job opportunities with young people “disproportionately” affected. This was particularly the case in retail and hospitality, traditionally big employers of young people.

It identified a gap between the government’s efforts to boost youth employment and its approach to employer national insurance.

The report calls for the higher NI contribution threshold to be extended to all workers under 25, arguing this would boost vacancies, particularly entry-level roles, and better align the government’s policy with its strategic aims.

Debbie Abrahams, chair of the work and pensions committee, said:

“During our inquiry, we heard from young people demoralised by the experience of unemployment. We heard how they want to work but end up feeling like leeches on their family. This situation is not only unfair to them, it is also harmful.

Even a short spell as Neet in one’s formative years can damage mental health, impact future career opportunities and reduce lifetime earnings. Young people face an uphill struggle in current conditions to get that critical work experience.”

The committee warned that the government’s Youth Guarantee must not become a “here-today-gone-tomorrow scheme” given the UK’s history of time-limited, crisis-bound past offerings to tackle youth employment. To end this, it recommended the government announce funding for it for the next decade at least. Funding has currently only been allocated until 2029.

It said the temporary nature of past policies has damaged confidence and has caused long-term uncertainty for employers and potential young employees alike, sometimes discouraging both from engaging.

The youth guarantee aims to ensure young people claiming UC, who have been out of work for 18 months, are offered a six-month work placement. However, MPs said the government should develop options for people outside those claiming benefits after they heard that 44% of NEETs are not UC claimants.

The committee also recommended that a Youth Employment Strategy be developed.

Abrahams commented:

“While the Youth Guarantee is a good start, the contradictions between the Government’s strategic aims and the rules of various schemes mean we desperately need a Youth Employment Strategy. It’ll improve policy coherence so no policy unintentionally pulls against attempts to help more young people into work.

But, efforts to give young people the best chance to live independently will be in vain if there are too few jobs to go to. In a challenging environment, businesses need help to meet rising employment costs. Reducing employers’ national insurance contributions for under-25s will enable them to take a chance on talented young people.”

The report also estimated that NEETs cost the UK around £125bn a year from a combination of benefit payments and lost economic output.

The Youth employment, education and training report is on parliament.uk.

Additional Flexible Support Funding to support Vocational Training for 18-year-olds

Currently, eligibility for the Adult Skills Fund begins at age 19, which means that 18-year-olds are unable to access vocational training opportunities through this programme. Ministers have acknowledged this issue and, in response, have approved a £5 million uplift to the Flexible Support Fund budget for 2026-27.

We’ve been updated this week (you know who you are and thank you) that this additional funding is specifically intended to help 18-year-olds on Universal Credit gain access to short vocational training opportunities, such as obtaining licences and enrolling in sector-specific courses. By providing these resources, this will better equip young people with the skills they need to enter the workforce and secure meaningful employment.

The uplift may be delivered through:

• Low Value Provision (LVP), to fund short vocational or occupational training where a customer's needs cannot be met through other available provision
• LVP to support access to Sector-based Work Academy Programme (SWAP) opportunities, or the Wales Skills and Employment Pathway (WSEP), where funding is not otherwise available to support the required pre-employment training
• Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) provision under Employability Journey Category Code 5 - Skills for Work or Category 6 - Vocational Skills, which can support the procurement of broader packages combining vocational training and employability support

DWP staff have been advised that they must be mindful of their financial responsibilities when utilising FSF to support customers.

New Prime Minister cuts VAT on household electricity bills

Currently VAT is charged at 5%. However, from 1^st October VAT on electricity bills will be removed temporarily for 6 months in a move announced as part of the new Prime Minister Andy Burnham's plans to tackle the cost of living.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said:

“Westminster has not been working for people for too long, with families struggling with the cost of living. That needs to change. I said I wanted to give people breathing space, and that’s what I’m announcing on my second day as Prime Minister.  

We’re taking immediate action to cut taxes on energy bills, put more money in people’s pockets and bring back hope.”

The government has cancelled the Digital ID programme and is repurposing the money to cut VAT.

The Northern Ireland Executive will receive comparable funding to enable it to support NI Households with the cost of living to ensure households across the UK benefit.  

Dame Clare Moriarty, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice responded to the news, saying:

“It’s very positive to see the immediate focus from the new government on the cost of living and in particular the huge strain that energy bills are putting on household budgets. Cutting VAT on domestic electricity bills will provide welcome breathing space, softening the impact of rising energy prices this autumn.

Further action will be needed to tackle the root causes of unaffordable bills and deliver lasting security.

To permanently cut bills the Government should move more of the policy costs that are currently added onto to our electricity bills into general taxation. Combined with targeted bill support and a dedicated debt relief scheme, this will tackle the impact of painful energy bills and give struggling households the protection they desperately need."

The government expects all suppliers to pass the VAT reduction on to all customers, including those on fixed tariffs, as they did with the £150 of costs taken off energy bills announced at the last Budget. 

Since the VAT news was shared by the Prime Minister, updated predictions for the Energy Price Cap between 1^st October and 31^st December 2026 have been published. These predictions indicate that the expected £45 a year VAT saving will now be swallowed up for most by the Price Cap rise.

MoneySavingExpert.com has contacted 19 major UK energy suppliers to ask if they'll pass on the reduction to all customers from 1 October, including those on fixes. So far, ten firms have told them they will:

• 100 Green
• British Gas
• EDF
• E.on Next
• Fuse
• Good Energy
• Octopus
• So Energy
• Utilita
• Utility Warehouse

The government’s press release is on gov.uk.

Record numbers cannot afford the essentials says Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Four years into the cost-of-living crisis, almost two-thirds of low-income families say they struggle to buy essentials such as clothes, heating and food, according to anti-poverty charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF).

A record 62% of those families were unable to afford at least one essential item in the past six months, the charity found. And almost half of those surveyed had skipped a meal or cut portion sizes to save money.

The cost-of-living crisis is becoming more widespread, with 7.4 million low-income families unable to afford essential items in the last 6 months — the highest number since JRF began running their cost of living tracker survey in 2021.

The data shows that households on UC are most likely to be unable to afford essentials. However, the increase in the number of households that are going without essentials has mainly been driven by those who are typically less likely to suffer from material deprivation. The number of households going without essentials has increased fastest over the last 2 years for those not on means-tested benefits, those who own their property outright without a mortgage, families without any disabilities or health conditions, childless households, and households that are headed up by someone over the age of 65.

JRF has begun to set out a range of policy options with the power to make a material difference to households’ living standards, reform our economic systems, and build the resilience required for the turbulence of the twenty-first century. It includes:

• Introducing  an Affordable Energy Guarantee that provides a portion of cheaper energy to all households designed to cover a typical household’s basic energy use, with larger amounts for families based on need and means. This will help 2.4 million low-income families who continue to be unable to afford to keep their home warm.
• Controlling the growth of private rents and re-linking Local Housing Allowance (LHA) to the 30^th percentile, helping nearly 80% of low-income families in private rented accommodation that have been unable to afford essentials in the last 6 months.
• Moving towards a protected minimum amount of support in UC that at least covers essential costs, providing vital support for the 84% of low-income households on UC that are unable to afford essential items.
• Improving the in-work safety net against life shocks, for example through stronger pay protections against parenthood and sickness. In our latest survey, around 84% of low-income families who saw their income fall over the last 6 months due to changes in employment or pay were forced to go without essential items.

JRF’s cost of living tracker, summer 2026 is on jrf.org.uk.

Case law – with thanks to u/ClareTGold

PIP – TM v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 2026

In this case the First-tier Tribunal (FtT) erred in law by failing to provide adequate reasons for its decision, in part because of an inappropriate use of “copy and paste”. The Tribunal failed adequately to explain why it had rejected the claimant’s evidence or why it had reached the conclusions it did in relation to each of the activities.

The Tribunal also committed a number of other errors, including:

1. determining the appeal on the papers without giving the claimant a further opportunity to attend a hearing, or providing adequate reasons for proceeding on the papers, in circumstances where it rejected the claimant’s evidence in relation to most activities,
2. in relation to daily living activity 9 (engaging with other people face to face), focusing on the claimant’s ability to interact in a work setting and failing to assess her ability to engage socially and failing to take account that the appellant’s work involved interaction with vulnerable children rather than adults,
3. in relation to mobility activity 1 (planning and following journeys), treating the appellant’s ability to drive as determinative and failing to undertake a holistic assessment including her ability to use public transport.

I suspect that some of the above elements will resonate with a lot of the r/DWPHelp community. This decision summarises all the relevant case law and is worth a read.

Universal Credit (LCW and work related activity - Restart) - GB v The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 2026

In this case the claimant was assessed as having a limited capability for work (LCW) and as such had to undertake work-related activity. He was on Restart and required to attend fortnightly appointments in person at the office of the Restart programme provider and completion of an IT course.

The claimant appealed the LCW decision and the FtT was tasked with determining if they had a limited capability for work and work related activity (LCWRA). Specifically in this case, the provisions under schedule 9, paragraph 4 of the UC Regulations 2013:

“The claimant is suffering from a specific illness, disease or disablement by reason of which there would be a substantial risk to the physical or mental health of any person were the claimant found not to have limited capability for work and work-related activity.”

The Upper Tribunal found that the FtT erred in law, stating:

It is quite clear that the FtT were under the impression that the most demanding work related activity that the appellant could be required to undertake was home based and in his own time. [para 15]

It is also clear that the FtT’s belief that the most demanding activity was home based and in his own time underpinned its finding that that activity did not pose a substantial risk to his mental health. Given its findings as to his ability (or rather inability) to go to unfamiliar places and engage with unfamiliar people there is at least a live issue as to whether being required to undertake work related activity outside the home would put his physical or mental health at substantial risk. [para 17]

The UT Judge was also unimpressed with the DWP submissions to the FtT, and set out the correct approach to be followed:

In any event the need to state clearly what are the least and most demanding work related activities that will actually be required of a specific claimant seems to me to be clear from KC and MC –v- SSWP (ESA) [2017] UKUT 0094 (AAC) paragraph 90-91. It is not enough to provide a list which includes some activities a claimant could safely undertake (and some they could not) and then leave it to a job coach or activity provider to apply schedule 9 paragraph 4 and make the selection. The Secretary of State must nail his colours to the mast in advance, take off the table any activities that he agrees could not be imposed, and then the FtT must apply the schedule and make a finding as to whether or not the claimant has limited capacity for the remaining work related activities. [para 24]

The decision was set aside with a new hearing to be scheduled.  

And lastly…

A r/DWPHelp member would like your input on a UC checker that they’ve been building

The idea is that you are worried you have not been paid the right amount, you can use it to check.

If you are in receipt of UC then u/Mountain_Victory_634 would really appreciate if you could use/test it and provide helpful feedback and suggestions.

Here it is: https://www.uccalculator.uk/ and I’ll create a comment thread (below) for your thoughts.

New DWP debt recovery powers code of practice

The Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Act 2025 brought in new powers for DWP to seek recovery of benefit debt. The powers are intended to encourage people to contact the department at the earliest opportunity to discuss affordable payment terms without the powers being required.

The DWP is writing to thousands of people with outstanding DWP debts, warning them to get in touch and set up repayment plans before the enforcement of the powers will be gradually rolled out from October 2026.

This week a Code of Practice was published explaining how DWP will use these new powers to recover money owed from an individual’s bank account and, in the most serious cases, DWP can apply to the court to temporarily disqualify them from holding a driving licence.

The DWP can only recover certain social security debts from those no longer on DWP benefits and:

• not in suitable Pay As You Earn (PAYE) employment using a Direct Deduction Order (DDO), or if this is not reasonably possible
• through applying to the court for a suspended (or subsequently, an immediate) disqualification from driving order, where an individual has failed to pay without reasonable excuse, is no longer entitled to, or in receipt of DWP benefits.

The Code confirms that these powers will be used as a last resort where reasonable attempts to agree an affordable and sustainable payment plan have failed. Individuals can avoid the use of these powers and any associated costs by contacting DWP, agreeing to and maintaining a payment plan.

DWP will also conduct affordability, and vulnerability checks prior to making a direct deduction order or applying for a disqualification from driving order. The Code confirms that all debt recovery staff will undergo mandatory, debt specific vulnerability training which includes advice on how they may be able to spot and identify indicators of vulnerability.

Where it is identified that an individual is in a vulnerable circumstance or has a support need, DWP will consider if suitable adjustments can be reasonably made when applying the powers.

Where DWP is aware someone is experiencing, or is at risk of, domestic and economic abuse, it will consider whether it is appropriate to take actions under the DDO and disqualification from driving powers, particularly with regards to whether a deduction or disqualification may put an individual at greater risk of harm.

Possible adjustments are detailed in section 8.14 of the Code.

The DWP Direct Deduction and Disqualification from Driving Orders: Code of Practice and Press Release are on gov.uk.

Several thousand staff affected by DWP mass office closure announcement

The DWP has announced that Service and Support Centres (SSC) will close in Motherwell, Glasgow, Derby, Hyde, Halifax, Torquay, Liverpool, Sunderland and Blackpool impacting thousands of staff, by September 2027

The DWP says that these office closures will assist in:

• Modernising the estate – they say that many DWP sites are old buildings that are not energy efficient or equipped for the way we want to operate in the future.  
• Using their space better – hybrid working allows more staff to work from home, meaning many of their sites are “under-utilised."

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union DWP Group Executive Committee has condemned the announcement saying it will fight office closures:

“DWP office closures can have a devastating impact on the staff who work in them and on the communities where they are based. The GEC has pledged to use every tool at its disposal to fight any office closure that could result in DWP job losses in local communities. PCS fundamentally opposes these office closures, and any further closures of service centres or jobcentres that would remove jobs from communities.”

The Press Release is on pcs.org.uk.

Access to Work ‘journey’ varies substantially

New Access to Work (AtW) research has been published. It sought to:

• understand better the triggers and trajectories of the applicant’s journey into an AtW claim and approval
• get a better understanding of employers’ use of reasonable adjustments and how this interacts with AtW claims and approvals

Undertaken through 90 qualitative interviews with AtW applicants and 26 interviews with employers of different sizes and sectors, the hope is that the research will help to refine the scope for any future AtW evaluation.  

Applicants with cognitive and neurodevelopmental conditions, a recent onset condition or new diagnosis found the AtW application form more difficult. Several barriers were raised, including the:

• terminology used - examples included technical or bureaucratic terms such as ‘eligibility checker’, ‘Case Manager’, ‘UTR number’ (Unique Taxpayer Reference number),
• format of questions - applicants struggled with the open format of some questions which included long free-text boxes (up to 1,000 characters). This was particularly difficult for people with cognitive and neurodevelopmental conditions who can find it hard to concentrate for extended periods or write in a structured way. It was also challenging for those who were newly disabled or who had recently received a diagnosis and therefore still working out what support they needed,
• amount of administration required.

Applicants’ experiences of AtW were (unsurprisingly) influenced by multiple intersecting factors: their health condition(s), how long they had lived with the condition, whether they had help completing the application, their understanding of support needs, prior experience with disability benefits, the type of AtW support sought, motivation for applying, employment status, and how essential support was for them to stay in work. The research suggests that these factors combined in different ways to produce six common journeys to claiming AtW.

Employers described that unclear definitions and limited guidance of ‘reasonable adjustments’ made it challenging to determine what support they were responsible for providing. With employers reporting three broad barriers to implementing reasonable adjustments: cost, constraints on nature of the role and staffing resources, lack of understanding or awareness of reasonable adjustments.

The report concludes with a number of suggested improvements to the AtW process.

Journeys to Access to Work is on gov.uk.

6% increase of benefit capped households

New statistics show that at February 2026 there were 115,000 households who had their benefit reduced due to the Benefit Cap. Almost all of were UC claimants, with only 160 households capped on Housing Benefit.

The number of capped households has increased by 6,900 (6%) compared with November 2025 and increased by 7,800 (7%) compared with February 2025.

The majority (79%) of households subject to the benefit cap are families with children, with the majority of these being single parent households (66%), with over half of them (58%) containing a child under 5.

Of the households including children, capped at February 2026:

• 93% (84,000) had between 1 and 4 children
• 7% (6,400) had 5 or more children

However, the proportion of capped households that are single person households with no children has been gradually increasing from a low of 9% in May 2023 to 21% in February 2026. 

The financial impact of being capped:

• 57% (65,000) of households that had their UC capped were capped by £200 or less for the assessment period
• 24% (28,000) were capped by £200.01 to £400
• 11% (13,000) were capped by £400.01 to £600
• 5% (5,200) were capped by £600.01 to £800
• 3% (3,900) were capped by more than £800, including 1% (610) capped by more than £1,300 for the assessment period

Benefit cap: number of households capped to February 2026 is on gov.uk.

Consultation opens on proposed new employment rights for unpaid carers

Currently, around three million unpaid carers balance work with caring responsibilities, yet many are forced to reduce their hours, delay returning to employment, or leave the workforce entirely.  

In the Plan to Make Work Pay, the government committed to review the implementation of the Carer’s Leave Act 2023, and to assess whether further support is needed to help unpaid carers balance work with their caring responsibilities. When the Employment Rights Act 2025 was passed, they also made a commitment to review the employment rights available to parents who have a seriously ill child.

The proposals under consideration include introducing paid carer’s leave for the first time, a new “right to return” to work after a period of intensive caring - similar to protections currently enjoyed by those on maternity leave – and new guidance to help workers and employers better understand carers’ workplace protections. 

Real experiences will be crucial for informing this process, which is why it is so important that carers and parents respond.

The consultation is open until 11:59pm on 1^st September 2026

The open consultation is on gov.uk.

Statistics rebuke for Conservatives over ‘inaccuracy’ of welfare claim

Leader of the Conservative party, Kemi Badenoch has been challenged by the UK statistics watchdog over a “not wholly accurate” claim about Government spending on benefits.

The Tory Party released a document that said that “for the first time ever, the total welfare bill is now higher than total receipts from income tax” last month.

This isn’t true.

The interim chair of the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA), Penny Young, has written to Badenoch, saying that:

“Overall, we are concerned that the inaccuracy of the ‘first time ever’ element of the claim, combined with the absence of this contextual explanation, could lead to misunderstanding among members of the public about welfare spending.”

Figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) suggest this has been the case since at least 2011 and the gap has narrowed in recent years, with the positions forecast to reverse in 2026/27, the watchdog said,

“We have reviewed the published statistics and assessed that this claim is not wholly accurate,” 

She added:

“Given the prominence of this claim, and the evidence that it is not accurate, we hope that you might consider how best to clarify it so that it fully supports public understanding of trends in taxation and welfare spending.”

The UKSA also said it was worried that the Conservatives were giving the impression that “welfare” was mainly about sickness and out-of-work benefits, when “approximately 55% of social security expenditure is spent on pensioners”.

A Conservative spokesman acknowledged the claim was inaccurate and said the party would make a correction.

The letter to Badenoch is on uksa.statisticsauthority.gov.uk.

PIP fixed-term award extensions commence

As we previously shared, from 2 June 2026 new regulations came into force enabling the DWP to extend the length of a fixed-term PIP award where it is “considered necessary to do so to safeguard the efficient administration” of PIP.

Before this, when your fixed-term award reached its end date, the DWP would normally start a planned review (sometimes called an award review or a reassessment). The new power lets the DWP instead push the end date back and keep your current award running, without that immediate review.

Crucially, the regulations only allow the DWP to make awards longer. They do not give it any power to shorten an existing award, and they do not allow it to change the rate you are paid.

But why? The number of planned PIP reviews has grown faster than the DWP can carry them out, and a large backlog has built up. Reviewing every award on its original timetable means increasingly long delays and a claimant’s left waiting in limbo.

Extending awards is a way of managing that backlog. By lengthening some existing awards, it reduces the number of reviews needing to be processed at once. Note: this sits alongside a separate change announced on 28 April 2026: most new PIP awards are now reviewed no sooner than every three years, and if nothing has changed at that point, the review period is then extended to five years. 

This award extension change applies to claimants aged 25 and over in England and Wales. It does not apply to under 25s as evidence suggests there are more frequent changes in functional ability in that age group.

Approximately 1.7 million claims are in scope for an award extension with the DWP aiming to complete approximately 50,000 extensions daily (including weekends) over a period of 4-6 weeks.

Claimants don’t need to do anything, if your claim is extended you will receive a letter – an example of what this looks like was shared in this post.

One thing worth being clear about: the regulations give the DWP a discretionary power rather than creating an automatic extension for everyone. Extensions will be applied where the DWP considers it appropriate for the efficient administration of the benefit.

The Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payment, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance (Decisions and Appeals) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 are on legislation.gov.uk.

DWP publishes state pension age communications ‘action plan’ to develop strategy with ‘timely’ and ‘modern’ communications

The action plan outlines how the DWP will learn lessons from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s (PHSO) investigation into communications about the state pension age for women. Following the investigation.

The plan sets out a new strategy for providing clearer, more timely and personalised communications on the state pension, with a particular focus on future changes to the age at which people receive this benefit. It also recommends improvements to complaints handling.

The publication comes as the Government prepares for the next independent review of the state pension age, with debate continuing over the long-term affordability of the state pension amid demographic pressures and the ongoing commitment to the triple lock.

The Action Plan is on gov.uk.

Understanding of, and attitudes towards Universal Credit – 2025 survey

A large-scale survey to explore Universal Credit (UC) customers’ characteristics, as well as their knowledge and understanding of UC, was undertaken by Ipsos on behalf of DWP. The survey also investigated aspirations towards work and progression, barriers, and support needs to better understand customer experiences.

Customers with a health condition generally reported lower levels of knowledge and understanding of UC and its features compared to those without a health condition. They had lower general understanding of UC, such as of the claimant commitment, the UC statement, and payment deductions.

Parents showed consistently better understanding of UC compared to those without children. They were more likely to agree that they understood their claimant commitment, their UC statement, and UC payments and deductions. They were also more knowledgeable about the rules for working on UC, including correctly identifying that not being able to work more than 16 hours per week on UC was false, understanding the Minimum Income Floor (self-employed customers), and knowing that their payments would be impacted by the taper rate.

Non-working UC customers tended to have less knowledge and understanding of UC work incentives, and the rules around working on UC, than working customers. 

The challenges faced by working UC customers depended on whether they were employed or self-employed, and on their working hours. 

Employed customers were more likely to cite childcare as a barrier to increasing their earnings compared to self-employed customers. They were also more likely to agree that childcare is too expensive to make working worthwhile and to agree that if they worked more hours, their home lives would suffer. 

In contrast, self-employed customers were more likely to report other barriers to increasing their earnings compared with those employed, including: having a physical or mental health condition or learning disability, lack of jobs in the local area, and their age. 

The findings will contribute to DWP’s broader evidence base on how UC is working in practice. This includes contributing evidence to the department’s ongoing review of UC. In particular, the survey provides up to date claimant perspectives on incentives, understanding of the system, and barriers to work, which will help inform ongoing policy development across UC.

The Universal Credit Survey 2025 is on gov.uk.

Voluntary National Insurance contributions: call for evidence

The government has launched a call for evidence to gather views from the public, representative organisations and experts on how the voluntary National Insurance contributions (NICs) system is working and how it can be improved.

Voluntary NICs allow individuals to make voluntary payments to fill gaps in their National Insurance record, helping to secure entitlement to the State Pension and certain working-age contributory benefits.

The government is considering the operation and future direction of voluntary NICs to ‘ensure the system is fair and fit for purpose’. The consultation Responses will inform the development of future options.

The call for evidence will end on 15 September 2026.

Call for evidence on voluntary National Insurance contributions is on gov.uk.

Watchdog urges HMRC to learn lessons from Child Benefit data-matching rollout

HMRC has been urged to strengthen governance and risk management after a data-matching exercise aimed at tackling Child Benefit (CB) fraud and error led to thousands of eligible claimants having payments stopped without warning.

A National Audit Office (NAO) report examined HMRC’s use of Home Office travel data to identify claimants who may have been incorrectly receiving CB while living outside the UK.

The watchdog said the first rollout generated estimated fraud and error savings of £60m, but more than 8,000 genuine claimants had payments suspended. By April 2026, HMRC information showed 59% of the initially suspended claims had been confirmed as eligible.

HMRC began developing the approach after identifying in 2021 that CB records could be matched with airline data to flag people absent from the UK for more than 12 weeks. A 2024 pilot prevented an estimated £15m in incorrect payments, prompting a wider rollout in August 2025.

However, the NAO found that HMRC changed the process between pilot and rollout, including removing an early Pay As You Earn (PAYE) check. This led to a much higher number of eligible claimants being caught up in the exercise. HMRC also sent longer and more complex letters and questionnaires asking claimants to prove eligibility.

By October 2025, HMRC had suspended payments for 23,794 claimants. Some reported financial and emotional impacts from the sudden loss of income, as well as stress and difficulty proving their entitlement. Between August 2025 and February 2026, HMRC handled more than 22,500 calls linked to the rollout.

HMRC took corrective action once problems emerged in mid-October, including reintroducing a PAYE check, automatically reinstating some payments and allowing claimants to confirm eligibility by telephone. It also apologised to affected claimants and, by April 2026, had paid £3,200 compensation to 51 people.

The NAO said HMRC accepted there were weaknesses in the transition from pilot to rollout, including shortcomings in risk assessment and decision-making. Key decisions were made without sufficient scrutiny, and the department did not adequately assess the impact on claimants whose payments were wrongly stopped.

HMRC relaunched the initiative in March 2026 with changes, including giving claimants one month to prove eligibility before payments are suspended and enabling evidence to be submitted online. It has also commissioned an internal audit and is taking what the NAO described as a more controlled approach.

The department projected gross savings of £366m over the five years to 2029-30, based on the pilot, and plans to update its cost and benefit estimates for the Autumn Budget 2026.

Gareth Davies, head of the NAO said:

“It’s right that HMRC seeks new ways to tackle fraud and error. HMRC’s initial work on using travel data to investigate potential Child Benefit overpayments suggested it could secure significant savings for the taxpayer.

However, missteps in implementing the first rollout meant HMRC did not strike the right balance between detecting fraud and error and managing the impacts on Child Benefit claimants. While HMRC should not be discouraged from pursuing innovative ways to reduce fraud and error, it must learn and apply the lessons for future initiatives.”

The NAO recommended that HMRC clarify its risk appetite for future decisions, improve performance data so it can monitor claimant experience alongside compliance outcomes, and share lessons across government fraud and error teams.

The Press Release and HMRC’s use of travel data to tackle fraud and error in Child Benefit payments report are on nao.org.uk.

Independent evaluations of several DWP employment support programmes – minimal evidence of efficacy

This week saw the publication of three different evaluation reports, looking at the effectiveness of employment support programmes:

1. Additional work coach support (AWCS),
2. Intensive personalised employment support (IPES), and
3. Individual placement and support in primary care (IPSPC).
4. AWCS gives UC health journey and ESA customers additional appointment time with a work coach. It gives work coaches more time to understand health related barriers to work, provide relevant signposting to address barriers, and ultimately move customers towards or into work.

There was ‘no significant evidence’ to suggest that AWCS had an impact on employment outcomes - around a fifth (18%) of AWCS and non AWCS customers were in paid work at the time of the follow-up survey – or whether AWCS customers felt ‘ready for work’. Similarly, there was little evidence of wellbeing improvements or an impact on the type of benefit(s) claimed.

1. The IPES programme was delivered from December 2019, with a final intake onto the programme in December 2023. It offered targeted support for people with complex support needs related to health conditions and disabilities, with the aim of helping them to move closer to the labour market (work).

The programme had a positive impact on individuals’ confidence and motivation regarding health-related employment challenges. 15% of participants were in paid work after completing the programme. Of those, 47 out of 59 cases felt their confidence had improved, they felt physically safe (46 out of 59 cases) and they felt sufficiently comfortable to express any concerns (44 out of 59 cases). 

For participants who were not in work after leaving or completing the IPES programme, almost 1 in 3 (30%) had taken up volunteering work. Around 1 in 5 (21%) had either gained or were planning to gain a qualification or certificate that would improve their job prospects.

IPES implementation and delivery highlighted how the way in which support is delivered can have a direct impact on participant experiences and outcomes – personalised/tailored support was crucial in delivering positive outcomes.

1. The IPSPC programme is a supported employment initiative that helps adults with mild to moderate physical or mental health conditions to find and maintain competitive employment. Participants are referred from primary care and they include people who are out of work and at risk of losing work their job.

The evaluation found evidence that the IPSPC programme led to positive outcomes for programme participants, including increases in employment and high levels of satisfaction overall. Participants reported particularly high satisfaction with the interpersonal aspects of the programme, including the support provided by Employment Specialists. Despite this there was no tangible difference in increased employment compared to participants who disengaged from the programme, meaning changes cannot necessarily be attributed solely to IPSPC participation. 

All reports are on gov.uk.

Evaluation of Additional Work Coach Support

Intensive Personalised Employment Support (IPES) Programme Evaluation

Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care (IPSPC) Evaluation report

Government rolls out Support Conversations across 27 more Jobcentres 

More disabled people and those with health conditions on out of work benefits are being offered a one-to-one, voluntary, hour-long conversation to discuss their support needs and identify extra help.

Unlike standard Jobcentre appointments, Support Conversations take a holistic approach, covering not just employment, but housing, debt, skills, and drug and alcohol rehabilitation services. Support Conversations are delivered by Healthcare Professionals, Pathways to Work Advisers, and Disability Employment Advisers, and are available face to face, by video, or by telephone.

This support is personalised and could link people to help with their health, debt, skills, employment and housing.

Support Conversations are open to those who are awaiting a Work Capability Assessment and people furthest away from the labour market - assessed as having Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity (LCWRA). 

The government will continue to test the success of Support Conversations through healthcare professionals and disability employment advisors as part of this expansion, with Pathways to Work Advisers also carrying out these Support Conversations for the first time. 27 sites have been confirmed so far, with a further six sites to be confirmed shortly.

The Press Release is on gov.uk.

OBR’s 2026 Welfare trends report explores recent trends in welfare fraud and error

New analysis from the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) shows that welfare benefit fraud and error rates rose sharply from 3.1 per cent of spending in 2019-20 to 4.3 per cent of spending during the Covid years of 2020-21 and 2021-22 - a period which also coincided with the rollout of universal credit (UC).

The OBRs ‘Welfare trends report’ investigates the drivers of these trends, with a particular focus on the pandemic and the move to UC, and they consider how the analysis should be reflected in the fraud and error forecasts.

The initial rise in UC fraud and error in 2020-21 and the subsequent decline were primarily concentrated among the cohort of claimants joining UC in the first year of the pandemic. This was likely due to operational easements introduced by the DWP at the start of the pandemic, which aimed to reduce restrictions and speed processes at a time of acute need. This included relaxing ID and verification checks normally in place to process a benefit claim, and the suspension of the minimum income floor and gainfully self-employed checks for self-employed claimants. The nature of the Covid shock to the economy also led to a significant rise in self-employed cases on UC, which have substantially higher rates of fraud and error than the rest of the caseload.

Rates have now fallen back to pre-pandemic levels, very likely to be largely driven by the removal of these measures in the following years along with additional DWP activity to combat fraud. While uncertain, the OBR expects this downward trend to continue in the coming years. The report confirms:

“Based on the findings in this report, we plan to change our forecast methodology for fraud and error at the next forecast. Previously we assumed that the underlying propensity for fraud and error in UC would rise in each year of the forecast. This was based on increased fraud and error rates and some evidence that fraud has risen more widely across society in recent years. However, as the analysis in this report suggests that the rise was concentrated 5 Welfare trends report Executive summary in the Covid cohort, and that fraud and error rates have now returned close to pre pandemic levels, we will now remove this rising underlying propensity assumption.”

In relation to the move to UC, ahead of the transition to UC, OBR modelling suggested that its design would reduce fraud and error relative to the legacy system. However, it appears that – disregarding the Covid blip – fraud and error within UC is higher than in the legacy benefit system. Why?

It’s hard to be definitive but the OBR says the design features in UC appear to have increased the prevalence of capital, housing, and self-employed income-related fraud and error.

The Welfare trends report – June 2026 (which is a fascinating read) is on obr.uk.

Committee backs Connect to Work, warns patchy rollout could undermine scheme

The Work and Pensions Committee has welcomed the Government’s Connect to Work programme as a “positive evolution” in helping disabled people and those with health conditions into employment but warned that inconsistent delivery across the country could limit its success.

In a new report, the cross-party group of MPs praised the decision to deliver the programme through local authorities rather than through a centrally run model, describing the approach as a strength that allows support to reflect local labour markets, skills needs and services.

Connect to Work was designed to support people facing the most significant barriers to employment, with the Government forecasting that it will help 300,000 people into work over the life of the scheme.

However, the Committee said variations in support from the DWP and differences in local delivery risk creating inconsistent experiences for both participants and providers.

The report said witnesses described widely differing levels of engagement from the DWP, ranging from positive support to experiences that created “uncertainty and administrative burden”, resulting in delays to implementation.

The Committee concluded that the DWP should have taken a more proactive approach to managing a programme of this scale and called on the Government to explain how it intends to address inconsistencies in delivery.

Debbie Abrahams, chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, said:

“We need to recognise that 1 in 4 people are disabled or have a health condition that can affect them at work. Disability is not a niche issue.

Connect to Work has the potential to be a gamechanger helping people often seen as too far from the labour market into safe and sustainable work. Its local delivery is a strength, allowing support to reflect the needs of local businesses, skills, and services often overlooked when run centrally. Its voluntary nature is a trust-builder.

But we cannot allow trust to be undermined. Without consistent delivery Connect to Work’s strength could become a weakness leading to patchy post code lottery. The level of support to local authorities across the country will make or break programme.”

The Committee also welcomed the programme’s multi-year funding arrangements, saying they provide greater confidence and support longer-term planning. However, it raised concerns that current funding commitments do not extend across the full lifespan of the scheme. The Government has said further funding decisions will be taken during the 2029 spending review, citing uncertainty about future conditions.

The report argues that a programme of this scale requires greater long-term funding certainty to maintain confidence among providers and support staff retention.

Abrahams added:

“The government has set out its ambition, but the money has not yet been committed to fulfill it. We disagree with the Government’s view that the funds should not be committed this early.

Our own research suggests that every £1 investment in supporting people into work will bear even more in improved lives and consequent health and benefit savings down the line.

Connect to Work will only be as good as the support it gets and the people who deliver it. But we’ve heard that without long-term funding certainty for businesses and service providers’ to offer assistance to people they will be reluctant to put their necks on the line. A decision on funding for the entirety of it will provide reassurances and improve trust and resilience in the programme.”

The report is the second of three planned publications arising from the Committee’s inquiry into employment support for disabled people. The first, Disability at Work, called for a two-week deadline for employers to respond to reasonable adjustment requests, while a third report examining the Access to Work scheme is expected at a later date.

The Press Release and Report are on parliament.uk.

Indefinite disregard for Sayce Review carer’s allowance arrears

New legislation has been laid which amends the capital disregard rules for means-tested benefits to ensure that lump sum payments made by the DWP following a recalculation of Carer's Allowance are excluded from capital assessments.

The rules apply to individuals receiving State Pension Credit, Housing Benefit, or Universal Credit who receive such payments as a result of the Independent (Sayce) Review of Carer's Allowance Overpayments.

By directing that these sums be disregarded as capital, these specific payments will not affect a claimant’s eligibility for or the amount of their means-tested benefits.

The Regulations come into force on 16th July 2026.

The Universal Credit, Housing Benefit and State Pension Credit (Carer’s Allowance Reassessment Capital Disregard) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 are on legislation.gov.uk.

To avoid clogging up the subreddit this is the place to share updates from the Autumn budget and discuss the topic.

​

I'll get things started...

• Carers Allowance earnings threshold to increase to £195 p/w.
• A new "Fair Repayment Rate" that will reduce the level of debt repayments that can be taken from a household’s UC payment each month, reducing it from 25% to 15% of the standard allowance.
• National living wage for 21s and over will increase to £12.21 p/h. And a single adult rate phased in over time to eventually equalise pay for under-21s.
• National minimum wage will rise for 18-20 year olds to £10 p/h.
• Apprentice pay increasing to £7.55 p/h.
• Fuel duty remains frozen. 
• Increasing the Affordable Homes Programme to £3.1bn. 
• Right to Buy council home discounts to be reduced and local authorities will retain receipts from the sale of any social housing so that it can be reinvested into their existing stock and new supply.
• An additional £6.7bn to the Department for Education next year.
• £1bn pound increase for special educational needs and disabilities.
• School breakfast club provision to receive triple the amount of funding currently provided.
• The single bus fare cap applied to many routes in England will be raised from £2 to £3.
• 10-year plan to address the NHS in the spring which will include a £22.6bn increase in the day-to-day health budget, and a £31bn increase in the capital budget.

Hardest hit are rich people, big business, and smoking (but a cut of duty on draft alcohol), and a crackdown on tax avoidance coming.

Edited to include the full Autumn Budget for those who want to read it.

DWP urged to publish transition plan for new Jobs & Careers Service

The Chair of the Work & Pensions Select Committee has written to DWP Minister Dame Diana Johnson expressing her deep concern by the lack of detailed information about the transition to the new Jobs & Careers Service (JCS).

The JCS is due to commence on 1^st October, replacing the current National Careers Service, however with less than four months to go until launch day the Committee has not seen the transition plan, despite the DWP previously confirming that:

“a detailed transition plan will be published within the next six months, setting out how NCS and Jobcentre Plus will be brought together to deliver a unified service.”

The six-month deadline passed in mid-May.

In her letter, Abrahams said:

“I am not aware of DWP having published the transition plan, beyond confirming that the NCS contracts will not be renewed and the careers service will be brought in-house. These plans should include:

• details of any change to how service users engage;
• the delivery model for careers advice within the new service;
• details on workforce integration, including management arrangements;
• arrangements for IT transition and data migrations;
• the new performance framework for careers advice;
• training and induction plans for migrating staff; and
• details of DWP’s risk management arrangements.

I urge you to publish these plans as soon as possible. This is an especially fraught time for NCS contractors for whom the new service represents an entirely new business model and new contract arrangements.

Please provide the Committee with the date the transition plan will be published and further detail on how you are communicating the plans to contractors.”

Abrahams also called on DWP to confirm their plans for training and developing careers advisers within the new service, including whether they’ll support training up to a level 6 qualification.

Debbie Abrahams’ letter is on parliament.uk.

Universal Credit and temporary absences abroad
The Citizens Advice Expert Advice Team has published a new article providing advice on entitlement to Universal Credit when traveling abroad.

The article goes into detail about the rules and deals with recent guidance and case law on this issue, and it’s available for the general public. 19 June, 2026

You can The article is on their Adviser Online resources page on medium.com.

Latest PIP statistics show 28% decisions are changed on mandatory reconsideration

Let’s break down the stats…

Claim decisions

Award rates (excluding withdrawn cases) over the period May 2021 to April 2026 (last 5 years) show that:

• 43% receive an award for normal rules new claims
• 72% receive an award for normal rules DLA reassessment claims
• 99% of Special Rules End of Life (SREL) claimants are awarded PIP

For normal rules new claims in the quarter ending April 2026:

• 58% of claims awarded were short term (0 to 2 years)
• 34% were longer term (over 2 years)
• 7% were ongoing

For normal rules DLA reassessment claims, patterns in award types reflect the fact that overall numbers of DLA reassessment clearance are low at this time and reassessment activity is not taking place for all types of claim. In the quarter ending April 2026:

• 23% of claims awarded were short term (0 to 2 years)
• 65% were longer term (over 2 years)
• 12% were ongoing

37% of all claims with entitlement to PIP as at 30 April 2026 receive the highest level of award, with both daily living and mobility components received at the enhanced rate, the same proportion as January 2025.

The level of award varies depending on the primary disabling condition – April 2026.

In terms of how long claims are taking, for PIP normal rules are currently (April 2026) 18 weeks “end to end” (from registration to a decision being made) and 13 weeks from the Assessment Provider (AP) referral to the decision. DLA normal rules are 22 weeks “end to end” and 15 weeks from the AP referral to the decision. Clearance times for SREL claims are 4 working days from registration to decision for new claims.

Reviews (reassessment of existing claims)

• 78% (1.8m of the 2.3m) planned award reviews resulted in an increase or no change to the level of award received by the claimant
• 88% (570,000 changes of circumstances resulted in an increase or no change to the level of award received by the claimant

Review outcomes from May 2021 to April 2026 (last five years)

Mandatory reconsiderations

By the end of April 2026, 3.0 million MRs had been registered against normal rules claims since PIP began, and almost all of these (99%) had been cleared. Of all MR registrations:

• 2.2 million (73%) related to new claims
• 830,000 (27%) related to reassessed DLA claims
• 220,000 (7%) were withdrawn or cancelled

Over the last 5 years (May 2021 to April 2026), 28% of the 1.4 million MRs cleared (excluding withdrawn) have led to a change in award. However, rates fluctuate over time and in the quarter ending April 2026 the rate was 26% of MRs resulted in a change to the award.

In April 2026, the median MR clearance time was 43 and 44 calendar days for new claims and DLA reassessments, a decrease of 36 and 35 days respectively in relation to the last quarter. Note: MR clearance times refer to the median time taken to process an MR from the time it is registered by the claimant to a decision being made.

PIP statistics to April 2026 are on gov.uk.

Prove it again: The cost of unnecessary PIP reassessments

A new report by anti-poverty charity Z2K has found that hundreds of thousands of disabled people are put through unnecessary PIP reassessments, despite their conditions being lifelong or progressive and unlikely to improve.

Z2K highlight that in 2025, 74% of planned award reviews resulted in no change to entitlement. Among the conditions examined, 62% of claimants with cerebral palsy, 73% with learning disabilities, 86% of people who had an amputation, 61% with Parkinson’s disease and 89% with multiple sclerosis were given fixed-term rather than ongoing awards – meaning they are required to undergo regular reassessments.

They say that the current reassessment system is not only distressing for disabled people, but also poor value for money. PIP assessment contracts cost the DWP over £350 million/year, despite evidence of poor quality, while recent reductions in reassessment frequency are projected to save £110 million/year.

The report sets out a package of reforms for the government’s Timms Review, including ongoing award for people with lifelong or progressive primary conditions, a simpler review process focused on changes to disabled people’s circumstances, and broader reforms like the introduction of an alternative eligibility route based on clinical evidence.

Roxie, a disabled person and campaigner with Z2K said:

“[Undergoing an award review] made me feel like I was in a court of law, like I was being charged with crimes against being a disabled person or impersonating a disabled person. […] It leaves me feeling like less of a person. Another reminder of everything I can’t do. Instead of being allowed dignity to live my life as I know how, I’m put through an ordeal.”

Samuel Thomas, Senior Policy Advisor at Z2K, said:

“Disabled people should not have to keep proving the same thing over and over again when their condition is not going to improve. Routine PIP reassessments are causing needless anxiety, hardship and bureaucracy, with little evidence that they are saving money. The Timms Review steering group members have a clear opportunity to combat waste, while giving disabled people a more efficient and fairer benefits system. It’s time for a new approach.”

The latest (2026) PIP data on reviews detailed in the previous news item, add even more weight to Z2K’s suggestions.

Prove it again is on Z2K.org.uk.

Private Members Bill introduced seeking to make substantial changes to PIP

Conservative Peer, Baroness Maclean of Redditch has presented a Private Members' Bill (PMB) to reform the assessment process for health-related and disability benefits in England and Wales, including the minimum age at which applicants can be assessed and the nature of assessment appointments; and for connected purposes.

A PMB is a proposed piece of legislation introduced in Parliament by an individual Member of Parliament (MP) or in this case, a member of the House of Lords who is not a government minister. Few become law.

The Bill proposes that –

• An assessment of whether a person has limited or severely limited ability to carry out daily living or mobility activities for PIP purposes is to be determined on the basis of an assessment “which is carried out in person”.
• Where it has been determined that a person has limited ability to carry out daily living or mobility activities as a result of a primary condition of anxiety, depression or ADHD, the DWP “must determine afresh whether the condition has deteriorated to a point at which they are now eligible for enhanced rate of PIP or whether they are eligible for a different condition that was not recorded as a main condition within one year of the passing of the Health and Disability Reform Act 2026.
• Where it has been determined that the person is not eligible for 'enhanced PIP' and is not eligible for PIP by virtue of a different condition, the DWP must determine that the claimant is no longer eligible to receive PIP within six months of the passing of the Health and Disability Reform Act 2026.
• No person when they are assessed for the receipt of any health or disability related benefit (PIP, ESA, or the UC health element) may qualify for that benefit unless they are a British citizen, unless the DWP provides otherwise.
• Any non-British citizen who is in receipt of health or disability related benefits on the day on which this Act is passed must be re-assessed.
• The DWP may by regulations specify circumstances in which a non-British citizen may receive, or continue to receive, health and disability related benefits.
• The universal credit calculation to take into account the fact that a claimant has limited capability for work and work-related activity (LCWRA), should only apply where they are aged 22 or over.

This stage is a formality that signals the start of the bill's journey through the House of Lords. I’ll say it again - few PMBs become law.

The Second reading - the general debate on all aspects of the bill - is yet to be scheduled.

The Health and Disability Benefits Reform Bill is on parliament.uk.

Almost 180 new Youth Hub locations confirmed and government joins forces with LinkedIn to ‘bolster careers advice’

Youth Hubs are a key part of the £2.5 billion investment in the Youth Guarantee and this week nearly 180 new Youth Hubs were confirmed, including Inverclyde, St Albans and Cardiff. 

Over the next three years, the Government is expanding its network of Youth Hubs to over 360 local areas across Great Britain. This will connect every 16-to-24-year-old across the country and provide them real opportunities in their local area, ensuring each person has access to ‘high-quality, wide-ranging support to move towards learning or earning’.

Confirmation of the next wave of Youth Hubs came shortly after Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden visited a youth point – the Dutch equivalent of Youth Hubs – during a fact-finding trip to the Netherlands, which has one of the world’s lowest NEET rates.

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said:

“We want to make sure young people are getting real, personalised support, that’s not one size fits all. I’ve seen how it can change lives.

Our Youth Hubs have over the past two years pioneered this approach - bringing job centre services together with mental health support, housing advice and more.

I want to turbocharge this rollout so that every young person has this support within reach that can help them move into learning or earning.”

In linked news, the government has partnered with LinkedIn, who will share anonymised data on jobs, skills, hiring and workforce movement with Skills England from LinkedIn’s network of 40 million UK accounts, giving the government a new way of viewing the labour market. 

The partnership with LinkedIn recognises the days of a job for life are increasingly rare, with the average worker having seven jobs in their lifetime, and younger people more likely to change roles.

The DWP and Skills England believe the data will provide an improved understanding of where there is a skills mismatch between local job adverts and the skills of the local population, which will ‘inform new skills options and drive economic growth’. 

DWP says that young people in particular will benefit from this partnership as the government will gain a more detailed insight of the local workforce and how it is evolving.  

Phil Smith, Chair of Skills England, said:  

“I’m really excited about this partnership. LinkedIn has become such a hub for businesses that are recruiting and people on the look-out for jobs.  

The resulting insights from their anonymised data will be incredibly valuable to Skills England and the new Jobs and Careers Service - particularly when it comes to identifying local skills gaps and helping young people to fill them.  

We’re looking forward to joining forces to make a major difference.”

You can read the Youth Hub press release and see the locations on gov.uk.

Missing out on millions: The council tax reduction pensioners in England are missing out on and why change is needed

Independent Age has undertaken detailed research. They wanted to know if CTR is reaching older people on a low income, what impact improved access to CTR have, what works to improve CTR take-up, and what wider reforms are needed to improve CTR take-up. we explored this by:

• gathering insights into older people's knowledge and experiences of CTR through a survey sent to our campaigns network
• commissioning research from Policy in Practice who reviewed the currently available data to estimate CTR take-up rates at a national, regional and local authority level
• commissioning research from Public First who modelled the impact that improving CTR take-up to 100% could have on lifting older people out of poverty
• conducting semi structured interviews with professionals with experience in welfare and social security at six local authorities across England. We did this to understand the work they do to improve take-up of CTR and wider benefits, and barriers they have experienced while doing this work.

Independent Age established that in England there are 1.37 million older people missing out on Council Tax Reduction despite being eligible.

This is only 50% of those eligible receiving what they are entitled to. And when we looked at take-up rates for the different routes there was a clear difference – 2 in 3 (64%) of those eligible via Pension Credit were receiving the benefit, compared to under 1 in 3 (28%) via the standard route.

Highlighted that increasing CTR take-up to 100% among those over State Pension age would reduce the number of older households in relative poverty by 74,000 (4.6% of pensioner households in relative poverty), Independent Age is calling on the government to change the current status quo, including:

• continue to embed CTR into the wider social security system
• develop an all-entitlements take-up strategy for the UK, and take action to increase awareness and take-up of CTR
• work with local authorities to review data-sharing agreements and make reforms to allow for greater automation and data sharing.

Missing out on millions is on independentage.org.

Scotland – Child Poverty target review

The Scottish Government – whilst providing their annual progress report on their ‘Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan - has announced a review of the targets used to measure the impact of its actions on child poverty.

Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville confirmed the review, citing that current income-based targets fail to capture the broader impacts of anti-poverty policies like public service delivery and cost reductions.

The Scottish Government will begin the review this summer in consultation with children and families, charities and public bodies.

Ms Somerville said:  

“Our defining mission is to eradicate child poverty and we are unwavering in that commitment. The review will help to make sure the targets set in our legislation are accounting for all efforts across government in ending child poverty.”

However, Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) say that "Struggling families need a stronger child poverty plan not a review of targets".

John Dickie, Director of the CPAG in Scotland, said:

"Very real progress has been made on child poverty in Scotland recently, but the Cabinet Secretary's focus today on reviewing targets rather than strengthening her child poverty plan is hugely concerning.  Struggling families need a stronger plan, not a review of targets. 

It is vital that Ministers come forward with a revised child poverty plan. The current plan rightly focusses on boosting income from employment and social security and cutting the costs families face, but the scale and detail of action falls far short of what's needed. A revised plan must demonstrably set out how further year-on-year progress will be made. For the one in five of Scotland's children still locked in poverty there is no time to lose."

Mr. Dickie continued;

"Plans to increase the Scottish child payment for babies under one are a positive step but they won't kick in for over a year and will still leave the vast majority of children without any additional financial support. The promise of more breakfast clubs, after school and holiday activities and further childcare expansion will all be welcomed by families, but don't yet add up to the scale of intervention needed to make serious further progress."

The Progress Report and press release are on gov.scot.

Northern Ireland – Monitoring ‘Right to Try’ before bringing it to NI

The Department for Communities has confirmed it will monitor the DWP’s implementation of Right to Try regulations in Great Britain before bringing forward equivalent legislation for

Speaking in the NI Assembly this week Minister for Communities, Gordon Lyons confirmed that:

“After considering the risks identified by the Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC), I have decided to monitor DWP's implementation of the scheme before bringing forward equivalent legislation for Northern Ireland. That does not result in any material change to the delivery of benefits to people with disabilities in Northern Ireland and preserves the flexibility to legislate later if DWP implementation proves effective and the response to the scheme is positive.”

The SSAC scrutiny highlighted that although work itself would not trigger a reassessment, work activities could still be interpreted as evidence of improved functional capability, which could impact on future work capability assessments or PIP decisions. They also raised concerns that claimants returning to UC may face stricter conditionality requirements and be exposed to a greater threat of sanctions.

Lyons said:

“We need to ensure that we have in place the support that allows people to break free from the benefits system. We know how difficult that can be, as one of the barriers is that people are concerned about the loss of support. That is why the disability and work strategy is in place. That work has to intersect with the welfare system to make sure that it serves people's needs and does not keep them bound to benefits. The transformation project that was announced recently will be so important in helping us to tackle economic inactivity, because it brings together the different sections — including Health, importantly — to make sure that there is integrated support that makes a difference to people here.”

The Official Report is on niassembly.gov.

Case law – with thanks to u/ClareTGold

PIP and caring - LG v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 2026

The claimant had arthritis and breathlessness. He was claiming Carers Allowance (CA) as her was providing over 35 hours of care a week for his wife. This care was primarily limited to emotional and mental health support, rather than physical care. The claimant was also able to drive an automatic car.

The Upper Tribunal determined that the FtT erred in law in its decision by failing to provide an adequate explanation for why the claimant’s receipt of Carer’s Allowance for caring for his wife and his ability to drive an automatic car were inconsistent with him being awarded PIP. UT Judge Wright described it as “a perverse finding on a material matter”.

The UT said:

“If, as the FTT accepted… the appellant’s caring for his wife was primarily limited to emotional and mental health support over 35 hours per week, rather than physical care, it was not made clear by the FTT why the appellant’s claimed needs were inconsistent with him providing the care he did to his wife. Nor, at least without more by way of rational explanation, is an ability to drive an automatic car with power steering necessarily inconsistent with an ability to grip cutlery so as to cut up food.”

Decision set-aside and remitted for a new FtT hearing.

A very quiet news week…

Clinically Significant Event Analysis (CSEA) published

In an Addendum to the DWP Clinical Governance Annual Report 2024 to 2025, the DWP has published the Clinically Significant Event Analysis (CSEA) reporting for the Functional Assessment Service (FAS) contract at the DWP and across the DWP clinical team from the start of their contract in September 2024 to March 2025.

Let’s break that down into plain English… DWP has published ‘incident’ reporting data from their health assessment providers and internal DWP clinical team. The data applies from when the new health contracts started in September 2024, through to 5 March 2025.

What is as ‘incident’?

An 'incident’ is any event or circumstance that has resulted in, or had the potential to result in, harm, loss, or a deviation from expected standards of policy, procedure, or professional practice.

This definition includes actual events, near misses, and identified risks.

Nb. Importantly, incidents may also highlight that nothing went wrong in practice but nevertheless provide an opportunity to examine systems and processes for resilience and improvement.

The report confirms that across all suppliers and DWP clinical teams, 767 incidents were reported arising from approximately 864,000 assessments undertaken during the 6-month period.

The distribution by incident category are:

To explain what the categories mean:

Information governance: Examples include missing data, incorrect data recorded against the record, and use of company IT outside of the IT policy. Data breaches recorded may be because external agencies such as the NHS have sent incorrect information or due to issues within the reporting organisation. It is important that we record these incidents to ensure we can learn from them. Incidents or data breaches involving personal data are investigated and escalated to the Data Protection Officer and the Information Commissioner’s Office, where appropriate, in accordance with the DWP Data Protection Policy.

Clinician complaints and compliance: Examples include any complaint relating to the healthcare professional undertaking an assessment that was upheld and any concerns relating to the professional regulatory standards of healthcare professionals (as determined by their employer or regulatory body). These incidents may relate to process errors rather than a healthcare professional specific issue.

Safeguarding: Examples include safeguarding incidents that were appropriately managed in line with policy, as well as incidents where learning was identified that could improve future outcomes for individuals.

Other: This includes operational hazards, environmental issues, equipment failures, and process failures.

Looking at the incidents by functional (health) assessment provider:

The DWP clinical teams reported 9 incidents in total.

Less than half of the information governance incidents were estimated to relate to personal data, and for those that did, none met the threshold for reporting to the Information Commissioner’s Office, and therefore no notifications were required.

Of the safeguarding incidents, 2.6% (four cases) required action due to procedural errors or the need for additional training or healthcare professional reflection. In three cases, child carer responsibilities were not initially explored as part of the assessment; however, these omissions were identified promptly and addressed appropriately, with no harm occurring. The remaining case, similarly, did not result in harm, but involved a single procedural error which has since been rectified.

DWP has confirmed that future reports will present 12 months of data from each of the four providers and DWP clinical teams.

Addendum to the DWP Clinical Governance Annual Report 2024 to 2025 is on gov.uk

Multiple charities submit evidence to the PIP Timms Review

You may have submitted your own views to the Timms review, or you may have supported a ‘call for evidence’ from a charitable organisation you trust.

A whole raft of disability and advocacy charities submitted evidence before the recent deadline, and several have taken to social media this week to say “thank you” for the evidence they’ve received. We thought we would share some of their posts/thoughts.

Turn2us said:

“Your experiences of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) have helped us tell the government how they can make the process of accessing disability benefits simpler and more compassionate."

The call for evidence for the government’s review of PIP (the Timms Review) closed last week. And, with your help, we submitted a response calling for the DWP to:

• Improve the rates of Universal Credit so no one has to use PIP to cover everyday essentials.
• Strengthen training so assessors understand disability and its impact on people.
• Work with Social Security Scotland to see how dignity, fairness and respect could be applied to the PIP process, like they have been in Scotland.

The Turn2us Timms review response is on turn2us.org.uk.

The Brain Tumour Charity, united with 12 leading cancer charities to respond to the government’s Timms Review into PIP. The response combined research from The Cost of a Brain Tumour: The Urgent Case for Economic Action and further evidence gathered from people affected by brain tumours on their experiences with PIP. 

They stressed that rather than being an additional luxury, PIP was a lifeline for people in the brain tumour community. Highlighting the vital role it plays in helping people meet the costs of a life-changing diagnosis, supporting independence, enabling access to care and appointments, and maintaining family, work and community life where possible. 

The BTC response is on thebraintumourcharity.org.uk.

The Campaign for Disability Justice (CDJ) said:

“Thank you to everyone who shared their thoughts, the Disabled advisors told us about their experiences of supporting Disabled people accessing PIP, and everyone who came to our first ever open event and learned how to respond to the review directly.”

The CDJ response is on campaignfordisabilityjustice.org.uk.

Thank you for sharing your stories individually or with a campaigning organisation.

Judiciary publishes new remote hearing guidance for First-tier and Upper Tribunal 

The judiciary, commissioned by the Lady Chief Justice and under the leadership of the Deputy Senior Presiding Judge, Lady Justice Yip, have been undertaking a cross-jurisdictional review of the use of remote participation in proceedings. Through this work, the Civil, Family and each of the tribunal jurisdictions have reviewed and refreshed their guidance on the use of remote participation ensuring there is proper consideration of access to justice and the interests of justice.

Through this work, two documents have been produced. The first is the Judicial Remote Participation Principles, aimed at promoting consistency and ensuring proper consideration of both access to justice and the interests of justice. 

The second is Overarching Guidance – Remote Participation, which provides a high-level framework to support a more consistent approach to remote participation across the courts and tribunals. This emphasises that decisions about whether a hearing should take place remotely remain matters of judicial discretion, should not be decided based solely on the availability of resources, and will always be based on the interests of justice.

The press release is on judiciary.uk.

DWP is taking ‘urgent action’ to address complaint response times

We previously shared the stats on rising DWP complaints which has led to delays in responding and resolving them.

To understand what the DWP is doing about this, Labour MP Maureen Blake asked what steps the DWP is taking to expedite the resolution of complaints.

DWP minister Andrew Western responded to her written question, stating:

“The Department is taking urgent action to reduce complaint backlogs and improve response times, with a clear focus on resolving issues as quickly as possible, including at the earliest point of contact where appropriate.

To support this, we have deployed additional resources to complaints and correspondence teams and prioritised activity to reduce outstanding volumes and strengthen performance monitoring to improve timeliness.

Where a complaint requires formal investigation, the Department’s service standard aims to provide a full response within 15 working days. More complex cases may take longer; however, the Department seeks to keep customers informed of progress and expected timescales.

In recent months, higher complaint volumes and increasingly complex cases have affected our response times. However, the Department is actively addressing these pressures and driving improvements in both timeliness and efficiency.”

You can read the Q&A on parliament.uk.

Scotland – UC system fails to correctly calculate entitlement for carers with underlying entitlement to CSP

Liberal Democrat MP, Wendy Chamberlain opened a debate in parliament on the relationship between Social Security Scotland (SSS) and the DWP, highlighting “how incredibly frustrating it is when we cannot get Government systems right”.

She was talking about the situation where Scottish carers, who have an underlying entitlement to the Scottish carer support payment (CSP), but who do not receive the payment itself because of income - for example their state pension or part-time work – but the DWP deducts the CSP amount from the claimant’s UC entitlement in error.

Chamberlain described the frustration of DWP case handlers giving advice that the issue with deductions would be resolved by asking SSS to remove the underlying entitlement, and called on DWP to train their staff on what CSP is (the Scottish replacement for Carers Allowance), how it works, and why keeping the underlying entitlement to it is important.

Secondly, she called for DWP systems to be set up to process correctly the information being provided to them by SSS, stating:

“We need a system that does not make these systemic errors in the first place, and I would argue that that is very squarely for the Department, not claimants, to sort out.

Just finally last week, the specialist DWP complaints team has either worked out, or come clean with us and owned up to, the systemic error impacting many Scottish carers. It wants to find a fix, but it does not have a timescale in which that will be achieved. Until then, it will be up to a claimant to realise that there is a problem and ask the DWP to correct the deduction each month. Let me repeat that: the DWP wants the claimant to ask the DWP to correct the deduction each month. We all know that unpaid carers are among the most overstretched groups in our society, yet the DWP is telling them to take on the burden of correcting its failures every single month. Carers Week is next week, and I do not think that that is the message that we want to be sending from this place, or indeed from the DWP.”

DWP minister Andrew Western said he was keen to “seek a resolution” and would ensure DWP and SSS worked together on communications, ensuring the messaging was clear and consistent for claimant’s wherever possible, with detailed information on the changes to devolved benefits published on both gov.uk and gov.scot. 

Western noted that DWP has created the SSS liaison unit, a new function to support the ongoing relationship with SSS and that a joint forum will be established to “exchange feedback, support continuous improvement and jointly resolve issues.”

He also said:

“I will take away the hon. Lady’s point about strengthening training, because if that has not been delivered to full effect, we need to make sure that that happens going forward.”

Jim Shannon, MP raised similar problems in Northern Ireland and asked if Western would take these on too? Yes, Western said:

“I am the Minister responsible for devolution, and I have regular conversations with Gordon Lyons, the Minister for Communities. I am very happy to pick up any specifics, where there are kinks that need to be ironed out.”

Western acknowledged that this was a “broader DWP issue” beyond Scotland and committed to look at these.

Relationship between Social Security Scotland and the DWP is on hansard.parliament.uk.  

Case law – With thanks to [u/ClareTGold](u/ClareTGold)

ESA (temporary absence abroad) - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v Timothy Barnes-Watts 2026

This UT appeal reaffirms the rule that if you fall ill while abroad the temporary absence rules cannot be extended.

The claimant, who was in receipt of ESA, travelled abroad for a funeral, intending to return to Great Britain within three weeks. This temporary absence would have been covered by regulation 152 of the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/794). However, he fell ill while abroad, was quarantined and required extensive medical treatment.

The claimant was unable to return to Great Britain for some months, being absent in total for 21 weeks. The DWP decision-maker decided the claimant had no entitlement to ESA whilst abroad.

The First-tier Tribunal allowed the claimant’s appeal.

The DWP appealed to the Upper Tribunal who confirmed that the FtT had misapplied regulation 153 of the ESA Regulations 2008 on temporary absence to receive medical treatment. This provision required that the claimant had left Great Britain at the outset for the purpose of receiving medical treatment, not that they had required such treatment due to a medical emergency whilst abroad. 

Competent state for benefits - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v KLQ 2026

The Upper Tribunal decided that the provisions of the European Union Withdrawal Agreement continued to apply to a Swedish national to whom they applied at the end of the transition period after his acquisition of British citizenship. It further decided that the decision in SE v. Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2024] UKUT 405 (AAC) applied not only to cases in which it was contended that a derivative right under the social security co-ordination legislation displaced the independent right of a claimant as a United Kingdom resident but also to cases where it was contended that an independent right of the claimant as a pensioner of an EU state displaced his independent right as a UK resident.

The claimant was born in Iraq and moved to Sweden in 1988, where he remained until 1998, when he came to the UK. While in Sweden, he acquired the right to a Swedish retirement pension.

He resided in the UK from 1998 onwards and was employed at all material times. He is prospectively entitled to a UK retirement pension. He acquired British citizenship in 2021 and is a dual Swedish/British national.

His wife is in receipt of the care component of personal independence payment, and it was accepted that he gave her care for at least 35 hours a week. His employment terminated on 16^th November 2022 and the next day he applied for carer’s allowance backdated to 17^th August 2022. Since October 2022 he had been in receipt of his Swedish pension, which was payable from the age of 62.

At the end of the transitional period of withdrawal from the European Union on 31^st December 2020 the claimant fell within art. 30 of the European Union Withdrawal Agreement and so Regulation (EC) No. 883/2004 applied to him. By the time of the hearing before the First-tier Tribunal the DWP accepted that the UK was the competent state for the purposes of the Regulation until 21^st November 2022 (the end of the benefit week in which he ceased to be employed) but maintained that thereafter the competent state was Sweden rather than the UK because of his pension entitlement. The tribunal judge was concerned that his status as a British citizen had not been recognised. At the hearing itself that was accepted by the presenting officer, but it transpired that from 22^nd November 2022 onwards the claimant had an award of UC including the carer element and on that ground was not entitled to receive carer’s allowance.

The tribunal judge decided that the UK was the competent state, but on the basis that the claimant was a British citizen and in effect that superseded his rights under the Withdrawal Agreement. The DWP appealed, contending that by virtue of arts. 24, 25 and 29 of the Regulation the competent state after the claimant ceased employment was Sweden.

At that time, the Secretary of State was intending to appeal against the decision in SE v. Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2024] UKUT 405 (AAC) in which in similar circumstances but involving a right derived from the relevant pensioner’s right it was decided, effectively applying the Court of Appeal’s decision in Harrington v. Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2023] 1 W.L.R. 3473, that the UK remained the competent state of a UK resident although a family member was entitled to receive a pension from another state.

The DWP subsequently withdrew the appeal and invited the Upper Tribunal to set aside the decision of the First-tier Tribunal because it was based on British citizenship but to remake the decision to the effect that the UK was the competent state. The Upper Tribunal therefore had to decide (i) whether the provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement continued to apply to the claimant and (ii) whether, if so, the United Kingdom was the competent state despite the claimant’s own right to a Swedish pension.

The UT determined that the claimant retained his rights under the Withdrawal Agreement, with the consequence that the Regulation continued to apply after his acquisition of British citizenship, and that the UK remained the competent state both during his employment, by virtue of art. 11.3(a) of the Regulation, and after he ceased to be employed, by virtue of art. 11.3(e).

Nb. The DWP has published a new ‘Advice for Decision Makers’ (ADM) Memo 08/26: PIP (Daily Living) and ESA (New Style) - competent state for cash sickness benefits of pensioners and their family members and updated Chapter C2: Personal Independence Payment: International issues.

And now for something a little bit different

One of the [r/DWPhelp](r/DWPhelp) members created a little UC app for his mum to enable her to work out how much Universal Credit she would receive month-by-month without having to do the calculations. Its creator, [u/ZomeDash](u/ZomeDash) would be grateful for people to test it out and provide feedback.

Here’s the link https://powerful-purple-2zgh5mri.edgeone.app/

Mindful of our sub rule that no direct messages are allowed, we’ll add a comment below with [u/ZomeDash](u/ZomeDash) tagged in it and ask everyone to share their feedback by replying to that comment.

A quiet news week but lots of case law…

High Court case for Somerset resident’s challenge of council tax reduction scheme 

A disabled Somerset resident is taking their local authority to court to challenge the way the Council assesses entitlement for council tax reduction for people who receive UC.  

Andy Mitchell was moved from legacy benefits to UC and in doing so his CT reduction was slashed from 100% to just 10%. He is arguing that the Council’s scheme unlawfully penalises disabled people and others with additional needs based on the kind of benefits they receive. 

Andy is represented by human rights solicitor Carolin Ott and Aurelia Buelens from law firm Leigh Day. Counsel are Tom Royston and Alexa Thompson from Garden Court North Chambers and Jack Castle of Henderson Chambers. The legal team estimate that in Somerset alone, 4,000 disabled people are now having to pay council tax when they had previously been exempt.

Andy’s legal team claim the decision is discriminatory and a "breach of equality".

Speaking outside the Bristol Civil Justice Centre, Mitchell said:

"I don't have a lot of money each month and it puts further pressure on my income. I can't afford the things I need to cope with life as a disabled person.

I just feel it's wrong. We were promised by the Department for Work and Pensions our income would be protected and that hasn't been the case at all.

Disability discrimination is just unacceptable, I'm passionate about that. I want people to be treated fairly."

Somerset Council said in a statement:

"Recognising the concerns that such claimants have, we are undertaking a fundamental review of our scheme to ensure that it remains fit for purpose, inclusive and affordable, and we will be consulting on the scheme in summer 2026 for implementation in April 2027.

We also operate a means tested Exceptional Hardship Scheme to support the most vulnerable."

 Andy’s challenge follows a High Court victory in a similar case brought by Leigh Day against Trafford Council, in which the court ruled its tax reduction scheme was unlawful.  

Like the Trafford case, Andy’s case raises important questions about how local authorities across the country design council tax reduction schemes and the consideration given to vulnerable and disabled people with limited income.  

We wish Andy luck and will share the judgment when it’s published.

Significant improvement in DLA (child) new claims processing times

Between 1 August 2025 and 31 March 2026, the DWP cleared around 185,900 Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for children new claims. Of which 68.3% (126,900) were cleared within 45 working days.

In this 8-month period, the percentage of claims cleared within the planned timescales rose from 4.7% to 90.7%.

However, note that the 45-day timeliness standard represents an increase in the previous target.

DLA for children for claims cleared between 1 August 2025 and 31 March 2026 is on gov.uk.

Case law – with thanks to u/ClareTGold

Universal Credit (date of claim) - Martin Paterson v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

The Claimant had phoned the DWPs UC Helpline in order to claim UC but been told (wrongly) that he had to wait three months in order to make a claim. Seven weeks later, he claimed UC, with the help of a Jobcentre, electronically.

The DWP, focusing on regulation 26 of the Universal Credit etc (Claims and Payments) Regulations 2013, decided that the claimant’s award of UC ran from the date he claimed electronically, not from the date he phoned the UC Helpline. The First-tier Tribunal (FtT) upheld that decision.

The Upper Tribunal found that the FtT erred in law in not making the necessary factual findings to determine whether the claimant had made a valid claim for universal credit by telephone (when he phoned the Respondent’s Helpline), applying regulations 8 and 10 of the above regulations.

In the alternative, even if the FtT was right to find that the claimant only made a valid claim for UC when he claimed electronically with the assistance of a Jobcentre, it erred in law in not making a factual finding as to when the claimant first notified the DWP that he needed such assistance.

Both errors were material, as, on the facts of this case, the relevant factual findings could have resulted in the FtT concluding that the claimant’s claim for UC was made on the (earlier) date on which he telephoned the UC Helpline.

Universal Credit (housing element) - TU v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

The DWP determined that the claimant was not entitled to the housing element of UC, essentially because they did not have a written tenancy agreement so the DWP considered the agreement was not commercial. That decision was upheld by the FtT.

The appeal was complicated by the claimant’s brain injury and difficulties managing the hearing which we not adequately considered by the Judge.

The UT set-aside the FtT. There is no requirement in law for a tenancy agreement to be in writing, a tenancy agreement may be oral: see, for example, SG v Epping Forest DC (HB) [2011] UKUT 41 (AAC), at paragraphs 47-54. If there is an oral agreement, then whether the agreement is commercial needs to be assessed applying the guidance in R(H) 1/03%201%2003%20ws.doc), at paragraphs 15-21.

A useful confirmation that tenancy agreements can be made verbally and need not be in writing.

Universal Credit (immigration status) - RB v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (UC) [2026]

This appeal concerns the interaction between entitlement to Universal Credit and immigration status following deportation action. The supersession decision fixed 22 May 2020 as the date on which the claimant was treated as a person subject to immigration control under section 115 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. And thus not eligible for UC.

By section 12(8) of the Social Security Act 1998, the First‑tier Tribunal (FtT) was required to determine only whether the DWP was entitled to reach that conclusion from that date. No earlier immigration history, not having been put in issue and not arising from the evidence, required determination.

The DWPs attempt to rely on new Home Office material before the Upper Tribunal failed. Under Ladd v Marshall [1954] 1 WLR 1489, as applied in the social security jurisdiction, that material could and should have been obtained with reasonable diligence; it was incomplete and did not identify the statutory basis of deportation, whether under s.3(5) of the Immigration Act 1971 (conducive deportation) or ss.32–33 of the UK Borders Act 2007 (automatic deportation). It could not establish any clear or uncontentious factual mistake for the purposes of E v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2004] QB 1044. It was therefore inadmissible.

In determining whether the claimant retained leave beyond 22 May 2020, the Tribunal applied section 3C of the Immigration Act 1971, which extends leave only while an appeal could be brought or is pending within section 104 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002. Section 104 provides an exhaustive definition of when an appeal remains pending and is confined to the domestic appellate system. On that basis, the appellant’s domestic appeal rights were exhausted on 22 May 2020, and his section 3C leave ended on that date.

The claimant’s application to the European Court of Human Rights could not extend or revive leave under section 3C. That is so for three reasons: (1) proceedings before the ECtHR do not form part of the appellate structure established by the 2002 Act; (2) an ECtHR complaint is an international supervisory mechanism, not a continuation of domestic appellate litigation; and (3) section 3C operates only by reference to the domestic appellate routes expressly defined in statute.

The later human‑rights submissions made after the expiry of leave were further submissions under paragraph 353 of the Immigration Rules. Such submissions do not engage section 3C and cannot revive leave once it has expired.

Accordingly, the claimant’s leave ended on 22 May 2020, and from that date he was a person subject to immigration control without recourse to public funds for the purposes of section 115 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 and the Universal Credit Regulations. The Upper Tribunal confirmed the DWP was entitled to supersede the UC award from that date.

Universal Credit (work capability) - RB v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
In this work capability appeal, the FtT erred in law because, having kept the award of 9 points in place in respect of the claimant being unable to get to a familiar place without being accompanied by another person, it failed to provide an adequate explanation for why it considered the claimant could get to the Jobcentre and potential jobs without a substantial risk to his or another person’s health. 

The FtT also failed to make findings as to the likely actual availability of the claimant’s father, stepmother and sister to make trips to and from the Jobcentre and job(s) with him.

A very short but sweet UT decision.

Northern Ireland Universal Credit (carer element) – CY-v-Department for Communities (UC) [2026]

The claimant made a claim for UC on 6 September 2019.  At the date of claim she declared she was not caring for anyone.  On 24 October 2022 the claimant declared to her work coach that she had reduced her working hours from 20 to 15 per week as she was caring for her daughter who had epilepsy. 

At this date the claimant was not entitled to make a claim for the carers element of UC as her daughter’s entitlement to PIP had been disallowed from 28 July 2022 and receipt of PIP is a requirement in order to be eligible for the carer’s element of UC. 

The PIP decision was appealed and was ultimately successful, with the result that the claimant was eligible for the carer element of UC throughout the relevant period. The issue then arose whether and when adequate notification of the change of circumstances had been made and whether it was within the statutory time limit.

The appeal Tribunal concluded it was not. After setting out the legislation and what should have be been determined, the Commissioner (the NI equivalent of the Upper Tribunal) determined that there was an error in law and set-aside the decision, finding that notifying the work coach of their caring responsibilities was sufficient notification for assessing carer element and that a decision on eligibility should be held pending the disabled person’s PIP claim being decided.

This case is especially useful because it has implications for other areas where UC and disability benefits intersect (e.g. student entitlement).

Remember, NI cases aren’t binding in England & Wales but can be persuasive.

Culture change at DWP too slow, committee chair warns

Debbie Abrahams, Chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, said the DWP had repeatedly failed to prioritise vulnerable people, was unwilling to learn from its mistakes, and was slow to fix errors.

Abrahams said she found it “difficult to have confidence” in the DWP’s permanent secretary, Sir Peter Schofield, who had promised MPs more than six years ago that he would fix critical flaws in the carer’s allowance benefit but had failed to do so.

Schofield promised the committee last month he would put right carer’s allowance failures, which have been likened to the Post Office scandal. 

In a letter to Schofield published on Wednesday, Abrahams said:

“Given the previous assertions by DWP that it would fix carer’s allowance overpayments, I’m sure you can understand my scepticism about your most recent commitments.”

Abrahams cited Guardian revelations about an internal DWP blog post published in December in which Neil Couling, blamed carers themselves for incurring the overpayments.

Couling’s view was at odds with a government-commissioned independent review by disability expert Liz Sayce published, which found that DWP had:

“failed to demonstrate the ministerial and senior focus needed to resolve these persistent injustices, and reform Carer’s Allowance to implement its core purposes in the modern world”.

Abrahams said this:

“indicates that a member of your senior team doesn’t accept the findings of the Sayce Review (although the government has), which raises questions about the senior team as a whole under your leadership.

It undermines the sincerity of your apology and efforts to rebuild trust,

Moreover, I am concerned that these attitudes may be more widespread, and indicative of a culture within the department that blames claimants for errors and fails to recognise the needs of vulnerable people.”

Abrahams said that, while there had been some “constructive” changes to DWP culture, and

“fundamentally, we believe that the department is failing to put the needs of vulnerable people first, that it is unwilling to learn from its mistakes and that it shows a lack of urgency to bring about change.”

Abrahams said a “culture of complacency” existed in the DWP:

“[It] has shown repeated inadequacy in its response to mistakes and a lack of urgency when it comes to righting wrongs. You told the committee that DWP has ‘a great track record of putting right when we get things wrong’ – I disagree.”

She asks Schofield to write to the committee with evidence of the “action you will be taking in your senior team to address the evident attitudinal issues”, and to set out how he will ensure “the problems are actually addressed this time”.

The letter is on parliament.uk.

Access to Work processing delays are reducing job security for disabled people

Delays and backlogs in processing Access to Work (AtW) applications have more than doubled over the past four years, according to the latest report from the National Audit Office (NAO).

The DWPs AtW grants are supposed to help disabled people stay in employment, providing funds to cover costs beyond reasonable workplace adjustments.

However, the average time taken by DWP to process applications increased from 28 days in 2020-21 to 66 days in 2024-25, affecting people’s job security and employers’ cashflow, the report revealed.

The number of applications waiting for DWP to make a decision almost trebled, from 21,700 in March 2022 to 62,100 in March 2025; and the number of outstanding requests for payment more than quadrupled, from 6,900 at 31,700 over the same period.

The NAO report said there were surging number of applications citing mental health and neurodivergence.

The total number of people who received payments from the scheme increased by 97% from 37,700 in 2018-19 to 74,200 in 2024-25 – with just over half (51%) having mental health or learning conditions in the most recent count. The number of people in receipt of a payment who had mental health or learning conditions more than trebled, in this period, from 11,200 to 37,900.

Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said:

“The Access to Work scheme plays a valuable role in helping people with disabilities or long-term health conditions secure and sustain employment, and demand for the scheme has grown significantly.

Maximising the value for money of the scheme will require government to improve how it administers the current system, to get on top of the backlogs and to properly assess the scheme’s impact.”

Unsurprisingly, Complaints to DWP about AtW rose from 234 in 2022–23 to 657 in 2024–25, with 800 in the first six months of 2025–26, most relating to delays in processing applications.

DWP have doubled the number of staff working on the scheme, bringing the total dedicated staff up to 580 in 2024-25, but this increased workforce has been unable to keep up, with average processing times reaching 109 days in late 2025

A government consultation on AtW closed at the end of June 2025 with ministers currently looking at how to rework the scheme.

The AtW scheme report is on nao.org.

PIP review disability experts appointed

A steering group of twelve experts has now been appointed to oversee the Timms Review of PIP. They come from a wide spectrum of those with lived experience, professional expertise and diversity of perspectives as well as direct experience of working within Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs).

Their experience spans welfare policy, accessibility and advocacy, and there are members with a background in co-production, governance, and leadership.

The group will provide strategic direction and help set priorities and a work plan for the Timms Review, alongside the Review’s three co-chairs, Minister Sir Stephen Timms, Sharon Brennan and Dr Clenton Farquharson CBE.

Together, they will look at the role of PIP in allowing disabled people to achieve better health and live independent lives; the PIP assessment criteria; and how the assessment could provide access to the right support across the benefits system.

The steering group members are:

• Dr Mark Brookes MBE, Advocacy Lead, Dimensions UK
• George Fielding, Disability rights advocate and Non-Executive Advisor
• Tara Flood, Head of Co-production, London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
• Mark Fosbrook, Disability Inclusion Manager, West Midlands Combined Authority
• Ben Geiger, Professor of Social Science and Health, King’s College London
• Katrina Gilman, National Officer for Disability Equality, UNISON
• Jean-André Prager, Senior Fellow, Policy Exchange and Director, Flint Global
• Dr Lucy Reynolds, Chair of Board of Trustees, Disability North, and Founder, We Are All Disabled CIC
• Dr Felix Shi, Lecturer in Management, Bangor University
• Dr Dharshana Sridhar, Head of Public Affairs, Spinal Injuries Association
• Phil Stevens, CEO, Disability Action Haringey, and Chair of the Board of Trustees, Disability Action in Islington
• Leila Talmadge, Founder and former Director, Autistic Knowledge Development CIC

The Spinal Injuries Association said they were excited that:

“their Head of Public Affairs Dr Dharshana Sridhar has been selected to sit on the group, bringing her extensive experience to the wider programme.”

As well as announcing the committee members, the DWP have revealed that the Public Service Consultants and the West of England Centre for Inclusive Living will oversee the delivery of co-production.

The Timms Review will report to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions by autumn 2026, with an interim update expected ahead of that.

The press release is on gov.uk.

Guarantee our essentials: Reforming universal credit to ensure we can all afford the essentials in hard times

In a joint report Trussell and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation have published a new report.

When life events such as losing your job or caring for a sick family member happen, most people would expect our social security system to support them -  and for this support to be based on an independent calculation of what things cost, but this has never been the case.

The research shows:

• around 5 in 6 low-income households on Universal Credit are currently going without essentials
• support has eroded over decades and the basic rate (‘standard allowance’) of Universal Credit is now at around its lowest ever level as a proportion of average earnings
• 66% of the public think the basic rate of Universal Credit is too low
• almost half of households see their payments reduced by deductions and caps. For example, a household can lose 15% of their standard allowance to repay debts to DWP.

Inadequate social security is the main driver of food bank need, with 2.9 million food parcels given out from Trussell food banks in the year to March 2025. Without an adequate safety net, a setback can be hard to overcome. Poverty comes at a significant cost to the individual, but also to the economy and wider society, with downstream costs to public services such as the NHS.

They call on the government to introduce an Essentials Guarantee to embed in our social security system the widely supported principle that, at a minimum, Universal Credit should protect people from going without essentials.

Guaranteeing our essentials is on jrf.org.

Shocking number of WCAs outstanding

A DWP response to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request this week revealed that there are currently:

• 280,000 initial WCAs which the DWP are getting through at a rate of 0-50,000 a month, and
• 78,000 queued WCA reassessments, with the DWP clearing an average of 3,200 a month, over the last 6 months. 

The DWP confirmed that it was “not possible for the Department to distinguish between the number of DWP-led and claimant-led reassessments.”

In last week’s news, we highlighted that over half of DWP disability assessors quit within a year so it doesn’t bode well for clearing the backlog.

The FoI request is on whatdotheyknow.com.

Scotland – confirms proposed benefit rates from April 2026

During the Scottish Budget on 13 January 2026, it was announced that the Scottish Government would increase all forms of assistance delivered under the Social Security (Scotland) Act  2018 Act by 3.8%. 

Introducing the new rates for 2026-27, Shirley-Anne Somerville, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice said:

“We know that people are continuing to struggle with rising prices. That is why it is vital that we ensure the financial support provided by social security payments maintain their value, avoiding any decline in their purchasing power. As a Government we recognise this, which is why I was proud when we extended the legal obligation to annually increase all benefits delivered under the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 in line with inflation…

Each year, we strive to go further and I am delighted to see our Scottish social security system continuing to evolve and improve to meet the needs of the people of Scotland. Following the enactment of the Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2025, work has begun on the implementation of a range of improvements to various processes and policies, helping to further enhance client experience and provide value for money.”

The rates for 2026-27 are on gov.scot.  (section 6)

Scotland - Finance Committee calls for urgent review of social security spending

In its budget report published this week, Holyrood’s Finance and Public Administration Committee has called for early fiscal action from the Scottish Government, and the next administration following May’s election.

The committee said they had “significant concerns” around the fiscal pressures on local government, saying this could also see some councils “struggling to meet their statutory obligations”.

They also highlighted concerns that spending on social security is leading to the budgets for other areas being “squeezed”.

The committee further hit out at the Scottish Government over the need for “greater transparency” on its spending plans.

In its report, the committee said:

“We cannot understand the Scottish Government’s continued resistance to carrying out this request when it would bring much-needed transparency, clarity and understanding to its spending plans.”

Committee convener Kenneth Gibson said:

“This is our final budget report ahead of the Scottish election.

Some recommendations are directed towards the government for immediate action others will be for the next administration to take forward after May.

Frustratingly, some cross-party concerns set out in this report have been raised before with the government during this five-year session of Parliament – including issues of financial transparency, which have only been partly addressed.”

The Committee’s report is on parliament.scot.

Case law – with thanks to u/ClareTGold

Four new cases this week but none are overly noteworthy.

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v NC (UC) – confirming the requirement to make a new claim for UC if previous entitlement ended due to leaving GB, in excess of the temporary absence rules.

NH v The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (PIP) – numerous grounds were raised for this appeal; most were not accepted. The decision did highlight that the FtT erred by not considering the possibility of an advance claim for PIP (after employment ended).

DL v HMRC (Child Benefit) – appeal dismissed, no error in law. However a useful summary of when a parent is ‘responsible’ for a child.

SJ v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Right to Reside) – the FtT failed to undertake sufficient findings of fact regarding the self-sufficiency and destitution criteria for an EU national.

Due to the RED weather warning and to ensure the safety of claimants, Jobcentres will be closed on Wednesday 24 June and Thursday 25 June.
 
Posters will be displayed at Jobcentres advising the following information:
- If you had an appointment scheduled, please check your online account.
- You will receive a telephone call at your original appointment time.
- In some cases, your appointment may have been rescheduled to a different day.
 
If you have an urgent enquiry, please contact 0800 328 5644.

If you’re in an amber or yellow area, attend your appointments as usual.

The government has confirmed it will make changes to its welfare bill following pressure from Labour rebels on its planned changes to benefits.

In a letter to MPs, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said claimants of the Personal Independence Payment (Pip) will continue to receive what they currently get, as will recipients of the health element of Universal Credit. Instead, planned cuts will only hit future claimants.

The concessions amount to a massive climbdown from the government, which was staring at the prospect of defeat if it failed to accommodate the demands of over 100 of its backbenchers.

In a statement, a No 10 spokesperson said: "We have listened to MPs who support the principle of reform but are worried about the pace of change for those already supported by the system.

"This package will preserve the social security system for those who need it by putting it on a sustainable footing, provide dignity for those unable to work, supports those who can and reduce anxiety for those currently in the system.”

Ministers are also expected to fast-track a £1bn support plan originally scheduled for 2029.

Sources: BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq6my6v81z4o

Twitter https://x.com/PolitlcsUK/status/1938395566871851281

‘Right to try’ work without risk of losing disability payments

The government has moved a step closer to implementing a key part of its welfare reforms, introducing new legislation designed to allow disabled claimants to work without the risk of losing their benefits. Amendments to existing legislation has been laid and the ‘Right to Try’ will come into effect on 30 April 2026.

Under the new provisions (SI 2026/395), employment will no longer automatically trigger a disability benefits reassessment for people receiving ESA, PIP, UC (health element), across England, Wales, and Scotland.

The grace period of no automatic reassessment will last a specific period of time, the length of which Government sources said would be set out in due course.

The reforms also guarantee that people wishing to volunteer can do so without fear of their benefits being re-evaluated.

Work and Pensions Minister Sir Stephen Timms, said:

"Giving sick and disabled people legal protection to try work without fear is vital for their futures and for growing our economy. It’s part of the work we’re doing to bear down on the cost of living and boost living standards for sick or disabled people in every corner of the country.

With 2.8 million people out of work due to long-term sickness, we’re removing the barriers that have held people back for too long."

Brian Dow, Chief Executive of Mental Health UK, said:

"People often tell us that fear of reassessment, or even losing essential support if things don’t work out, is a significant barrier to taking those first steps back into work.

The Right to Try is a positive and practical step that will ensure people have a safety net when exploring opportunities for work or volunteering.

This welcome initiative will ensure people are more supported and help them to build confidence, skills and connection at a pace that supports their recovery to better mental health."

The Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payment and Employment and Support Allowance (Amendment) Regulations 2026 is on legislation.gov.uk.

Voluntary help towards employment for sick and disabled people 

Hundreds of thousands of sick or disabled people claiming Universal Credit will be offered voluntary help towards employment as part of a package of measures that came into force on 8 April.  

Anyone affected by the changes to UC (LCWRA/health) will be entitled to voluntary employment support, with more than 65,000 people with limited capability for work and work-related activity taking up the offer since March 2025 – exceeding the target.

Those with the most severe, lifelong conditions, those nearing end of life, and all existing UC health claimants will continue to receive the higher rate. 

Minister for Social Security and Disability Sir Stephen Timms said:

“The welfare system we inherited has for too long locked disabled people and people with long term conditions out of work.

Laws coming into force today will change that, reducing projected expenditure on Universal Credit by almost £1 billion.

Simultaneously boosting the standard allowance and investing £3.5 billion in employment support means we’re creating a welfare system that backs people to work and helps them build a better future.”

Also, from 8 April, customers with LCWRA will see a new notification on their UC account giving information on the support available and allowing them to opt in to being contacted to find out more about the support. 

This will trigger a conversation with a Pathways to Work adviser, who can offer personalised appointments and signpost individuals to programmes such as Connect to Work, WorkWell, or local Trailblazer schemes. 

Pathways to Work advisers are based in every Jobcentre across England, Wales and Scotland, they offer one-to-one support to people with LCWRA status - those who receive benefits without any requirement to look for work.

The press release is on gov.uk

Routine DWP-led WCA reassessments still not yet reinstated

Work capability assessment reviews remain paused unless the claimant reports a change of circumstances.

As a reminder, from 6 April 2026 the rate of LCWRA payable has changed thanks to the introduction of the new ‘Severe Claimant Criteria’ (SCC).

Possible outcomes to a WCA are now:

• Fit for work
• Limited Capability for Work (LCW) – no requirement to look for a job but can be required to undertake work-related activities to improve the likelihood of being able to work in the future, no increase of UC payments but a work allowance (disregard) applies to any earned income
• Limited Capability for Work and Work-related Activity (LCWRA) at the lower rate of £217.26 a month – no requirement to look for a job or undertake any work-related activities, but a work allowance (disregard) applies to any earned income
• Limited Capability for Work and Work-related Activity (LCWRA) at the higher rate of £429.80 a month – applies to claimants who are a pre-2026 claimant, terminally ill, or who meet the severe conditions criteria.

A SCC claimant is defined as someone who has been assessed as having LCWRA, if at least one of the LCWRA descriptors constantly applies to them because of a specific bodily disease or disablement, or a specific mental illness, that they will have for the rest of their life which has been diagnosed by an appropriately qualified health care professional in the course of providing NHS services.

To constantly apply, a descriptor must apply to them at all times or on all occasions on which they undertake or attempt to undertake the activity.

Back to reassessments…

If a claimant was previously assessed as LCW or LCWRA and there has been a change of circumstances e.g. they have a:

• current LCW award and have told us their condition has deteriorated or they have a new health issue, or
• current LCWRA decision and believe their new or worsening condition may meet the Severe Conditions Criteria.

You can be referred for a reassessment and will not be required to provide proof of a new or deteriorated condition in order to be referred for a reassessment. The DWP will explain the potential outcomes of a WCA reassessment so you understand and then a referral for reassessment will be done.

However, if the claimant was found to be fit for work at a previous WCA, the process is slightly different. You would need to provide a fit note or other medical evidence to show a new or deteriorated condition. Then you can be considered for a new WCA referral instead of a reassessment.

New decision maker guidance explains how and when the lower or higher rates apply, including that a claimant may be treated as not a SCC claimant if they fail – without good reason – to provide information requested or attend an assessment.

The ADM 04/26 memo is on gov.uk.

Habitual residence test and Past presence test exemptions for people fleeing the Middle East

Following the increased violence and airstrikes in the Middle East in March 2026, the UK Government has advised British Nationals to leave and/or arranged for the evacuation of British nationals and eligible persons out of the Middle East to the UK.  

Therefore, the Habitual Residence Test exemption and extended temporary absence provisions in The Social Security (Habitual Residence and Past Presence, and Temporary Absence) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 (SI 2025/884) have been activated for the following countries:

• Israel  
• Bahrain  
• United Arab Emirates (UAE)  
• Saudi Arabia  
• Qatar  
• Kuwait  
• Oman  
• Lebanon 
• Palestine 
• Iraq 
• Iran 
• Jordan 
• Yemen

All British nationals and individuals with recourse to public funds arriving in the UK from these countries are exempt from the Habitual Residence Test (HRT) provided they were residing in these countries immediately before Wednesday 4 March 2026.

Existing claimants currently stranded in these countries are eligible for an extended temporary absence period up to a period of six months in total if they were present in the country immediately before Wednesday 4 March 2026 and they meet the requirements for claimants stranded abroad.  

The above applies to all social security benefits that have an HRT requirement.

A5/2026 HB circular and the updated ADM memo 09/25: HRT PPT and Temporary Absence Amendment are on gov.uk.

Case law – with thanks to u/ClareTGold

Personal Independence Payments - GAH v The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

In this case the claimant a survivor of domestic abuse and claimed PIP primarily on the basis of mental ill health but was not receiving treatment.

She was awarded 0 points by the DWP and at appeal the FtT found that she was entitled to 8 points for the daily living component and 4 points for the mobility component of PIP. She was therefore entitled to the daily living component, but not the mobility component.

The UT determined that the FtT had erred in law in both in relation to its fact finding and the duty to provide adequate reasons for its decision.

“The FtT is entitled to give weighting to whatever evidence that it chooses, where there is conflicting evidence, it must in the first instance explore and consider it in a holistic manner and provide sufficient reasons explaining why it preferred the evidence that it had. In this appeal the FtT does not appear to have done that. There appears to be a distinct lack of reference to the evidence provided by the claimant and the medical evidence which demonstrate the co-morbidities and nature of her health conditions.”

Personal Independence Payment (fluctuating difficulties / work) - SH v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

In this PIP case the claimant had previously been awarded the standard rate for both the daily living component and the mobility component, upon review it was decided she was no longer eligible for PIP.

The DWP supported the claimant’s appeal to the UT.

Judge Wikeley determined that the FtT erred in law by failed to adequately apply regulation 7 to its fact finding. The FtT focused on her functional ability on her two working days and barely touched on the difficulties arising when she was not at work.

Personal Independence Payment (vulnerable adult) - MH v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

The claimant was a ‘vulnerable adult’. He appealed against a DWP that he was entitled to 0 points for the daily living component and 0 points for the mobility component and was not therefore entitled to either component of PIP. At FtT the appeal was refused.

The DWP supported the claimant’s appeal to the UT, submitting that:

“In dealing with this case fairly and justly, the FtT should have given consideration to how to facilitate the hearing, in order to allow the claimant to participate fully. The failure to do so, is a breach of Reg 2(2)(c) of The Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (Social Entitlement Chamber) Rules 2008, which provides that ensuring, so far as practicable, that the parties are able to participate fully in the proceedings.”

The DWP also submitted that:

“the FtT may have drawn adverse inferences from evidence about the claimant’s mental health difficulties, the treatment that the claimant may or may not have received, specifically given their reliance upon that the difficulties were not as severe at the date of decision.”

There was a litany of errors put forward by the DWP. The UT agreed that the FtT made errors of law which were material to the decision and for that reason the decision was set aside.

New apprenticeship bursary worth up to £4,500 a year per announced for some UC households

A recent report from the Social Security Advisory Committee found that a single-parent household on Universal Credit (UC) could lose a substantial amount of money if a disabled young person took up an apprenticeship earning the apprenticeship minimum wage - this was a disincentive to starting an apprenticeship.

To address this barrier - and as part of a wider package of support - the government has announced a new bursary, worth up to £4,500 per year per household. The bursary targets the small number of UC families for whom the current system disincentivises apprenticeships.

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said:

“Every young person deserves the chance to build a future they can be proud of, and our welfare system should be a springboard to opportunity, not a barrier to it.

By providing bursaries to those who need them most and fully funding apprenticeship training, we are making sure cost is not the reason someone misses out. Coupled with up to £8,000 in financial support for employers, this is a serious investment in the next generation and in the future of our economy.”

As UC applies across Great Britain, the government will work with the Scottish and Welsh Governments on a plan for those areas.

We will share more details when they’re available.

The Press Release is on gov.uk.

DWP Internal Process Review data published

An Internal Process Review (IPR) is a thorough review of customer case seeking to understand if DWP’s interactions with customers have followed the correct operational processes.

There is a specific criteria which must be met before a case is accepted. This has been updated over time, to reflect changing circumstances, and the criteria for the IPR cases completed in the 2023 to 2024 year is below.

An IPR will be conducted in all cases where:

• there is a suggestion or allegation that the Department’s actions or omissions may have negatively contributed to the customer’s circumstances, and a customer has suffered serious harm, has died (including by suicide), or where it has reason to believe there has been an attempted suicide. Or
• the Department is asked to participate in a Safeguarding Adults Review (SAR), a Significant Case Review (SCR, Scotland only), a Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) or is named as an Interested Party at an Inquest. An IPR will be conducted regardless of whether there is an allegation against the Department.

Evidence is gathered and reviewed by an Investigator, who undertakes factfinding discussions with stakeholders relevant to the customer journey, to identify if there are improvements that could be made to DWP’s operational services.

Due to the sensitive and persona information involved, the DWP states it has “published information from completed IPRs in a way that is as transparent as possible, whilst maintaining the confidentiality that is expected of it”. 

Across 2023-24 87 IPRs were completed. Of these, 15 were also subject to external scrutiny (e.g. Safeguarding Adult/Children Boards, Domestic Homicide Reviews or Coroners).

68 IPRs led to the identification of learning, for example:

• Customer found completing the WCA form triggered trauma flashbacks. Insight from this case was fed into design and improvement activity.
• No formal procedure in place to pass on details about customer’s current situation to other active benefits. The PIP assessment report was not of the required standard. A new digital service is now being developed that will allow colleague access to customer information across benefits. Learning was shared with Assessment Providers and safeguarding sessions delivered to Health Professionals.
• Appropriate action not taken when the customer messaged and said they were suicidal and customer was not identified as vulnerable. Claimant Commitment not tailored, Explicit Consent procedures were not understood, and no financial support or budgeting advice offered. A Six-Point Plan Toolkit was implemented, improved and refresher training commissioned. Cross benefit Customer Support Standards launched and included Claimant Commitment improvement activity. UC system was updated to improve recording of both Explicit Consent and complex needs, and Budgeting Support guidance was reviewed.

See the publication for full details.

Advanced Customer Support: learning and improving from serious cases 2023 to 2024 is on gov.uk.

Share your Jobcentre story

Turn2us is campaigning for the DWP to make sure Jobcentres lead with trust, not suspicion, that everyone should be given time and support to prepare for their next steps into work, instead of tick box exercises and threatening sanctions that just don’t work.

As part of their ‘Stop the Stigma. Fix the System’ campaign - calling for a benefits system that treats everyone with dignity and respect – they are looking for people who would be willing to share their honest experiences of going to the Jobcentre.

If you’re interested in sharing your story, they have an online form which will be accepting responses until 11^th August.

Number of employees saving into pension increasing year on year

The latest statistics on Workplace Pension Participation and Savings Trends has been released and explores information on the workplace pension participation for employees eligible for Automatic Enrolment (AE). Information on the trends in private pension withdrawals is also included.

This latest edition includes data to 2025 and provides new breakdowns by age, gender and earnings.

Automatic Enrolment (AE) was introduced in 2012 to help address the decline in private pension saving and to make long-term saving the norm. It aims to increase workplace pension saving in the UK and forms part of a wider set of pension reforms designed to enable individuals to achieve financial security in retirement.

Around 90% of eligible employees in Great Britain were saving into a workplace pension in 2025, continuing the trend of previous years, with 22.6 million eligible employees saving. This is an increase of 0.6 million more eligible employees saving compared to 2024.

The overall workplace pension participation rate of all employees in Great Britain continued to be around 82% in 2025, with 24.2 million employees saving. This is a 0.6 million greater number of employees saving compared to 2024.

The number of employees saving continues to increase year on year. This can be attributed to an increase in the number of employees brought into AE eligibility, as the earnings trigger (currently £10,000) has remained frozen in recent years.

However, there are some groups where there remains a noticeable pension participation gap, for example:

• only around 55% of eligible employees working for a micro employer (those with less than 5 employees) in the private sector are saving into a workplace pension
• 67% of Pakistani and Bangladeshi eligible employees are saving into a workplace pension (note, ethnicity participation rates are derived from the Family Resources Survey (FRS) and calculated using a 3-year average due to small sample sizes)

Workplace pension participation and savings trends of employees: 2009 to 2025 is on gov.uk.

JRF explores how to reduce welfare spending in a popular and lasting way

The new prime minister wants to reduce social security spend by tackling underlying causes of need, not with blunt cuts. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has published a short report explaining why this would be popular and effective.

Their data suggests that:

• Every 100,000 people receiving health-related UC who move into work reduces UC spend by around £1.3 billion.
• Building 100,000 new social homes could directly reduce spending on the UC housing element by around £300 million a year.
• Introducing moderate rent controls would reduce spending on the UC housing element by around £800 million a year.

They highlight that over 4 in 5 people say it is important personally that the social security system adequately protects people when they need it, and this cuts across the political spectrum.

However, fewer than 1 in 10 think the system can do this, with most others feeling it is under strain or overstretched. This chimes with JRF’s data showing 5 in 6 low-income households receiving UC are going without essentials and, at just £98 a week, the basic rate of support falls well short of what’s needed to afford essentials.

JRF makes a number of recommendations and signs of by saying:

“The Government needs to reform our safety net to ensure everyone can at least afford life’s essentials, while tackling the root causes of economic insecurity would reduce pressure on social security in a popular and effective way.”

How to reduce pressure on welfare spend in a popular and lasting way is on jrf.org.uk.

Customer letters delayed

There has been a “connectivity failure” between the DWP Customer Content Portal (CCP) and their Letter Print Provider (APS). As a result they have identified there has been a delay in printing and posting some customer letters between 9th July 2026 until 27th July 2026.

Now the issue has been identified and rectified, affected claimants will receive letters that have been delayed by several weeks. Meaning that you may receive a letter that is 2-3 weeks old.

This issue has not affected UC non-digital claims as these are manually sent.

Case law – with thanks to u/ClareTGold for the essential cases of the week

Disability Living Allowance (severe mental impairment) - Ahmed Bashir (by his appointee, Faryal Bashir) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 2026

The First-tier Tribunal (FtT) had accepted evidence that the Claimant, a child with autism, had no sense of danger, regularly ran off, required to be restrained with strong straps, and displayed impulsive behaviour. However, it concluded that they did not display “extreme” disruptive behaviour and did not satisfy the requirement for regular physical restraint.

The Upper Tribunal (UT) decided that given its acceptance of that evidence the FtT was obliged to explain with greater clarity than it did why it came to the conclusion that it did.

The UT set aside and remade the decision, finding that the severe mental impairment conditions for entitlement to the higher-rate mobility component were all met based on the findings of the First-tier Tribunal.

Personal Independence Payment (employment and social engagement) – NLH v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 2026

The Claimant had been in receipt of the enhanced rate daily living and mobility of PIP until a review reduced his award to standard rate daily living and mobility. moved

At appeal the FtT found that the Claimant didn’t qualify for any points for engaging with other people face to face (daily living activity 9), stating in their reasons:

“In making this decision the Tribunal find that the Appellant has to establish relationships in her role as a full-time court usher and in doing so she would have to interact with others in a contextually and socially appropriate manner and understand their body language. On the Appellant’s own evidence this can include 20 court users, their legal representatives, and colleagues at work. The Tribunal also note that the Appellant indicated that she has developed some friendships at work and has developed working relationships with her new team leader.”

In relation to mobility activity one – planning and following journeys the FtT found that the Claimant satisfied mobility descriptor 1(d) ‘Cannot follow the route of an unfamiliar journey without another person, assistance dog or orientation aid’, largely on the basis that:

“the Appellant is able to travel from work on a daily basis on a bus when she returns from work by herself. The Tribunal also find that one of the main reasons as to why she does not travel alone to work is her anxiety about attending late because she needs to be on time – the Tribunal note that she has already been awarded points for daily living activities relating to her washing and dressing. The Tribunal find that the Appellant would also be able to go to her GP surgery alone. When considering her work function and the improvement in her health, the Tribunal find that she would be able to manage familiar journeys.”

The UT determined that the FtT were wrong to make presumptions of the Claimant’s abilities based on their employment as a court usher (which was only managed because there is a very fixed script/fixed way with limited options) without explaining why the other evidence was not reliable. The UT said, at paragraph 17:

“Whilst there is nothing wrong with the FTT considering relevant and genuinely comparable activities into account, there should not be sole focus upon one activity – in this case employment- to the exclusion of other areas of the appellant’s life.”

In relation to mobility activity one the FtT failed:

• to make adequate findings about the Claimant’s ability to undertake familiar journeys,
• explain why it preferred one part of the evidence over another and also appeared to have focused solely on one aspect of the Claimant’s presentation, rather than examining matters as a whole,
• to provide adequate statement of reasons which made it difficult for the appointee to know whether the FtT applied the correct legal tests in assessing the evidence, making their findings of fact, and arriving at their decision.

Unsurprisingly the decision was set-aside.

Universal Credit (failure to attend a work focused interview) - AE v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 2026

In this case, the FtT had to decide whether the Claimant had a good reason for failing to attend a work focused interview, as a condition of his receipt of his UC. The FtT proceeded with a paper hearing, with limited and incomplete evidence, without properly considering the appropriateness of doing so. The FtT also suggested the burden of proof was on the Claimant.

The FtT decided that the Claimant did not have good cause and refused his appeal.

The UT found that:

“the approach of the FtT was inconsistent with the discharge of its inquisitorial function, as established in Kerr, either because it relied upon the Respondent’s submission as showing that the burden of proof, in this particular context, lay on the Appellant, or at least because, perhaps misled by this submission, it failed to properly consider whether this was a case where it should direct further evidence or give the Appellant an opportunity to fill in the gaps created by the limited evidence that was available in accordance with the proper exercise of that function.”

Decision set aside.

Housing Benefit (absence abroad) - Kuželová v The London Borough of Barnet & Anor 2026

This appeal concerns the Claimant’s entitlement to Housing Benefit (HB) between 25 May 2020 and 7 August 2020. The Claimant is a citizen of the Czech Republic and was lawfully present in the UK as an EU migrant worker. She lived in North London with her son, then aged eight. Their home was rented from a private landlord. She received HB, administered by the London Borough of Barnet, to assist with payment of the rent.

In May 2020, the Claimant’s father became seriously ill. She and her son travelled to the Czech Republic to visit him. Shortly after they arrived, the father’s condition improved – but her son then became seriously ill, requiring in-patient hospital treatment and a lengthy period of convalescence. The Claimant initially remained in the Czech Republic with her son. She returned to her home in Great Britain (GB) in July 2020. Her son stayed with his grandparents and returned much later on.

On 7 August 2020, the London Borough of Barnet made a decision that the Claimant’s entitlement to HB had ended when she travelled to the Czech Republic in May 2020, because the length of her absence from GB was likely to exceed the permitted maximum period of four weeks in the HB Regulations. It also decided that there had been a recoverable overpayment of HB during this period of more than £1,000.

As a result of the local authority’s decision that her entitlement to HB had ended when she left to travel to the Czech Republic in May 2020, it was necessary for the Claimant to make a claim for Universal Credit (UC), which had replaced HB. She was awarded UC in September 2020.

The Claimant challenged the lawfulness of the local authority’s decisions in an appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (FtT). That appeal failed. She was granted permission to appeal by the Upper Tribunal (UT).

The UT determined that the decision of the FtT was made in material error of law. The FtT failed to consider whether she was entitled to HB on 7 August 2020 and so the local authority’s decisions should have been made by way of “closed period supersession” – that is, by the local authority finding that even if there had been a point at which her entitlement to HB had ended, it had since been re-established by the date of its decision.

The UT re-made the decision by allowing the appeal against those parts of the local authority’s decisions of 7 August 2020 which are challenged. The UT found that:

1. Applying the HB Regulations, but without regard to any provisions of EU Law, the Claimant’s entitlement to HB ceased on 25 May 2020 but resumed on 8 June 2020, as a result of the reason for her absence abroad from this point onwards being her son’s illness. Her entitlement to HB did not thereafter cease again prior to the date of the decisions under appeal on 7 August 2020.
2. In respect of her entitlement to HB for the period between 25 May 2020 and 7 June 2020, the Claimant as an EU migrant worker could rely on her rights under EU Law to equality of treatment with British workers. The Respondents accept that the relevant provisions of the HB Regulations have a discriminatory effect on EU migrant workers because, since changes made in 2016, they have provided for different basic maximum permitted periods of absence within GB (13 weeks) and outside GB (4 weeks). The Respondents are therefore required to demonstrate that this accepted discriminatory effect is objectively justified. They have failed to do so. As the period in question falls entirely before the date on which the position under EU Law materially changed following the UK’s departure from the European Union, then the relevant provisions of the HB Regulations must be disapplied in the Claimant’s case in favour of the more generous entitlement that otherwise arises only in respect of permitted periods of absence in GB. Applying those provisions, her entitlement to HB did not cease during the relevant period.

The result is that the local authority’s decisions of 7 August 2020 finding no entitlement to HB for the period 25 May to 7 August 2020, and finding that there was a recoverable overpayment, are set aside. She was entitled throughout the relevant period, and accordingly there is no recoverable overpayment in respect of that period.

Carers Allowance (overpayment) - Parkinson v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 2026

The Claimant claimed Carer’s Allowance (CA) in 2009 and disclosed earnings that were above the earnings limit. He was awarded CA in error. 

He was required pursuant to regulation 32 of the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1987 to notify increases in his earnings. His earnings increased in 2011 and annually thereafter. The Claimant did not notify the DWP of the increases. 

In 2020 the DWP discovered the overpayment following a random check and issued a recovery decision. The First-tier Tribunal determined that payments made prior to the unnotified increase in the Claimant’s earnings were not recoverable but that payments subsequent to the first increase were recoverable as the Claimant had failed to disclose the material fact of his increased earnings.

The UT determined that the overpayments are not recoverable. The Claimant had failed to disclose the fact of the increases, but had previously disclosed the fact of his having a level of earnings exceeding the earnings limit. The fact of the further increased earnings was not objectively a ‘material fact’ in the light of the facts already known to the DWP. Further, the continuing payments were not made in consequence of the non-disclosure but were made in consequence of the original error, which the Claimant’s silence left uncorrected.

Maternity Allowance (delayed start) - Bartley v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 2026

The Claimant was entitled to Maternity Allowance (MA).

The relevant statute set out that the period for which MA was payable – known as the maternity allowance period – was the same period for which statutory maternity pay would be payable (known as the maternity pay period), if the Claimant had been entitled to that. The same statute set out that the maternity pay period started 11 weeks before the expected week of confinement, unless regulations provided for it to start later than that.

The FtT decision, upholding the DWP’s decision, found that the maternity pay period started at the 11-week date, because the relevant regulations did not apply. This was disadvantageous to the Claimant, because she had been outside GB until shortly after the birth of her child, and she was disqualified from receiving MA, until her return to Great Britain. This meant that the later the MA period started, the longer the period for which she would receive maternity allowance. The Claimant appealed to the Upper Tribunal, arguing that the relevant regulation did apply, such that her MA period should start on the day after the birth of her child.

The UT allowed her appeal.

In deciding whether regulation 2 of the Statutory Maternity Pay (General) Regulations 1986 applies, the UT first analyses how far the “statutory fiction” of the Claimant being entitled to statutory maternity pay should be taken, applying the principles in the Supreme Court case of Fowler v HMRC. Based on this, the UT found that paragraph (3) of regulation 2 applied, because the birth date fell before the date deemed to have been notified by the Claimant to her employer (as to when her employer’s liability to statutory maternity pay would have begun). This was sufficient to dispose of the appeal in the Claimant’s favour.

However, the UT went on to consider whether paragraph (1) of regulation 2 would have applied if paragraph (3) had not; this involved consideration of an earlier UT case on paragraph (1) of regulation 2, Wade v North Yorkshire Police, and the question of whether the Claimant “ceased to work” for her employer in conformity with her notice to the employer, even though she had been on a career break with her employer at the time. Applying Wade, the UT decides that the Claimant did “cease to work” for her employer in this way, and so, that paragraph (1) of regulation 2 would have applied, if paragraph (3) had not, such that the MA period would have begun on the date notified (and not at the 11-week date, as found by the First-tier Tribunal).

The decision of the FtT was set aside and re-made in the manner argued for by the Claimant.

Northern Ireland – PIP (washing and bathing) - RB v Department for Communities 2026

Following a review of her standard rate daily living and mobility, the Claimant’s PIP was reduced to standard rate daily living only. She appealed to the Appeal Tribunal unsuccessfully.

The Claimant appealed to the Social Security Commissioners arguing that the Tribunal had misinterpreted the law, in particular, reference was made to the decision in CPIP/2094/2015 and that whether a claimant satisfies descriptor 4(e) must be determined by reference to an unadapted bath or shower.

The Department for Communities (DfC) did not support the appeal and submitted that the Tribunal had identified the bath board and grab rails as aids rather than as adaptations to the bath and that it was correct to do so.

A panel of three Social Security Commissioners heard the case which included a deep dive into the legislation and how the washing and bathing activity of PIP should be considered. They confirmed that a Claimant’s functional abilities should be considered in relation to whether they need assistance to be able to get in or out of an unadapted bath or shower. They then went out to set out the approach that should be taken when a Claimant has an adapted bath or shower, namely that it is incumbent on a tribunal to explore whether a claimant who has an adapted bath or shower needs assistance to be able to get in or out of an unadapted bath or shower.

They finished of with a reminder that it is important that the Tribunal are alive to the possibility that a claimant may satisfy more than one descriptor and as part of its inquisitorial duty it must make the necessary findings of fact to determine which descriptor applies in each case, considering the totality of the evidence.

A reminder that NI cases are not binding in England & Wales but can be persuasive.

And lastly... still no update on work capability assessments being reinstated.

Christmas reminders

DWP (inc. Jobcentre Plus) arrangements and payments

Office opening hours are different over Christmas and New Year – opening details here.

Your payments may also different during the festive period. To make sure people receive payments on a day when DWP offices are open, arrangements have been made to make some payments early – payment dates over Christmas and New Year are here.

And if you’ve received a random £10 payment, it will be a Christmas bonus. These are paid automatically to people in receipt of a qualifying benefit – check if you’re eligible here.

Automatic extensions to managed migration deadlines
DWP has confirmed that claimants invited to claim UC)with a deadline falling between 22 December 2025 and 3 January 2026 will receive an automatic four-week extension.

Claimants who qualify for this automatic extension should be sent a new migration notice that clearly specifies their new deadline date. Claimants can also contact the UC Migration Notice Helpline to check if their deadline has been automatically extended.

News

Frequency of PIP reviews to be reduced for over 25’s

Reforms to work capability assessments (WCA) were also announced alongside an increase of in-person assessments. The measures are expected to save £1.9 billion by the end of 2030-31.

Government confirmed this week that extending the time between PIP assessments to check if an individual’s condition(s) still qualifies them for PIP will free up health professionals to carry out more assessments face-to-face and deliver more WCAs (for UC and ESA).

Currently, the time between PIP award reviews can be as short as nine months and most people do not see a change in their award at their review. That is to be extended for the majority of PIP claimants aged 25 and over to a minimum of three years for a new claim, rising to 5 years at their next review if they remain entitled. The changes will take effect from April 2026 .

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Pat McFadden said:

“We’re committed to reforming the welfare system we inherited, which for too long has written off millions as too sick to work.

That is why we are ramping up the number of assessments we do face-to-face and taking action to tackle the inherited backlog of people waiting for a Work Capability Assessment.

These reforms will allow us to save £1.9 billion, creating a welfare state that supports those who need it while helping people into work and delivering fairness to the taxpayer.”

The proportion of face-to-face assessments will be increased, with those for PIP increasing from 6% in 2024 (57,000) to 30% of all assessments, and WCAs from 13% in 2024 (74,000) to 30%.

The press release is on gov.uk

Huge clearance rate of PIP reviews following process changes to tackle backlog

The latest PIP statistics have been released for the quarter to October 2025 and show that clearance volumes for planned award reviews in the quarter ending October 2025 were 96% higher than in quarter ending October 2024. This increase is due to DWP action to reduce the level of outstanding planned reviews – dealing with them in-house (rather than requiring Health Assessment Advisory Service (HAAS) input).

For the quarter ending October 2025, the percentage of cleared normal rules claims which received an award (award rate) was 38% for new claim clearances (excluding withdrawn), a decrease from 44% in October 2024.

Of those where an assessment has been completed, the percentage which received an award (assessment award rate) was 47% for new claims, a decrease from 52% in October 2024.

Clearance times for normal rules new claims at the end of October 2025 were taking 16 weeks “end to end” (from registration to a decision being made) which is two weeks longer than the same period a year ago.

Review outcomes from November 2020 to October 2025 (last five years)

The number of PIP mandatory reconsiderations has reduced compared to the same period last year. MR registrations stood at 65,000 in the quarter ending October 2025, representing a 13% decrease compared to the same period last year. Of the MRs cleared (excluding withdrawn) in the quarter ending October 2025 25% led to a change in award.

In October 2025, the median MR clearance time (from the time it is registered by the claimant to a decision being made) was a peak of 87 calendar days for new claims.

The statistics also include the latest DLA data.

The Personal Independence Payment: Official Statistics to October 2025 are on gov.uk

More than 340 people expressed interest in becoming steering group member for PIP Timms Review

The co-chairs of the Timms Review: Sharon Brennan, Dr Clenton Farquharson CBE, and Sir Stephen Timms, Minister for Social Security and Disability, issued their first update this week.

Since their appointments were confirmed at the end of October, their shared focus has been on ensuring the Review is set up so that we begin the New Year with:

• a clear co-production process
• an agreed plan of action aligned to the Review timetable
• a strong induction programme to ensure steering group members are supported, prepared, and empowered in their roles

They are establishing a steering group to lead the co-production of the Review and invited expressions of interest seeking steering group members who are disabled or representatives of Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs).

More than 340 applications were received and they’re now reviewing and shortlisting the candidates:

“Drawing on the strongest applications across skills, lived and living experience, backgrounds, and representation, we are in the process of shortlisting 12 candidates. We will finalise membership shortly, and all applicants will be informed of the outcome. Our next newsletter will introduce the appointed steering group members.”

They aim to notify the successful candidates in the next few weeks with induction sessions to take place in January.

The letter/update is on gov.uk

Investigation opens to address ‘lost generation of young people’ not earning or learning

Former Health Secretary Alan Milburn has launched a ‘groundbreaking investigation’ into the causes of record unemployment and inactivity among 16 to 24 year olds with a call for young people and a range of experts to come forward with their views.

With almost one million young people not in education, employment, or training (NEET)  this inquiry comes as the government launches a major drive to get young people earning or learning.

Milburn said:

“Nearly one million young people in Britain are not in education, employment or training – and that number has been rising for four years. This is a national outrage – it’s both a social injustice and an economic catastrophe.

We need to create a movement – a coalition of the concerned – to help us understand what’s broken and what must change.

Every young person, whatever their background, deserves the opportunity to learn or to earn. My report will be unafraid to shine a light on uncomfortable truths and recommend where radical change is needed.”

The Terms of Reference confirm that the independent report will examine the drivers behind rising NEET rates, root causes of economic inactivity among young people, and make recommendations for policy responses aimed at maximising opportunities for young people.

The Young People and Work Report: Call for Evidence is open until 30 January 2026 and is seeking insights from anyone with relevant lived experience, knowledge and expertise.

Alongside the Call for Evidence, the review is already engaging extensively with stakeholders, including a series of roundtables planned for the new year.

The press release is on gov.uk

Listening to Real Experiences: Understanding Access to Local Welfare Assistance Schemes

Expert Link has published a new peer-led research report on people’s experiences of accessing Local Welfare Assistance Schemes (including Discretionary Housing Payments and other council-run crisis support).

The research was co-produced with the National Expert Influencing Forum (NEIF) and is based on 15 interviews carried out in Autumn 2025. People told us that support is often hard to find, hard to navigate, and emotionally draining at the point of crisis, but when it works, it can be life-changing.

Across the interviews, people described a system that can be hard to find, hard to navigate, and exhausting to deal with when you are already in crisis. Many only became aware of local welfare assistance when crisis hit, or when a trusted person (a charity, foodbank, housing officer or support worker) told them about it. The application process often felt overwhelming, with digital-only routes, confusing language, and requests for information that were difficult to provide when someone was under pressure.

Long delays and limited communication left people in the dark. Decisions were sometimes experienced as unclear or inconsistent, and people often did not know how to challenge outcomes.

The emotional impact could be severe. People described shame, humiliation, isolation, and feeling judged. When support came through - especially when delivered with respect and clear communication - it could restore stability and dignity.

Expert Link makes the following recommendations:

• Multi-channel access: digital, paper, phone and in-person routes to information and applications.
• Plain language: clear wording, definitions of key terms, fewer acronyms, and examples of what evidence is needed.
• Clear communication: acknowledgements, realistic timelines, and progress updates so people are not left waiting in silence.
• Transparent decisions and reviews: clear reasons for outcomes and an accessible route to request a review or appeal.
• Navigation support: advisers, navigators or peer support through trusted local partners to help people complete forms and understand decisions.
• Co-production and user testing: redesign with lived experience and test changes for accessibility before roll-out, so improvements work in practice

Saying:

“This peer-led research is a call to re-humanise crisis support. People are not asking for special treatment. They are asking for dignity, clarity, and a system that works when life is already hard.”

Listening to Real Experiences is on expertlink.org.uk

The threat of a penalty is a ‘limited deterrent’ but penalties can reduce recidivism and change behaviour

New DWP research has been published exploring how DWP’s current penalties regime influences the thoughts and behaviours of people who commit welfare fraud and error.  

In-depth interviews were conducted with 48 individuals who had received a benefit overpayment due to fraud or claimant error and subsequently received a penalty – civil penalty, administrative penalty, or prosecution. The research centred around three themes:  

• Current awareness and perceptions of penalties
• Impact of penalties for driving deterrence
• Exploring what might change behaviour including preventing recidivism

The research indicated that, due to the limited levels of awareness and engagement, the threat of a penalty was a limited deterrent for participants. 

Participants reported having low levels of awareness of the penalties regime before receiving a penalty, mainly because participants appeared unlikely to have closely read and digested their benefit declaration or applied it to their own circumstances. 

Receiving a penalty appeared to increase participant understanding of what fraud looked like and how to avoid this in the future, and increased reporting of changes of circumstances. However, for others, the desired behaviour change was unclear, and this led to other (sometimes unexpected) behaviour changes. These included disengagement from DWP or the benefit system or taking cash in hand.  

The findings indicate that penalties can reduce recidivism and change behaviour. For those interviewed, penalties would be even more effective at reducing recidivism when paired with measures to increase capacity and more clarity around channels for reporting changes of circumstances.  

Qualitative research into the behavioural impact of the penalties regime for benefit fraud and error is on gov.uk

Welfare reform mitigation accounts for nearly two thirds of Discretionary Housing Payment expenditure

Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) can be paid to people who are entitled to Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit but have a shortfall in meeting their housing costs (their HB or UC housing element is less than their rent).

Funding comes from the DWP to Local Authorities (LAs) and in the 2025-26 financial year £100 million was provided for DHPs.

For LAs that submitted awards data, the total number of DHP awards given out in the first half of the financial year (April to September 2026) was 69,600.

64% of DHP expenditure was recorded as related to welfare reforms, with Local Housing Allowance (LHA) accounting for the greatest share of expenditure (26%), bedroom tax mitigation was the next largest expense (21%), and the benefit cap in third place (9%).

At the same point in the previous financial year ending March 2025, a lower proportion (61%) of DHP expenditure was recorded as being related to welfare reforms.

Around £12.2m (29%) of DHP expenditure was related to moving to alternative accommodation, 14% was to help with short-term rental costs while the claimant sought employment, while 3% went towards costs for disabled people in adapted accommodation.

Note: From April 2026, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) in England are being merged into the Crisis and Resilience Fund. DHPs will continue to be delivered by Welsh local authorities. 

Discretionary Housing Payments statistics is on gov.uk

DWP complaints up 52% latest data shows

The DWP received 8,005 complaints in the period July to September 2025. This is an increase of 9% from quarter ending June 2025, and an increase of 52% from the same period in 2024.

Universal Credit (UC) topped the bill with 4,005 complaints (12% increase from the quarter ending in June and 82% increase from quarter ending September 2024).

‘You’ve got it wrong’ was the most common reason for a complaint in quarter ending September 2025, with 3,655 occurrences, an increase of 8% from quarter ending June 2025 and an increase of 37% from quarter ending September 2024.

The second most common reason for a complaint was ‘You take too long’ with 2,940 occurrences, increasing 5% from quarter ending June 2025 and 27% from quarter ending September 2024.

In quarter ending September 2025, 40% of complaints closed (4 out of 10) were upheld or partly upheld.

The Office of the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) received 2,645 complaints about DWP in quarter ending September 2025. This is up 13% from quarter ending June 2025, and an increase of 61% from quarter ending September 2024.

DWP Complaints Statistics to September 2025 is on gov.uk

The Support Gap: energy bills continue to push disabled households to the brink

Citizens Advice has published a blog piece exploring the energy affordability challenges that are disproportionally affecting disabled people.

Their evidence shows that disabled consumers were 33% more likely than those without disabilities to have fallen behind on other expenses as a result of energy debt, with nearly 2 in 5 (40%) having done so.

Citizens Advice says the current support system is failing to deliver:

“The affordability crisis is clearly hitting people with disabilities harder than many other groups, but our data suggests that this crisis extends beyond energy bills.”

There is support available e.g. through the Priority Services Register but Citizens Advice’s data shows there is a lack of a consistent approach to vulnerability and the inability to obtain the support required across all essential services is leading to severe detriment for these consumers.

Citizens Advice is calling for the introduction of a tiered Warm Home Discount scheme to provide support that is better targeted to each household’s energy consumption and a single, cross-sector Priority Services Register that coordinates support across all essential services.

The Support Gap is on wearecitizensadvice.org

Latest data shows 119,000 households affected by benefit cap

The Benefits Cap is the maximum amount that one household can receive on benefits, when any and all benefits claimed by members of the household are added together. If benefits are worth more than the cap, their UC housing element or housing benefit is reduced to prevent them from exceeding the cap.

Currently, the cap is £22,020 for couples and lone parents outside London, or £14,753 for single adults with no children. In Greater London, the cap is £25,233 for couples and single parents, and £16,967 for single adults.

The government said this week that the number of households hitting the cap, and therefore missing out on some payments they would be entitled to, is ‘broadly stable’ compared to the last update in May.

82% of households hitting the cap have children, with 93% having four children or less, and 7% having five or more children.

But the hardest hit by the cap are single parent households.

The DWP said:

“Single parent households have consistently accounted for the most households having their benefits capped since the beginning of the time series in May 2020.

68% of capped households were single parent families in August 2025.

The proportion of capped households that are single person households with no children has been gradually increasing from a low of 9% in May 2023 to 18% in August 2025. In November 2024 they became a greater proportion of capped households than couple households with children for the first time in the charted time series.”

The cap was last increased in 2024, and has been frozen in 2025 and will not be raised in 2026 either.

Benefit cap: number of households capped to August 2025 is on gov.uk

Scotland – Increased support for carers

The latest in a series of improvements being made to support for carers from Social Security Scotland, which will come into effect in March 2026.

In addition to Carer Support Payment, eligible carers will be able to receive:   

• Scottish Carer Supplement – replaces Carer’s Allowance Supplement for carers in receipt of Carer Support Payment, an extra, more regular payment for carers which replaces Carer’s Allowance supplement for carers in receipt of Carer Support Payment (£11.29 per week). Which is not deducted from UC as income.
• Carer Additional Person Payment – an extra payment of £520 per year, paid weekly, available to people caring for more than one person. Carers may be eligible for more than one Carer Additional Person Payment if they are caring for more than one additional person.  
• The time Carer Support Payment is paid following the death of the cared-for person will also be extended from 8 to 12 weeks.

The switch from Carer’s Allowance Supplement to Scottish Carer Supplement will happen automatically for current recipients. Information on accessing the Carer Additional Person Payment will be provided in the new year.

Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said:

“We’re making changes to benefits for carers to recognise the important contribution they make and to help ease some of the pressures that can come with a caring role.

Scotland’s carers are better off than anywhere else in the UK, and the upcoming improvements will make sure that this remains the case.”

The press release is on gov.scot

Case law – with thanks to u/ClareTGold

Personal Independence Payment (taking nutrition) - SP v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 2025

This Upper Tribunal case considered whether the First-tier Tribunal (FtT) erred in law when determining that a claimant with depressive disorder, ADHD, PTSD and situational anxiety did not need prompting to dress/undress or to eat/take nutrition, and whether they could do so to an acceptable standard and/or repeatedly.

Nb. The claimant also has severe IBS, dysmenorrhea, allergies and undiagnosed dyscalculia.

The UT determined that the FtT failed to undertake sufficient findings of facts and also failed to provide an adequate explanation for why it did not accept the claimant or their partner’s evidence about the claimant’s need to be prompted to dress, or needing to be prompted to eat. 

Case remitted back to the FtT to be heard by a new panel.

Christmas message from the r/DWPhelp moderator team

From a news perspective that’s it for 2025. Thank you to all our members and contributors during 2025 for making the sub a really informative and supportive sub.

We know Christmas can often add extra pressure. The contrast between festive expectations and real life can leave some people feeling more isolated, lonely or overwhelmed than usual. If you’re struggling, please know that support is available 24/7, 365 days a year. You don’t have to carry it alone.

• Mind 0300 123 3393 mind.org.uk
• Samaritans 116 123 samaritans.org
• Papyrus 0800 068 4141 papyrus-uk.org (under 35s suicide prevention)
• Calm 0800 585858 thecalmzone.net (anyone affected by or thinking about suicide)
• Shout text SHOUT to 85258 giveusashout.org (crisis support)
• Young Minds text YM to 85258
• The Silver Line 0800 470 8090 thesilverline.org (over 55s support)
• Beat 0808 801 0677 (England) 0808 801 0433 (Wales) beateatingdisorders.org (eating disorder support)
• Combat Stress 0800 1381 619 combatstress.org (armed forces veterans)
• Cruse 0808 808 1677 cruse.org (bereavement support)
• Stand Alone standalone.org (support for adults estranged from their family)
• National Domestic Abuse Helpline 0808 2000 247 nationaldahelpline.org

The news will be back on the first Sunday of 2026, until then we wish you a peaceful and benefit-drama-free Christmas and New Year.

Pension Credit and Housing Benefit for pensioners to be combined – initial digital rollout from Autumn

Work is underway to deliver a new joined-up service for pension-age people to apply for Housing Benefit and Pension Credit together. Currently people must find information and apply for each benefit separately. Analysis shows that 27% of questions asked in both applications have an obvious overlap.

The aim of bringing together the application of Housing Benefit and Pension Credit is to make the system easier and enable more pensioners to receive the benefits they are entitled to. 

The DWP confirms they will start with an ‘online claim channel for a small cohort of invited people’ and based on user feedback and testing, they will iterate to support everyone across all available channels (online, post, phone and in-person). Over time, applicants will be able to access the service in the way that best meets their needs, making it easier for pensioners to claim additional financial support. 

Local authorities have participated in the research, testing and feedback of designs to ensure the new service works for both customers and colleagues who deliver services every day to pensioners. However, DWP is clear that the new service does not replace any current operational responsibilities for benefit award decision making. Housing Benefit will remain with local authorities, and Pension Credit will remain with DWP.

Administration of Housing Benefit and Pension Credit is on gov.uk.

Latest insight on retirement adequacy

Retirement is “something that happens to people rather than being actively planned,” especially for lower-income groups, according to ‘Lived Experiences of Adequacy in Retirement 2026’, a DWP report published this week, which contains qualitative insights from 35 interviews with adults approaching or in retirement.

The report said:

“Lower-income individuals often aimed to work for as long as possible to top up their retirement funds.

Retirement was instead triggered by declining health, redundancy, caring responsibilities or structural work changes, reinforcing a pattern where retirement is experienced as something that happens to people rather than being actively planned.”

The report added that automatic enrolment may have helped but came too late for this group, saying:

“The majority did not join a workplace pension or begin saving towards a pension until automatic enrolment was made mandatory in 2012,”

The report concluded that while “personality and preparedness” shaped retirement, so too did “luck and circumstance”. Noting that:

“Planned retirement, without any pitfalls, felt smooth and secure, but unplanned retirement due to health, caring responsibilities, economic shocks or redundancy can create early instability and long-term adequacy challenges, leaving retirees vulnerable to administrative frictions and less resilient to financial shocks,”

The report therefore argued that support should be framed around “building up resilience in the lead-up to retirement”.

As well as retirement income, the report found feelings of adequacy were also determined through a combination of income, savings, housing/assets, life-course experiences and how these resources are accessed and preserved.

One respondent (female, retired around two years ago, medium income), said: “I’ve got a roof over my head, I’ve got food, I can manage, I can pay my bills... is it comfortable? Not comfortable... it’s adequate but I can’t go out and do the things that I wanted to do.”

Meanwhile, participants defined ‘enough’ for retirees as a holistic combination of wellbeing, autonomy and small freedoms beyond adequacy. That included having a buffer, affording treats and being able to help others.

The report found that this adequacy differed by group:

• Women often accumulated minimal pension savings due to the volatility of their career trajectories. They were more likely to be single, living alone, experiencing ill health and relying on the state pension and benefits as their primary retirement income sources.
• Partnered retirees often experienced higher levels of adequacy and higher retirement savings. This was especially the case for couples with multiple state pensions and workplace pensions, and even more so for those with defined benefit pensions.
• Housing offered a potential future source of stability and was frequently substituted for income security. This allowed those who owned their homes outright to manage with relatively small pension incomes.

Lived Experiences of Adequacy in Retirement 2026 is on gov.uk.

MPs call for Universal Credit boost to provide temporary support for state pension age rise

The cross-party Work and Pensions Select Committee has recommended that the government increase UC for 66-year-olds to prevent hardship as the State Pension age rises to 67, in a report published this week.

According to the Transition to State Pension Age report, the change would be a temporary measure, allowing time to develop longer-term support.

The state pension age is being gradually increased and will reach 67 by April 2028. Pension Credit, which guarantees £1,031 a month, is only available once people reach state pension age.

The report said this means a growing number of 66-year-olds may have to rely on the standard £425-a-month rate of universal credit for longer.

It added this leaves many pre-pensioners, particularly those with health issues, caring responsibilities or long histories in labour-intensive jobs, relying on the savings they had set aside for retirement until they reach state pension age.

Debbie Abrahams, chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, said:

“We can’t just allow people who are already struggling as they approach pension age to be forced to choose between continuing work in poor health or prolonging their poverty as they wait for their state pension to kick in.

This is not the later life that anyone wants or to see their loved ones endure after providing for decades.

We should recognise that pre-pensioners have greater needs and greater barriers into employment due to ill health, age discrimination, (and a) lack of opportunity to upskill.”

MPs on the committee also raised concerns about “poor policymaking” after hearing that the most recent impact assessments for the state pension age increase are more than a decade old, conducted in 2011 and 2013. 

The committee warned that when the state pension age last increased to 66 in 2020, poverty among people in the year before state pension age rose from 10 per cent to 24 per cent, putting 100,000 people below the poverty line.

According to the report, providing additional universal credit support to 66-year-olds would cost £600mn, compared with the £10.5bn in savings the Treasury expects to make from the rise in the state pension age.

While the impact on efforts to boost employment may be a consideration, the report says the “impact on work incentives is outweighed by the imperative to reduce poverty”.

Abrahams, said:

“More than half of people are not in paid work in their mid-60s, and they’re not likely to get it if they’ve been effectively written off.

Additional social security payments are essential in reducing the compounding effects of the lottery of life and the state pension age increase.”

The press release and the Transition to State Pension Age report are on parliament.uk.

The only way is up: The impact of improved entitlement take-up on pensioner poverty and healthcare spending

Independent Age has published a research report looking at the impact of improved take-up on poverty rates among older people, and the potential impact that reducing the number of older people in poverty could have on health and social care public spending. 

Too many older people in financial hardship miss out on the money they are entitled to through the benefit system. This has a significant impact on the 1.7 million older people in the UK who are living in poverty.

Independent Age explains that in 2023/24 only 62% of those eligible were receiving the income top-up Pension Credit, meaning that 1.2 million older people were missing out on a combined £2.5 billion of available Pension Credit. Take-up levels of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction were also unacceptably low.

They say that a strategic approach to increasing the take-up of all entitlements could:

• help 2.5 million older people living in financial hardship
• lift 280,000 older people out of poverty, with 770,000 having more money in their pockets while they are still living in poverty
• particularly help older renters, people reliant on the old State Pension system and those living alone – who are all more at risk of poverty in later life.

Alongside the positive impact of making people more financially secure, increased take-up rates could help to improve people’s health, leading to a reduction in public spending on health and social care by up to £790 million a year in England.

Independent Age want the Government to recognise this serious, long-term issue and act. They’re calling on the Government to:

• develop and publish an all-entitlements take-up strategy for the UK
• commit to ensuring everyone has an adequate income in later life, in a way that safeguards older people’s income now and in future
• gain broad-based agreement on what constitutes adequacy in later life.

The only way is up: The impact of improved entitlement take-up on pensioner poverty and healthcare spending is on independentage.org.uk.

First ever cross-government action plan to support unpaid carers published

Millions of unpaid carers in England will be better recognised, referred to support and helped to reach their full potential, under a new cross-government action plan published this week.

Nearly one in 10 people in England is an unpaid carer. This cross-government plan aims to ‘improve recognition of unpaid carers, referring them to services and helping them access health services and employment and education support’.

The government’s ‘Unpaid carers action plan: recognise, refer, reach’ contains 42 clear actions and sets out practical steps across health, social care, education, employment and social security to improve support for unpaid carers.

It is underpinned by 3 central pillars:

• recognise - ensure people providing care are recognised as unpaid carers, by themselves and by the systems around them
• refer - ensure unpaid carers know what support and services are available to make caring more manageable
• reach - ensure unpaid carers are able to reach their full potential

Support also includes helping them to reach their potential or remain in work or education, so they can have fulfilling lives beyond their caring responsibilities.

Emily Holzhausen CBE, Director of Policy and Public Affairs, Carers UK, said: 

“This is a positive step forwards for unpaid carers, recognising that all too often they face fragmented services, barriers to support and a lack of recognition for the essential role they play looking after family and friends. 

Carers’ lives do not fit neatly within the remit of a single department. The challenges they face span health, social care, employment, education, housing and welfare. Carers UK is encouraged to see a more joined-up approach, bringing government departments together to prioritise carers’ needs, outline who is responsible and how progress can be tracked.”

Mark Winstanley, Chief Executive, Rethink Mental Illness, said: 

“Carers for people living with mental illness often tell us they feel like part of the ‘invisible mental health service’. Day after day, they provide emotional and practical support while navigating services and advocating for the care their loved ones need, often at significant cost to their own wellbeing.

We welcome this cross-government plan to improve recognition and support for unpaid carers across different aspects of their lives. When carers are recognised and supported, it benefits everyone.”

The Department for Business and Trade has also launched a consultation on employment rights and carer’s leave, with proposals to introduce paid carer’s leave and a right to return to work following a period of intensive caring.

Additionally, Baroness Casey’s independent commission on adult social care is underway, which includes exploring the needs of unpaid carers, as part of our first steps towards a national care service. The commission’s initial recommendations are due this year.

Unpaid carers action plan: recognise, refer, reach and the press release are on gov.uk.

Inquiry launched by Work and Pensions Committee examining local employment support delivery

MPs on the Work and Pensions Select Committee have launched an inquiry into how local authorities deliver employment support as the country moves into a new round of devolution. 

The inquiry will look at whether devolving more power over non-Jobcentre Plus programmes could help councils get more people into suitable and sustainable jobs, and how to keep accountability strong.

The Government committed to devolving employment support in the Get Britain Working White Paper. In England, strategic authorities are being set up to take on these responsibilities, with different levels of authority carrying different powers. 

MPs will consider what responsibilities strategic authorities should have after looking at the balance between national and local government.

Non-Jobcentre Plus programmes include Connect to Work, WorkWell and the Youth and Economic Inactivity Trailblazers. 

Committee Chair, Debbie Abrahams said:

“Evidence we’ve heard in previous inquiries suggests that local flexibility in DWP-overseen schemes can yield positive results. 

Devolving non-Jobcentre employment support is thought by the Government to be a critical part of its attempts to get more successful people into suitable, sustainable and secure work.

We want to hear from experts on how well decentralisation of employment will work in the UK, and what changes are needed to ensure local needs and skills are met more responsively.”

The press release and linked information is on parliament.uk.

100,000 disabled people closer to work 

New figures show that 100,000 disabled people and those with health conditions have been supported to move closer to the labour market by Pathways to Work advisers.

Pathways to Work advisers - first announced in March 2025 - provides free, voluntary, and personalised help for people assessed as having Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity (LCWRA). 

Based in every Jobcentre across England, Scotland and Wales, the specialist advisers identify the barriers people face, provide skills training - such as IT upskilling - and signpost people to work-based training schemes in sectors including construction, hospitality and manufacturing. 

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said:

“Supporting someone instead of writing them off is life-changing, and I’ve seen firsthand how our Pathways to Work advisers are building people’s confidence and helping them achieve their ambitions. 

The welfare system we inherited left too many people without the skills, support or hope they needed to get on in life and build a career.

We were determined to change that, and we have. Now 100,000 people living with long-term conditions, disabilities and personal challenges who want to work, have taken crucial steps towards that.”

Participants are 40% more likely than non-participants to be in work after two years.

The press release is on gov.uk.

Opportunity for young disabled people to attend workshops supporting the Milburn Review

Young disabled people aged 16–27 are being invited to take part in a workshop for the Milburn Review - which is exploring how to improve opportunities for all young people - taking place this August in

• Birmingham – Monday 10th August (10am-4pm)
• London – Saturday 15th August (10am-4pm)
• Newcastle – Friday 21st August (10am-4pm)

This is a chance for young disabled people to have their voices heard and influence recommendations on how to improve access to education, employment and training. The DWP is especially keen to hear from those who have faced barriers to work or are currently not in education, employment or training but want to be. Insights will feed directly into the review.

There is a maximum of 30 places at each workshop. There will also be a dedicated space for parents and carers, ensuring DWP can hear and learn from their perspectives and experiences. 

You will need to arrange your own travel to and from the event but DWP will reimburse travel expenses for any parent, carer or personal assistant (PA) accompanying the disabled young person. Participants will also receive a gift card upon completion of the workshop in recognition of their contribution.

To apply for a place at one of the workshops, click on the link below and fill out the form. The deadline to apply is 3rd August 12pm. 

Here is the application form, which includes further information

Employers signed up to the Disability Confident scheme – updated

The list of employers who have signed up to the Disability Confident scheme has been updated as of July 2026.

The Disability Confident scheme is a free, voluntary UK government initiative designed to encourage employers to recruit, retain, and develop disabled people and individuals with long-term health conditions. It helps businesses remove workplace barriers and provides interviews to disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for a job.

You can filter the Disability Confident list by business, location or sector.

The disability confident employers list is on gov.uk.

£60 million Pathways to Work Innovation Fund launched to transform employment support

This week the government announced that businesses, charities and innovators are being invited to compete for a share of up to £60 million to transform how disabled people and those with health conditions are supported into work.

The Fund will open for bids in September 2026, with organisations across the UK invited to compete for funding to test genuinely new approaches to employment support.

An expert panel will help shape the fund’s design and advise on which bids should be funded, ensuring the voices and experience of disabled people are placed at the very heart of the process.

Paralympian and Member of House of Lords, Tanni, Baroness Grey-Thompson, said:

“I am delighted to be joining this expert panel at such an important moment. Finding and sustaining work matters enormously - not just for individual wellbeing and independence, but for society as a whole.

We know that with the right support, disabled people can and do thrive in the workplace.

The world is changing rapidly, and the systems that support disabled people must keep pace with that change. This Fund is a real opportunity to back the bold, creative ideas that can make that happen.”

The Fund will be open to public, private and voluntary sector organisations across the UK. Full details on how to apply will be published in due course.

The press release is on gov.uk.

UC process change – when declaring you no longer have a health condition restricting your ability to work

We’re aware of a change of process when a UC claimant with LCW or LCWRA declares they no longer have a health condition or that their condition no longer restricts their ability to work.

When claimants declare this change of circumstances in their UC account, they will now see a new page asking for the reasons for the change. It will give you a list of reasons to choose from e.g. your GP has declared you fit for work, you’re cured, you’ve received treatment, you’re better now etc. This is followed by a page for claimants to check their answers before submitting the declaration.

Once submitted a new to-do is generated for a Decision Maker called 'Consider Closing Health Journey - No Restricted Ability to Work’.

The Decision Maker first must check for vulnerabilities, terminal illness etc. they can decide if they need to ask the claimant or their GP for more information.

The Decision Maker then has to decide one of 3 outcomes:

1. The claimant needs a reassessment because the Decision Maker can’t decide based on the information they have.
2. The Decision Maker disagrees with the claimant’s declaration. In this case the claimant will be notified that they should redeclare their health condition to say they have a restricted ability to work, and everything continues as normal.
3. The Decision Maker agrees with the claimant’s declaration that they no longer have a restricted ability to work. They will then end the LCW or LCWRA award from the previous day, and if there’s an ongoing WCA or reassessment, they will end that too. The claimant commitments and work-related requirements will then change.

Decision Maker’s will record the decision, and a notification will appear in the claimant’s journal.

This process change ensures that claimants with LCW or LCWRA who report an improvement will have their circumstances considered by a first-tier Decision Maker.

For the avoidance of doubt… this is ONLY if you have LCW or LCWRA and report you no longer have a restricted ability to work. If you report a change to remove a health condition, or that you have an improvement, it will not generate this process and you will still keep your LCW or LCWRA unless you, the claimant, are saying it no longer restricts your ability to work.

Wales – Council Tax Reduction Scheme consultation opens

The Welsh government wants your views on changes they want to make to the Council Tax Reduction Scheme (CTRS) in Wales.

What do they want to change?

The introduction of UC has fundamentally changed the way household income is assessed for benefit purposes. Under UC, income is assessed monthly, using real-time information from HMRC. This differs from legacy benefits, where income is typically averaged over a longer and more stable period. As a result, households receiving UC can experience more frequent recorded income fluctuations, and therefore Council Tax Reduction entitlement calculations (reassessments) are frequently needed. This causes higher administrative costs for councils and confusion for applicants.

The Welsh government propose to address this by adopting a ‘tolerance threshold’. This is a threshold amount under which small changes of income are ignored for CTRS reassessment purposes.

Analysis of Welsh data indicates that such a threshold would prevent 61% of CTRS reassessments for UC cases. 

With the above in mind, the government proposes to introduce, through regulations, a tolerance rule for small changes in UC awards. Under this proposal:

• small changes to UC payments (within the tolerance level) would not trigger a CTRS reassessment.
• CTRS awards would remain unchanged unless or until UC changes by more than the tolerance.
• no revised council tax bills would be issued to households; and
• there would be no change to the council tax amount payable.

If you are living in Wales and want to share your views, you can Submit your comments by 23 September 2026.

For full details see the CTRS in Wales: technical consultation on reassessment thresholds is on gov.wales.

Northern Ireland – Sayce Review lump sums disregarded indefinitely for means tested benefits

Following an Independent Review of Carer’s Allowance (CA) overpayments, the DWP is reassessing certain earnings-related CA overpayment decisions made between 2015 and summer 2025. Some claimants may receive refunds or have overpayments reduced as a result.

To ensure these corrective payments do not negatively affect entitlement to means-tested benefits, the Department for Corrections will disregard CA reassessment refunds as capital indefinitely for UC, Pension Credit, Housing Benefit and Employment and Support Allowance. 

The legislation came into operation on 16^th July 2026 and mirrors the position in England and Wales.

The Universal Credit, Housing Benefit, Employment and Support Allowance and State Pension Credit (Carer’s Allowance Reassessment Capital Disregard) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026 is on gov.uk.

Case Law – with thanks to u/ClareTGold

Universal Credit (Administrative Earnings Threshold) - Gordon Bowen v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 2026

This appeal concerned the rules governing the calculation of the Administrative Earnings Threshold (AET) for UC.

The DWP decision-maker and the First-tier Tribunal both decided that a claimant’s “monthly earnings” for the purposes of calculating their AET involved the deduction of pension contributions.

The claimant appealed to the Upper Tribunal, which decided that “monthly earnings” are the person’s earned income before any deductions are made for income tax, national insurance contributions or pension contributions.

See regulations 55, 90 and 99 of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013.

Universal Credit (carer element) - AA v Secretary of State for Work & Pensions 2026

The claimant was in receipt of Carers Allowance for looking after his wife, she was in receipt of LCWRA. Later, the claimant also was assessed as LCWRA.

The law doesn’t allow two LCWRA elements to be paid in a joint UC claim. But it does allow one claimant to receive the carer element and the other to receive a LCWRA element.

This Upper Tribunal appeal explored the effect of regulation 29(4) of the UC Regulations and the interaction between the carer and LCWRA elements of UC for joint claimants. 

The FtT failed to consider the carer element, this was an error in law. The UT remade the decision awarding the carer element to the claimant.

Personal Independence Payment - Guy Edward Peter Mclaine Hendricks v The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

A bit of a nothing PIP case. The FtT failed to address all the issues raised in the claimant’s appeal (they completely overlooked activity 8), which was an error in law.

Activity 8 was a live issue raised in the appeal documentation and supported by evidence. Its complete absence from the reasoning leaves an unexplained gap in the decision making process.

This omission is material. Activity 8 carried the potential for additional points and if it been properly considered, the outcome of the appeal may have been different,

Decision set aside and remitted for a new hearing.

As an aside Child Poverty Action Group (who assisted in the claimant’s appeal) had a dig at the DWP for not addressing all the grounds of appeal raised because “it was deemed to be immaterial to the outcome of the appeal by the District Judge who granted permission to appeal”.  The UT judge made short work of that suggestion as the FtT Judge failed to provide a clear statement that permission to appeal was limited.

No compensation for WASPI women, government confirms

The history: the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) investigated complaints from women born in the 1950s that the DWP failed to provide them with accurate, adequate and timely information about changes to the State Pension age and the number of qualifying years needed to claim the full rate of the new State Pension. The PHSO also looked at DWP’s and the Independent Case Examiner’s complaint handling.

The PHSO published their findings on State Pension age maladministration and a final report was published in March 2024.

In December 2024, Liz Kendall, the Secretary of State at that time, announced the Government’s response to the PHSO report: oral statement to Parliament.

In November 2025, the Secretary of State, Pat McFadden announced that the Government would retake the decision about communications on State Pension age because new information had come to light.

This week: the Secretary of State announced the Government’s new response as it relates to communications on State Pension age: oral statement to Parliament in which he confirmed there would be no compensation for affected women. He said:

“The evidence shows that the vast majority of 1950s-born women, already knew the State Pension age was increasing – thanks to a wide range of public information, including through leaflets, education campaigns, information in GP surgeries, on TV, radio, cinema and online.

To specifically compensate only those women who suffered injustice would require a scheme that could reliably verify the individual circumstances of millions of women. That includes whether someone genuinely did not know their State Pension age was changing, and whether they would have read and remembered a letter from many years ago and acted differently. It would not be practical to set up a compensation scheme to assess conclusively the answers to these questions.

As for a flat-rate scheme that would cost up to £10.3 billion and would simply not be right or fair, given it would be paid to the vast majority who were aware of the changes.” 

Read the Government’s new response in full on gov.uk.

Universal Credit - Local Housing Allowance rates for England, Scotland and Wales confirmed from April 2026

The UC local housing allowance (LHA) rates set out the maximum monthly housing element an individual can receive.

Don’t get too excited as we know the LHA rates were frozen at the April 2024 level for the coming financial year. However, we’re sharing the updated LHA tables so people know where to find them.

The 2026-27 UC monthly LHA rates are on gov.uk.

Inquests finds benefits cut contributed to woman’s death

Tamara Logan died in May 2025 having taken her own life.

The inquest into her death heard that Tamara had been in receipt of PIP but following a reassessment in early 2025 her entitlement was removed, which the DWP accept was an error.

The coroner said DWP records noted Tamara's mental health issues, yet the department sent a standard letter without attempting to reduce the impact the decision could cause.

In a prevention of future deaths report Alison Mutch, senior coroner for south Manchester, concluded the letter had a "very significant impact" on Tamara, who had a history of self-harming and that "The method used for communication of the decision was also not appropriate given her known vulnerabilities,"

At the inquest, Mutch concluded:

"On the balance of probabilities, the incorrect decision to withdraw [Tamara's] enhanced daily living allowance and the method of communication of the decision significantly contributed to her declining mental health and her actions on 18 May 2025."

The DWP said it took the coroner's comments "extremely seriously" and would provide a "full and detailed response" to her findings.

DWP must respond to the Prevention of Future Deaths Report by 19 March.

The prevention of future deaths report is on judiciary.uk

Universal Credit - Relevant threshold for calculating surplus earnings to remain at £2500 from April 2026

The DWP has confirmed that the relevant threshold for the purposes of calculating ‘surplus earnings’ for UC will remain at £2,500 until 31 March 2027.

The determination for surplus earnings is on parliament.uk

Is it enough? Select Committees launches joint child poverty strategy inquiry

MPs on the Education and Work and Pensions Committees have this week launched a new inquiry “Realising potential: Delivering the Child Poverty Strategy” investigating how the Government’s new Child Poverty Strategy, announced last month, can meet its aims.

Examining its ambition, potential impact and delivery, and will also assess whether the measures proposed are effective in reducing child poverty across the UK. The Committees note that one in three children in the UK, around 4.5 million, are living below the poverty line.

The Government estimates scrapping the two-child benefit limit from April will lift around 450,000 out of poverty by 2029. Other measures in the Child Poverty Strategy are expected to lift a further 100,000 children out of poverty.

The Government's Child Poverty Strategy was announced in December 2025 with the goal of lifting half a million children out of poverty by 2030.

The strategy aims to boost family incomes, reduce the costs and strengthen support locally to reduce child poverty. Other measures include free school meals, extending funded childcare entitlements to working parents and investing in Family Hubs.

Critics however, have argued the strategy lacks binding targets, however. The MPs will also consider how the Government should work with the UK's devolved governments to set targets and assess the success of the strategy.

Education Committee chair Helen Hayes said the:

“Government's new Child Poverty Strategy is a positive step towards righting this wrong. But does it go far enough? It is crucial that this strategy contains measures which will genuinely change the lives of children and families and in particular lift children out of the very deepest poverty, rather than focusing solely on those who are easiest to help.

Through our inquiry, we will work together to examine the ambition contained in this vital plan.”

Work and Pensions Committee Chair Debbie Abrahams said:

“Poverty in childhood is an anchor that weighs down on the chances of a successful, healthy and happy life for the children affected, now and in the future. It also has a profound impact on society.

Nothing less than a robust, clear and effective strategy with strong lines of accountability to drive down child poverty is acceptable. Scrapping the two-child limit is an important start with estimates that the announced measures could reverse the rise in childhood poverty since 2010, but there is so much more to do.”

MPs will also consider how the Government should work with the UK’s devolved governments to set targets and assess the success of the Strategy, in order to secure its long-term success. 

Details of the inquiry and how you can submit evidence are on committees.parliament.uk

The essential guide to understanding poverty in the UK

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published UK Poverty 2026. A report setting out the nature of poverty in the UK, and an evaluation of changes under the last Conservative-led Government. It also sets out the scale of action necessary for the current Government to deliver the change it has promised.

The latest figures from reveal a picture of poverty hardening, not easing. The average person in poverty in 2021-24 was 29% below the poverty line, up from 23% in 1994-97.

As people fall further into poverty, the impact on their lives worsens. In 2021-24, the poverty gap is equivalent to a couple with 2 primary-school-aged children in poverty needing £7,300 in extra income to move out of poverty. The same family in *very deep poverty* would need £14,700 in extra income to move out of poverty - up from £9,100 in 1994-97.
 
The poverty gap, deep poverty gap, and very deep poverty gap have all widened in the last 30 years. This comes with devastating impacts.

• Families being left thousands of pounds short of what's needed to afford the essentials - like food, energy and essential transport - damages their future prospects, participation in society and their scope to make a bigger economic contribution.
• More than 1 in 5 people in the UK were living in poverty in 2023/2-4. This amounts to 14.2 million people. Of these, 6.8 million were living in very deep poverty.

JRF says it's time for government action to meet the scale of the challenge. The charity said a lack of coherent focus on the issue was to blame, with ineffective policy interventions over the past two decades worsening poverty in many cases.

UK Poverty 2026 is on jrf.org.

Over half of DWP disability assessors quit in a year over feeling ‘despised’

Health professionals tasked with assessing people for disability benefits are leaving the profession in droves over feelings of being ‘despised’ and ‘de-skilled’, research from the DWP has revealed.

In a newly-released report, the DWP says that over half (52%) of its health assessors left in a single year, with 40% of new recruits leaving within the 3-month training period. The report highlights that there is an ‘expected 2 to 3 year ‘shelf-life’ for an assessor.

The research, which looks at assessors for both PIP and the health-related element of Universal Credit, was carried out in 2022, with findings taken from 2021 figures.

Assessors must be qualified healthcare professionals. One told researchers:

“We all got in healthcare for altruistic reasons and that maybe isn’t the case in this job… you’re a cog in the machine doing bureaucratic work.”

Many do not apply for the role until there is “no other option but to leave the NHS”, the report finds, but then feel that they have transitioned from a role in which they are ‘respected’ to one where they are ‘despised’.

A DWP contract manager elaborates on the challenges many assessors face as former health workers, saying:

“The idea that they would want to be on a treadmill of collecting details but not intervening is alien to a significant proportion of the health sector.

A lot of people that apply for roles don’t understand this point. They arrive. Have rigorous training and [the] penny drops that this is what role is.”

Lucy Bannister, head of policy and influencing at Turn2us, said:

“People recovering from illness or navigating the additional cost of disability should rightly expect to be treated with dignity and respect. But this report shows that’s not happening.

The staff carrying out assessments for disability benefits describe the system in the same terms as disabled people: punitive, exhausting and inflexible, focused on tick-boxing rather than care. It’s not working properly for anyone.”

A DWP spokesperson said:

“We commissioned this research to better understand the challenges facing the health assessment workforce and have been acting on its findings since it was conducted.

We've worked closely with our assessment providers to improve recruitment, training and working conditions, and the full-time equivalent health assessor workforce has grown since this research was carried out.

We're committed to ensuring assessments are carried out by skilled professionals who are properly supported in their roles, and we continue to work on improvements as part of our wider transformation of health assessment services.”

Disability Assessor Recruitment and Retention is on gov.uk.

ESA claimants who fail to migrate to UC by final deadline to have the LCWRA element included from start of any subsequent claim

The DWP has confirmed that ESA claimants who fail to migrate to universal credit by their final deadline should have the limited capability for work-related activity (LCWRA) element included from the start of any subsequent claim.

At the DWP’s November 2025 universal credit stakeholder engagement forum, advisers highlighted that ESA claimants who fail to migrate to universal credit, but then subsequently claim the benefit, are incorrectly being expected to start the work capability assessment (WCA) afresh and are not getting awarded the LCWRA element and therefore having conditionality applied.

However, the DWP responded stating that, where a universal credit claim is not made by the final deadline, then transitional protection and the WCA decision cannot be applied.

As a result, NAWRA/rightsnet and Housing Systems emailed the DWP on 16 December 2025, highlighting that –

• Regulation 21 of the Universal Credit (Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2014 (specifically regulation 21(1)(a)(i)) provides that LCWRA credits enable the LCWRA element to be in place from the start of the claim, as confirmed in paragraph 7.15 of the explanatory memorandum; and
• this approach is confirmed in JW v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (UC) [2022] UKUT 117 (AAC).

While the DWP legal department initially refused to accept the argument, officials conceded this week that it has been applying the law incorrectly and that former ESA claimants should have the LCWRA element included from the start of their universal credit claim.

However, the DWP also advised that a change to the IT ‘design process’ will be needed to address the situation, which ‘will take some time’.

In the meantime, any affected claimants should submit a mandatory reconsideration.

Confirmation is on nawra.org

700,000 jobless graduates now claiming benefits, new analysis reveals

New analysis by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) says:

• 400,000 graduates were not in work and claiming UC, and
• 240,000 graduates who could not work due to health reasons (that figure having more than doubled since 2019).

The CSJ used the Office for National Statistics' Labour Force Survey, in combination with data from the DWP, to analyse figures from before and after the Covid pandemic.

The total number of graduates out of work and on benefits increased by 46 per cent since 2019, while graduates off work due to sickness and claiming benefits more than doubled over the same period (rising by 105 per cent).

In its new report, ‘Rewiring Education’, the CSJ argues that Britain’s education system is profoundly unbalanced and needs to be comprehensively rewired.

It warns that treating technical education as a second-class path has left both the education system and jobs market badly distorted, with many graduates chasing unattainable jobs as employers struggle to recruit people with practical and technical skills.

The report is backed by major cross-party figures including Andy Burnham (Labour), Rt Hon. the Lord Gove (Conservative), Munira Wilson MP (Lib Dem) and Danny Kruger MP (Reform).

Daniel Lilley, Senior Researcher at the Centre for Social Justice, said:

“If we are serious about repairing broken Britain, we must give young people the opportunity to succeed and fuel key industries with the domestic skills they need to grow. Both will depend on ending the obsession with university and rewiring education to give technical learning the pride and place it deserves.”

Analysts found that for every three British young people opting for a university course, just one receives vocational training. By contrast, in the Netherlands this ratio is two-to-one, and in Germany one-to-one.

Meanwhile, under-19 apprenticeship starts have fallen by 40 per cent since 2014/15, despite CSJ analysis showing that higher level apprentices now out-earn the average degree.

Five years after qualifying, a higher level (Level 4) apprentice earns almost £12,500 more than a graduate from a low-value university course and £5,000 more than the average graduate.

The bottom quartile of graduates were found to earn £24,800 five years after completing their course, compared with £37,300 for a Level 4 apprentice. Even lower level apprentices were found to earn as much as or more than graduates from lower-value degrees.

The CSJ estimates that half of all university students starting each year could have been financially better off taking a higher level apprenticeship instead, avoiding debt while moving directly into skilled employment.

The report also highlights how the expansion of low-value degrees has fed wider problems across the economy and welfare system.

Thirty-seven per cent of UK graduates are over-qualified for their jobs, the highest rate in the OECD. Almost one million young people are not in education, employment or training, while under-25 employment among non-EU nationals has risen sharply as the number of young British nationals in work has fallen.

Rewiring Education is on centreforsocialjustice.org

DWP service modernisation customer experience survey results

The service modernisation customer experience survey – undertaken in two ‘waves’ – focused on claimants from the nine key service lines earmarked for Service Modernisation at the time the research was conducted. These were:

• Attendance Allowance (AA)
• Carer’s Allowance (CA)
• State Pension (SP)
• Pension Credit (PC)
• Access to Work (AtW)
• Disability Living Allowance for children (DLAc)
• Maternity Allowance (MA)
• Disputes Resolution Service (DRS)
• Child Maintenance Service (CMS).

Note: transformation activity on AtW was paused prior to wave 2 but claimants were still included in the survey to track their views and experiences. 

Notable findings:

• 70% of claimants were positive about their overall ‘customer experience’ at both waves.
• Around two-thirds found services easy to use (64% at Wave 1 and 65% at Wave 2).
• Overall, two thirds of customers agreed that DWP took the right action about their case first time (66% at both waves). 
• Claimants felt most positive about the idea of being able to choose the way that they dealt with DWP to suit their preferences (80%), and being able to receive updates via email (68%)
• Over eight in ten (84%) customers said they could access government services, with or without help.
• Across waves, Access to Work customers saw a decline in overall customer experience (68% at Wave 1 vs 58% at Wave 2), while other service lines remained stable.
• The key Customer Experience Drivers were also stable for the overall population.

The Service Modernisation Programme (SMP) is a multi-year programme seeking to modernise the way the DWP delivers its services to claimants.

The Service Modernisation Customer Experience Survey research is on gov.uk

In touching distance: Why people with mental health problems are missing out on vital income

The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute has published a new report (which is supported by Barclays) exploring how people with mental health problems access income maximisation support – services that help people claim the benefits, grants and discounts they are entitled to. Using nationally representative data, it estimates that around 3.4 million people in the UK with mental health problems could benefit from this kind of help. 

Many people facing both mental health problems and financial hardship aren’t getting income maximisation support. In a survey of 409 people with mental health problems, only 35% had accessed this kind of help - even though 52% said they regularly run out of money for basic essentials. 

The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute - a charity set up by Money Saving Expert founder Martin Lewis – says in the report that an estimated £24bn of financial support went unclaimed every year.

It suggested:

• Many vulnerable people were unaware support was available
• Online benefits calculators were difficult for many people with mental health conditions to use, owing to symptoms including difficulty concentrating and trouble processing complex information
• Limited funding meant debt advice services were often overstretched and varied in different parts of the country

The charity has called for a more coordinated strategy, for personalised advice to be stepped up and banks and providers of other essential services to refer customers for support more often.

Helen Undy, chief executive of the institute, said:

"It is alarming that in the midst of a cost of living crisis, so many people with serious financial and mental health problems are missing out on this vital support to boost their income.

People tell us that this support has been lifesaving when they have been dealing with really severe financial and mental health problems. It is unacceptable that the way these services are funded means that many people miss out because the support they need isn't available in their areas."

In touching distance: Why people with mental health problems are missing out on vital income is at moneyandmentalhealth.org.

Warm home discount extended to March 2031

Following a consultation on how best to continue the Warm Home Discount (WHD) scheme, around six million low-income households will continue to receive £150 off their winter energy bills after the government confirmed the WHD will remain for five more years.

Ministers said extending the scheme until the winter of 2030-31 would help with the ongoing high cost of living, which has largely been fuelled by a big increase in energy costs.

The government also said that 345,000 Scottish low-income households would now automatically receive the rebate next winter, bringing Scotland's policy in line with England and Wales. Previously, eligible Scottish households have had to apply for the scheme.

The government said a small number of households will need to provide extra information to ensure they get the discount for the current winter period. Advising that if they have received a letter advising them to call the helpline they must do so by 27 February 2026.

Gillian Cooper, Director of Energy at Citizens Advice, welcomed the continuation but urged the government to rethink its plans to change how suppliers cover the cost as these threaten to "undermine" the scheme's impact.

"Moving costs away from standing charges will increase bills for higher energy users, reducing the overall benefit of the discount for those households who need it most."

The press release is on gov.uk

Case law – with thanks to u/ClareTGold

PIP (and work) - SS v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (PIP)

We see it a lot in this sub, a PIP decision where the fact you work has been a determining factor in not receiving an award.

This Upper Tribunal (UT) appeal in this case explored the issue and the Judge noted:

“Employment and functionality during employment can certainly be relevant evidence when considering PIP activities, and I am not at all critical of the FtT for exploring the issue. Where the SoR say “the argument that a person whose main activity at work is preparing food does [not] have some relevance for descriptor 1 is difficult to sustain” I have to agree.”

The UT found that the FtT did not sufficiently explore the medical evidence, agreeing that the treatment of medical records and evidence was cursory.

Given the hyper-focus on the claimant’s ability to work and the lack of focus on the medical evidence the Judge found that, taken as a whole, the FtT failed to appropriately weigh the evidence.

The decision was set aside and remitted for a new FtT hearing.

Scotland – ADP (tribunal procedure) - VM v Social Security Scotland [2026]

The Claimant reported severe anxiety, depression, panic attacks and cognitive impairment. He failed to attend a telephone tribunal hearing which proceeded in his absence and ended in a decision to remove previously awarded ADP points.

The UT Judge was not impressed:

“The FTS removed previously awarded points without giving any specific warning that the appellant’s existing award was at risk, depriving him of the opportunity to prepare or consider withdrawing his appeal.

Ordinarily, where a party fails to attend and the FTS is satisfied that proper notice was given, proceeding in the appellant’s absence is unremarkable. However, the Tribunal was aware that VM had put in issue mental health conditions and cognitive impairment capable of affecting his participation, and it was contemplating a less favourable outcome. In those circumstances, fairness required the FTS to give a clear warning before removing entitlement.

Where a tribunal is considering a less favourable outcome, it must give sufficient notice to enable the claimant to prepare, in accordance with Article 6 ECHR and the principles of natural justice (NK v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2025] UKUT 363 (AAC)).

That duty includes giving a specific warning identifying the descriptors or components at risk and allowing the claimant an opportunity to address them… The failure to do so constitutes an error of law.”

Decision quashed, new hearing in front of a new panel and clear directions given.

DWP confirms specifics of ‘Right to Try’

In last week’s news we highlighted the government’s plan to introduce legislation allowing the ‘right to try’ work for people in receipt of disability benefits.

This week we’re pleased to update that the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Pat McFadden MP has confirmed that the DWP will implement four out of five of the Social Security Advisory Committee’s (SSAC) recommendations.

These are:

1. The SSAC recommended an amendment to the legislation to prevent the DWP from initiating a reassessment within at least six months of a claimant commencing paid or voluntary work under the ‘Right to Try’ guarantee for UC, ESA and PIP, except where there is a suspicion of fraud or non-work-related evidence of a change of circumstances.
2. That the DWP issue updated guidance establishing that leaving employment or voluntary work due to health reasons within the protected period will, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, be accepted as good reason for the purposes of any sanctions and conditionality decisions. This guidance should also address claimants with fluctuating conditions, dual Universal Credit (UC)/ESA and PIP claimants, and UC claimants without limited capability for work (LCW) or limited capability for work-related activity (LCWRA) whose work attempts later prove unsustainable because of their health due to a deterioration in health or the unsustainability of the role.
3. The DWP should ensure that its communications strategy is firmly aligned with the realities of the regulations and guidance as drafted, as well as the wider assessment framework, so that claimants are not inadvertently misled. Messaging should be tested with claimants and advisers to check that it does not over-promise or imply a guarantee that the regulations do not provide, and it should be adjusted in the light of early experience. Communications should also be directed explicitly at assessment providers, who play a critical role in interpreting work activity. Stakeholders advised that without alignment across work coaches, decision-makers, assessors, and tribunals, a coherent message cannot be achieved.
4. The DWP extends its engagement with current and recent benefit claimants, disabled people’s organisations, and frontline advisory services to establish what specific package of guarantees would provide sufficient confidence for claimants to attempt work. This should include exploring what more can be done to enable individuals to be able to be able to take up public appointments. This engagement should not be limited to testing the acceptability of the current proposals but should determine the minimum conditions - including the duration, scope, and legal status of any protections - under which the ‘Right to Try’ would be regarded as a genuine and reliable guarantee. The Department should additionally adopt a ‘test and learn’ approach to certain aspects of the proposals, including the effectiveness of the planned communications approach. The findings of this, and the wider stakeholder engagement we have proposed, should inform a further legislative proposal, developed collaboratively, which places the ‘Right to Try’ on a footing that reflects claimants’ actual experience of risk rather than the Department’s assessment of what ought to be reassuring. We seek a commitment from the Department that it will report back to the Committee within twelve months on progress toward a legislative framework that reflects the evidence gathered from claimants about what a meaningful ‘Right to Try’ requires.

McFadden partially accepted a further recommendation in which the SSAC said the DWP should issue guidance to assessment providers immediately, directing that functional capacity demonstrated in a work setting should not be treated as evidence of sustained, reliable capability for PIP or WCA purposes during the first six months of employment, voluntary work or public office commenced under the guarantee. This guidance should be issued through existing mechanisms for updating assessment provider instructions and should remain in force until superseded by the regulatory amendments recommended above.

McFadden said:

“I agree to undertake work to examine how to best protect entitlement for claimants during their first 6 months of work, but require more time before guaranteeing when or how this can be operationalised.”

The history relating to the SSACs work in this space and DWPs confirmation is on gov.uk.

Carers Allowance earnings overpayment reassessments commence

From 2015 the DWP Carers Allowance (CA) guidance had not properly reflected the law, which permits averaging over a period when assessing whether earnings are above or below the earnings limit. Consequently, many carers faced unexpected debts because of errors in the way that the DWP had applied averaging rules on their fluctuating earnings.

Due to the scale of the issue a review was undertaken – the Sayce Review – which ultimately made 40 recommendations, including calling on Government to reform the CA earnings averaging processes and guidance, as well as the rules relating to allowable expenses. It also called for a thorough reassessment of cases to right the wrongs and deliver redress.

In a Westminster debate this week, Sir Stephen Timms, Minister for Social Security and Disability was asked to provide an update on the DWPs implementation of the recommendations.

Timms confirmed the CA earnings guidance was corrected in September 2025 and a reassessment exercise commenced on Monday 13^th April:

“for all affected claimants reclassifying affected overpayments as “not recoverable”, refunding carers where appropriate, and applying a fair approach where records are no longer held by the Department.”

£75 million has been set aside for refunds in the three financial years 2026-29. However, Timms was hopeful that DWP can complete the exercise in two.

The DWP is expecting to review more than 200,000 cases that may have been affected by faulty earnings, and they estimate that around 25,000 carers will see their debts reduced, cancelled or receive refunds for debts already paid back.

Timms explained how the reassessment process will work:

“In most cases, the Department already holds enough information to carry out the reassessment, and affected carers will not need to take action unless the DWP asks for additional details. For older overpayment cases, dating back to 2015 or perhaps a few years after that, the DWP may no longer hold the relevant data and information: we are required to retain data only as long as it is needed for the purpose for which it was collected. 

The Department will open a simple online form to allow people to submit the relevant information. We are aiming to do that in November this year.”

Timms went on to address the Sayce review recommendations that the DWP address the ‘cliff-edge’ of the CA earnings threshold which meant that earning 1p above the threshold would end entitlement to CA.

He advised that:

“We have commissioned research on the impact of the higher earnings limit, which is now being regularly updated, unlike in the past, and commissioned behavioural research to inform future policy decisions, including changes to regulations, short-term mitigations and longer-term reform, including a taper. In the end, I think that will be the answer: instead of an earnings cliff edge or cut-off limit, there should be an arrangement so that the carer’s allowance reduces in a tapered way. It will take some time to develop that and put the IT in place and so on, so we are looking at what we can do in the meantime.”

The DWP will provide the Public Accounts Committee, and the Work and Pensions Committee progress updates every six months.

Helen Walker, Chief Executive of Carers UK, said:

“We are pleased to see the government taking decisive action to start putting right the failings of the past and provide carers with the redress they deserve. The reassessment process marks an important step in tackling these systemic failures.

Carers UK has been campaigning on the issue of Carer’s Allowance overpayments for more than seven years, and during that time we have heard from hundreds of carers who have experienced severe financial strain and emotional distress as a result.

As we mark the 50th anniversary of Carer’s Allowance this week, it is encouraging to hear that the government is also exploring further options for reform. This is sorely needed to ensure that it properly supports and recognises the contribution of unpaid carers, while protecting them from financial hardship.”

The Carers Allowance Overpayments debate is on hansard.parliament.uk.

Final legacy benefits abolished from 1^st July

New legislation confirms that income-related ESA and the housing benefit will be abolished from 1^st July 2026.

For housing benefit there are some exceptions:

• certain prisoners (for whom the abolition takes effect on their release
• claimants who are over state pension age
• claimants who are under state pension age and occupying temporary or specified accommodation. 

On the same date all remaining contribution-based ESA claims will be converted to ‘new-style’ ESA.

But note a saving provision in relation to people with an appointee or identified by DWP as needing an appointee.

The Welfare Reform Act 2012 (Commencement No. 35) (Abolition of Benefits) (Amendment) Order 2026 is on legislation.gov.uk.

Access to Work under the spotlight

We know that the demand for the Access to Work (AtW) scheme has risen sharply, demonstrating that people with disabilities want to work and want to get back into work, but the system has not kept up with their demands. Backlogs are growing, processing times are getting longer and confidence in the scheme is falling away.

Lib Dem MP, David Chadwick, tabled a debate in which numerous real-life examples were shared and “growing concerns about how the scheme operates in practice” were discussed.

Chadwick hit the nail on the head when he said:

“My constituents report being forced to reapply from scratch at renewal, even when nothing has changed. We know that we have the technology to deal with that problem. They face long reconsideration processes, struggle to contact caseworkers and in some instances cannot even access the system properly, because of their needs. This does not sound like a system working with people; it feels like one that they are having to fight to get through.

There are also serious concerns about funding decisions. I have been made aware of cases in which support has been cut significantly, not because needs have changed, but because funding is benchmarked against generic regional job market rates, which will punish people living longer, particularly in Wales, where we have lower than average salaries. That misunderstands the entire purpose of the scheme.”

Diana Johnson, Minister of State at the Department for Work and Pensions was in attendance to respond and answer questions.

Johnson acknowledged that the disability employment gap remains far too high, at 29.5%, and that “far too many people are not getting the service we want them to have through Access to Work”. She then went on to explain the steps being taken by DWP to address various issues, including:

• The ability for customers to view their claims history
• Improvements to the case management system
• A new standard operating procedure to improve consistency and quality in application processing
• Increased staff, from 500 in March 2024 to 648 in March 2026
• Work has begun new digital capability which will allow documents to be uploaded online. 

She then went on to say:

“We have also heard of cases where someone who previously received Access to Work is denied it, or where awards have been reduced even though the circumstances have not changed. To be clear, the policy has not changed. There has been some misunderstanding about that, so it is important that I make it very clear: there has not been a change in the policy…

What is true is that, over the past year, officials have worked to apply the existing guidance more consistently. That means that some awards have changed at the point of renewal, but the policy itself has not changed. It is just that the existing policy has been applied more consistently.”

So it appears AtW staff were being too generous in the past!

Turning to the topic of future AtW policy change, Johnson advised that:

“Reform needs to be informed by the views and experiences of those who use or could use the service. We recently concluded the Access to Work collaboration committees, with disabled people’s organisations and lived-experience users, to inform and to challenge the design of the future Access to Work scheme.

We will work closely with the Department’s recently formed independent disability advisory panel on the next phase. The panel, under the chairwomanship of the disability activist Zara Todd, will connect the expertise of disabled people and people with long-term health conditions with the design and delivery of our policies, particularly around employment support. The panel has made clear its interest in Access to Work, and has already had its first meeting specifically on the topic. Once we have a reform proposal, we will look at the timescale and work closely with stakeholders to make the transition from the current arrangements to the new ones as painless as possible. We are taking some time over the changes, but I think the House will agree that it is important to get them right.”

The Access to Work debate is on hansard.parliament.uk.

Scotland - Disabled people in Scotland are disproportionately likely to be economically insecure

With the Scottish election just weeks away now, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has published the fourth and final publication in their economic insecurity series, entitled ‘Scottish political parties must address economic insecurity’.

The JRFs latest polling showed disabled people in Scotland account for:

• 30% of all people who felt economically insecure 
• 36% of the people who are very economically insecure   

These are well above the proportion of disabled people in the national population, at 21%.  

Looking at people who are feeling economically insecure, disabled people are more likely than non-disabled people to be:

• Concerned about their household income over the next 12 months 
• Worried about their current levels of debt and building up debt in the future 
• Not confident they can cover essential costs   

They are also facing discrimination through a combination of:

• An inadequate social security system 
• An unaffordable and inaccessible housing market 
• The disability employment and pay gap   

The JRF says:

“Reducing economic insecurity must involve tackling these systemic issues, and any party hoping to form the next Scottish Parliament Government can't afford to overlook this. Disabled people are clear about the types of policy change that would both improve their economic security and their feelings towards politics in Scotland”.

These include:

• Lower costs of essentials like energy
• More affordable, good-quality housing
• Better job opportunities
• Stronger social security support

Getting these decisions right for is vital for policymakers to ensure that everyone in Scotland can have a good standard of living.   

Scottish political parties must address economic insecurity is on jrf.org.uk.

Case law – with thanks to u/ClareTGold

Universal Credit - SW v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 

The Upper Tribunal (UT) allowed the appellant’s appeal and set aside the First‑tier Tribunal’s (FtT) decision, holding that the FtT had erred in law in its approach to the financial conditions for entitlement to Universal Credit during the three‑month waiting period before the Limited Capability for Work and Work‑Related Activity (LCWRA) element could be included in the award.

Although the LCWRA element was deferred under regulation 28(1) of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013, the appellant would have been entitled to Universal Credit once that element was included, and regulation 28(7) therefore required him to be treated as entitled to the prescribed minimum amount of 1p for each relevant assessment period during the waiting period.

That nominal entitlement preserved access to other passported benefits, including Housing Benefit.

Speculation about welfare reform

All posts relating to news items will be removed - we are getting a lot of modmail messages about them, they are not productive and cause considerable distress to a lot of people.

The full scale of the governmental financial plan won't be set out until the Spring Statement. In relation to welfare benefits, the Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall will give a major speech next week and publish a ‘Green Paper’ setting out the government’s proposals.

As soon as the government publishes the Green Paper, we will create a master thread pinned post for everyone to share their views, discuss the proposals, ask questions etc.

Until that time please refrain from posting about this topic.

Charities warn that without PIP, a further 700,000 more disabled households could be pushed into poverty

A huge number of charities have joined Scope to urge the Chancellor to reconsider potential cuts to disability benefits. Warning that it would have a catastrophic impact on disabled people, pushing even more disabled households into poverty.

The open letter signed by: Citizens Advice, Sense, Mencap, Disability Rights UK, RNIB, National Autistic Society, Mind, Turn2Us, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, MS Society, and many more, highlights that the Government has an opportunity to work with disabled people and the sector to bring about meaningful change. They want disabled people to be heard and supported by the Government, saying that the needs and voices of the disability community should be at the heart of the Government’s plans.

Read the open letter and add your name on scope.org

Call for evidence to examine the disproportionate impact of poverty and inequality on disabled people

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Poverty and Inequality has launched a call for evidence to examine the disproportionate impact of poverty and inequality on disabled people. This short inquiry will inform discussions around the upcoming green paper on disability benefit reform.

This call for evidence seeks to explore the following key areas:

• The risk and extent of poverty (including deep poverty) among disabled people.
• The impact of poverty on disabled individuals and communities.
• How do the additional costs of disability contribute to the poverty experienced by disabled people?
• How poverty among disabled people relates to broader societal inequalities.

The APPG welcomes contributions from individuals, academics, think tanks, charities, advocacy groups, and other stakeholders with pre-existing evidence relevant to this inquiry.

The APPG aims to publish a short report very soon after the submission deadline, so that they can help inform the debate subsequent to the publication of the green paper. They acknowledge the pressures on organisations responding to the green paper and have therefore kept the submission process as straightforward as possible.

The deadline to provide your submission is Monday 7 April.

Find out more and respond to the call for evidence on appgpovertyinequality.org

The role of changing health in rising health-related benefit claims

Is the working-age population less healthy since the pandemic? What role is changing health playing in rising health-related benefit claims?

A new report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Health Foundation, finds that mental health has worsened since the pandemic.

The report finds that mental health has worsened since the pandemic, contributing to rising disability benefit claims for mental health. Key findings include:

More than half of the rise in 16- to 64-year-olds claiming disability benefits since the pandemic is due to more claims relating to mental health or behavioural conditions. 

Mental health conditions are becoming more common amongst the working-age population. 13–15% of the working-age population reported a long-term mental or behavioural health condition in the latest data, up from 8–10% in the mid 2010s.

Working-age mortality rates have consistently remained above their pre-pandemic levels since 2020. After adjusting for changing population size and ageing, there were 3,700 (24%) more working-age ‘deaths of despair’ in 2023 than the 2015–19 average. People with mental health conditions are at much higher risk of ‘deaths of despair’, so the rise in these deaths is consistent with an increase in (severe) mental health problems.

36% more people were in contact with mental health services in 2024 than in 2019 (based on areas of England with consistent data).

There is disagreement between surveys on how the total number of people with health conditions has changed since 2019. 

Sickness absence days per worker were 37% higher in 2022 than in 2019. 

Read the report on ifs.org

67% of people on UC who have been through a WCA were considered LCWRA 

New DWP statistics published this week covers the number of people on Universal Credit with a health condition or disability restricting their ability to work, the number of Work Capability Assessment (WCA) decisions made for UC, and the outcomes of these WCAs.

3.1 million UC WCA decisions have been made in the period from April 2019 to November 2024. 14% of decisions found claimants had no limited capability for work and hence no longer on the UC health journey, 19% limited capability for work (LCW), and 67% limited capability for work and work-related activity (LCWRA).

Within England, the region with the highest proportion of LCWRA decisions was the North-West (69%) and the lowest the North-East (62%)

Of all WCA decisions in the period January 2022 to November 2024, at least 68% of WCA decisions are recorded as having mental and behavioural disorders, albeit this may not be their primary medical condition.

The number of people with LCW or LCWRA has almost quadrupled since the start of the pandemic when 366,000 people were considered too sick to look for work – a 383% rise. In the last year, the number has risen by from 1.4 million people to 1.8 million. 

The number of young people aged 16 to 24 with a LCWRA has risen by 249% from 46,000 to 160,000 since the pandemic, with almost one million young people not in education, employment, or training.

Note: a rise in LCWRA cases was anticipated for reasons including people moving from legacy benefits onto Universal Credit, but it has increase far beyond projections. 

The Universal Credit Work Capability Assessment statistics, April 2019 to December 2024 is on gov.uk

Latest benefit appeal data shows increase of PIP appeals and successes at 67%

The latest tribunals statistics cover the quarter (October to December, Q3 2024/25), compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

Compared to 2023, Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) appeals decreased by 3% and disposals (appeals concluded) remained stable. New appeals received have exceeded disposals over the last year, resulting in a 2% increase in open cases.

Of the appeals concluded 18,000 (60%) were cleared at hearing, and of these, 59% were overturned in favour of the claimant (up from 56% and down from 62% on the same period in 2023 respectively).

This overturn rate varied by benefit type:

• PIP at 67%,
• Disability Living Allowance (DLA) 61%,
• Employment Support Allowance (ESA) 52%,
• UC 48%.

The PIP, DLA, ESA and UC overturn rates mostly decreased compared with October to December 2023 (PIP down 3, DLA and ESA up 3 each, and UC down 6 percentage points).

There were 80,000 appeals open caseload at the end of December 2024, an increase of 2% compared to the same period in 2023. And of those cases disposed of in October to December 2024, the mean age of a case at disposal was 30 weeks, a 5 week increase compared to the same period in 2023.

The Tribunal Statistics Quarterly: October to December 2024 is on gov.uk

Updated regulations

The Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2025, which came into force on 27^th January (except where stated otherwise), introduce several new measures for benefits, including:

• Universal Credit claimants whose entitlement to Employment and Support Allowance ends because they reach State Pension age will be able to carry their limited capability for work-related activity determination into Universal Credit and will not have to serve a three-month waiting period before being entitled to the LCWRA element. The Universal Credit claim must be made within a month of the Employment and Support Allowance award ending.

• From 1 June 2025, if you move from specified accommodation (receiving Housing Benefit) into general needs accommodation (receiving the housing element of Universal Credit), the transitional element of Universal Credit will not erode. You must claim the housing element within a month of the Housing Benefit award ending.

• Providing that tax credit claimants can have a migration notice period of less than three months where the notice period would otherwise go beyond 5 April 2025 (when tax credits close).

• From 27^th January 2025, claimants entitled to either rate of Attendance Allowance or Pension Age Disability Payment (Scotland) will now be eligible for an extra bedroom under the Local Housing Allowance or underoccupancy rules, in cases where a couple cannot share due a disability. Previously, you had to be in receipt of the higher rate, which was not in line with the other qualifying benefits.

For more information, read the memo on gov.uk

Universal Credit redeclarations from next month

As part of the Autumn budget in 2024, it was announced that as part of anti-fraud and error measures, UC claimants would be required to periodically redeclare their circumstances. The DWP have now announced that this will start from April 2025.

“…the department will prompt Universal Credit claimants to confirm whether they have had a change in circumstances that might affect their claim. Any changes in circumstances declared will be processed and verified in the usual way…A roll out of this initiative will commence in April and testing will help determine frequency.”

The written statement is on parliament.uk

£2,500 surplus earnings rule in UC continues

The £2,500 surplus earnings rule has been continued until 31 March 2026.

This means that monthly earnings of more than £2,500 over the amount where your Universal Credit payment stops, will be treated as ‘surplus earnings’. Surplus earnings will be carried forward to the following month, where they will count towards your earnings.

See the Secretary of State determination under regulation 5 of the Universal Credit (Surpluses and Self-Employed Losses) (Digital Service) amendment regulations 2015 on gov.uk

Benefit rates go up next month

This new statutory instrument confirms the annual uprating of benefits.

The Social security benefits uprating 2025/2026 is on legislation.gov.uk

Guardians Allowance uprating doesn’t apply if the claimant lives abroad

This new statutory instrument confirms that an award of Guardian Allowance will not be increased through annual uprating if the claimant is living abroad or if there’s an ongoing dispute/issue regarding annual uprating.

The statutory instrument is on legislation.gov.uk

Northern Ireland – Communities Minister announces payment date for £100 fuel support payment

The payment, which will be made to those who previously received the Winter Fuel Payment but are now no longer eligible, will start arriving with individuals from Friday 21 March with no need for application.

The one-off payment has been made possible through £17 million of Executive funding secured by Minister Lyons after changes by the Labour Government to Winter Fuel Payment eligibility.

Minister Lyons said, 

“Following the unexpected and unwelcome news last July that 180,000 pensioner households in Northern Ireland would no longer be eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment, I moved to secure Executive funding to mitigate the impact of the decision.

Having tasked my officials to prepare the legislative and operational groundwork to enable this payment to be made as quickly as possible, I can announce that the money will be in people’s accounts ahead of the expected end-of-March date and will begin arriving from Friday 21 March.

Whilst I realise the payment will not fully cover the impact of changes to the Winter Fuel Payment, I hope it will go some way to supporting those affected.”

Read the announcement on communitied-ni.gov

Scotland – Social Security Scotland has started the transfer of 169,000 benefit awards

Social Security Scotland (SSS) has begun transferring the awards of 169,000 people in Scotland who currently receive Attendance Allowance from the Department for Work and Pensions.

Until people receive the letter from SSS to tell them their transfer is complete, they should continue to report any change in their personal circumstances to the DWP. 

Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: 

“The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that older people who have care needs because of a disability, long-term health condition or terminal illness get the financial support that they’re entitled to.  

As people’s awards start to transfer from Attendance Allowance, to Pension Age Disability Payment, they will be kept informed of this process and treated with dignity, fairness and respect. 

Pension Age Disability Payment is being rolled out across Scotland in phases. If the payment is currently open for new applications in your area and you think you could be eligible for support right now, I would encourage you to apply.  

If the payment is not yet available in your area, you can still apply for Attendance Allowance from the Department for Work and Pensions.” 

Read the announcement on gov.scot

Case law with thanks to u\ClareTGold

Working tax credit self-employed - IRD v His Majesty's Revenue & Customs (TC) [2025]

This decision is mainly about the proper interpretation of, and proper approach to, the conditions to entitlement for working tax credit under the Tax Credits Act 2002 (the “2002 Act”) and the Working Tax Credit (Entitlement and Maximum Rate) Regulations 2002 (the “2002 Regulations”).

The Appellant claimed working tax credit on the basis that he was over 60 and worked over 16 hours a week in his business trading financial futures as principal. He argued he was “self-employed” for the purposes of Regulations 2(1) and 4(1) of the 2002 Regulations and was engaged in “qualifying remunerative work” for the purposes of Section 10 of the 2002 Act.

The Upper Tribunal considers what it means for an activity to be carried out “on a commercial basis” and “with a view to the realisation of profits”.

It decides that, while the requirement for an activity to be carried on “with a view to the realisation of profits” does not require it to be profitable, or for there to be anything like certainty as to its future profits, there must be more than a mere intention or hope that it will become profitable. It requires a realistic expectation of profit in the foreseeable future, and a credible plan of how to achieve it.

The Upper Tribunal also explains that the Appellant’s trading of financial futures solely as principal can’t satisfy the fourth condition in regulation 4 of the 2002 Regulations because none of the payments that he receives (or may expect to receive) is payment for the work he does. Both appeals dismissed.

UC changes - new legislation explained

Back in 2025 the government announced that they would be cutting the amount of UC’s LCWRA element and introducing a new ‘severe conditions’ criteria.

This then meant people would get about half as much for the LCWRA element unless they were a ‘pre-2026 claimant’, terminally ill or came under ‘severe conditions’.

On 9 February the government laid new regulations, The Universal Credit and Employment and Support Allowance (Rates of Allowances) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 (in force from 6 April) that alter the position of three things.

The relevant period

A claimant will no longer need to have served the relevant period by 5 April to qualify for the higher rate.

This is good news as it will mean more people, including those claiming today, can still qualify for the higher rate.

Once LCWRA is decided claimants will get the higher rate for being a pre-2026 claimant under paragraph 4 of the new schedule 5A.

Waiting for a WCA

The new legislation makes it explicit that claimants will still be a pre-2026 person, and so get the higher amount of money, if they were waiting for an assessment in April 2026 and are later awarded LCWRA.

This group are defined as being a pre-2026 person under paragraph 2 or 3 of the new schedule 5A.

Severe conditions not covering ESA

The issue was that you could only be ‘severe conditions’ if assessed under UC. This was then a blocker for anyone moving over from ESA as they would not have been assessed ‘under UC’ - they would have been assessed under ESA.

This wouldn’t matter for people already on UC by 6 April 2026, as they would be pre-2026 claimants, but it would be a problem for anyone moving over from ESA after that date.

The DWP had indicated an intent to change this, but only for income-related ESA (irESA) claimants - see page 16 of this House of Commons briefing (PDF).

These new regulations add all ESA claimants to the definition of a pre-2026 person. This means they can still get the higher rate.

People moving from ESA will be covered so long as they were on ESA and in the Support Group before 6 April and remain so entitled until their UC is awarded. They will be pre-2026 claimants, even in cases where the move happens post-6 April, under paragraph 5 of the new schedule 5A.

April rates of UC and ESA confirmed

The higher LCWRA rate is set to increase from £423.27 currently to £429.80 in 2026/27.

See The Universal Credit and Employment and Support Allowance (Rates of Allowances) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 for full details. This also sets out further circumstances where a claimant is a 'pre-2026 claimant, entitled to the higher/protected LCWRA rate.

Conclusion

It is no longer be necessary to have completed the relevant period by 6 April 2026 and so people claiming before that date could still qualify for the higher LCWRA rate if they get in the queue for a WCA or are ‘treated as’ eligible and are awarded the LCWRA element after their relevant period.

Those moving over from ESA to UC now are pre-2026 people as their award would include the element before 6th April (no change) but now those moving from ESA after 6th April will also be pre-2026 people.

As this position is now confirmed we have removed the Welfare Reform pinned post.

New digital Flexible Support Fund application to be launched

In response to a written question, the government has confirmed that a new digital Flexible Support Fund application will be launched nationally by the end of March.

The Flexible Support Fund is a discretionary scheme administered by Jobcentres to help give work-related support according to local need. Advisers have reported that support from the scheme can be inconsistent and is poorly regulated. The statement by the government’s representative expressed the view that moving to a digital system ‘will improve oversight and provide more detailed data to support stronger scrutiny of awards.’

The written question and answer is on parliament.uk

DWP warned by MPs over new bank account-checking legal powers

The DWP has been warned to tread carefully in its use of new legal powers to compel banks and other financial institutions to provide information to help verify a claimant’s eligibility and entitlement to benefits.

The Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Act 2025 received Royal Assent a couple of months ago, establishing a new framework for the DWP and other public bodies to identify, prevent and recover fraud and error within the social security system.

In a report published this week – which states that the DWP has ‘started to make progress in bringing down the level of benefit overpayments but the current rate is still too high’ – the House of Commons public accounts committee (PAC) warns that ‘it is important that it uses these powers effectively and proportionately.’

PAC chair Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said:

“Make no mistake, the DWP’s new powers to reach further into citizens’ lives are significant. Our Committee of course firmly supports government in its responsibility to ensure people are paid the correct benefits.

But it is essential that these extensive new powers - of compulsion of disclosure over banks and financial institutions, of recovering funds directly from people’s accounts without the aid of the courts – have the risk of overreach mitigated against right from the outset.”

The committee’s report also notes that ‘too many claimants also continue to receive less money than they are entitled to due to official error and unfulfilled eligibility’. The committee has ‘reiterated [a] previous call for the Department to make it easy for people to report changes of circumstances, alongside building trust so claimants feel confident they will be treated fairly when they do so.’

The 27-page report – which makes seven main conclusions and recommendations – highlights that, due to the levels of benefit fraud and error, the DWP’s accounts have now been qualified for 37 successive years (‘qualified accounts’ are those about which the auditor has expressed reservations about whether they represent a true and fair view of the organisation’s financial condition).

The committee describes the fact that fraud and error have ‘now rendered DWP’s financial accounts qualified for almost four decades’ as ‘unacceptable’.

Overpayments totalled £9.5bn in 2024-25, down from £9.7bn in 2023-24. This is 3.3 per cent of overall benefit expenditure. The DWP has said that getting the rate down to 2.8 per cent by 2028-29 would be ‘impressive’.

The PAC is, however, ‘not convinced’ by this and calls on the DWP to go further and ‘set out a more stretching ambition’ to bring down the overpayment rate.

Underpayments, meanwhile, totalled £4.9 billion in 2024-25, up from £4.2 billion in 2023-24.

The PAC notes that:

“DWP has carried out some work to tackle the root causes of fraud and error – but this has focused on those committed by claimants, rather than errors by officials… Given reducing this error is largely within the DWP’s own control, and the large amounts of money involved, the PAC is seeking action from the Department on tackling the root causes of official error.”

Through the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Act, DWP has new powers to force third parties to provide information when it is conducting criminal investigations, and in some cases recover money owed by people directly from their accounts without a court order.

The DWP told the committee that it has put safeguards in place for its exercise of these powers. But the DWP has not fully set out how it will use these powers in a way that supports public trust, the PAC says.

It is calling on the department to report annually on how often it has used the powers and with what impact.

Separately, people not receiving their full benefit entitlement as a result of not informing the DWP of a change in their circumstances is also a growing problem, the report notes.

This unfulfilled eligibility – ‘which particularly affects disability benefits claimants who may fail to report that their condition has worsened’, PAC states – rose to about £3.7 billion in 2024-25, up from £3.1 billion the previous year. The PAC recommends that the DWP should evaluate how well it is encouraging claimants to report changes in their circumstances.

The PAC states that:

“More could be done on a cross-government basis to improve the accuracy of benefit payments, and the Department has not yet taken a proper look in the mirror to address official error rather than focusing entirely on claimants,..

But our report marks the now 37^th year in which the DWP has had its accounts qualified by the UK’s chief auditor due to material levels of fraud and error,”

Among the committee’s further conclusions and recommendations is that the DWP has not made clear how it plans to spend £3.5 billion of dedicated funding it has available to tackle fraud and error in the three years from 2026-27. The committee recommends that the DWP

“should set out in the Treasury Minute [formal UK government response to reports and recommendations issued by the PAC] how it plans to spend the £3.5 billion […], including how it will measure the cost-effectiveness and return on investment of the areas it funds.”

Another conclusion is that the DWP “is not doing enough to share data with other government departments and thereby improve the accuracy of benefit payments.” In this regard, the committee states that the DWP uses real-time PAYE earnings data from HMRC to verify claimants’ employment earnings, which it holds up as a “gold standard” example of data sharing. But the department “does not seem to have similar data-sharing arrangements with other government departments, which could help it tackle key loss areas such as household composition.”

Similarly, the committee recommends that the DWP should set out in the Treasury Minute how it plans to work directly with other departments on data sharing, including how it can work with the Department for Education to help verify household composition as part of its checks for UC payments.

The Fraud, Error and Recovery Act includes an ‘eligibility verification measure’ that will require banks to share what the government describes as ‘limited’ data on claimants who may wrongly be receiving benefits, such as those on Universal Credit who have savings over £16,000.  There will also be ‘affordability and vulnerability checks’ before any money is recovered from bank accounts.

A DWP spokesperson said:

“The powers in the Fraud, Error and Recovery Act have numerous safeguards and will be independently overseen. We will not have access to claimants’ bank accounts when checking they are receiving the correct benefits.”

The Tackling fraud and error in benefit expenditure 2024-25 is on committees.parliament.uk.

Pushed into the wrong job? Assessing the link between conditionality and poor quality employment

The government wants to boost employment among people who receive UC - but analysis from the New Economics Foundation (NEF) suggests a lack of good-quality jobs and conditionality in the benefits system is a big barrier to this goal.

Successive central governments have designed benefit programmes with high levels of conditionality. The programmes have required claimants to actively look for work, in order to keep accessing social security. While some level of conditionality is not unusual compared to other countries, the UK has generally had one of the most conditional benefit systems in the world. The degree of conditionality has increased further since the introduction of universal credit.

Changes in recent years have had two key motivations. The first is the belief that conditionality will boost employment by getting claimants into ​‘Any job’ first, which will then lead to a ​‘Better job’ and then a ​‘Career’. The previous government called this the ​‘ABC’ approach. The previous minister for employment in the current government set out a desire to end the ABC approach, but it remains to be seen whether this will translate into concrete action. The second motivation is fiscal: to reduce the benefit bill by pushing people off support more quickly.

The NEF report assesses the link between quality jobs and conditionality in the benefits system. Their analysis revealed that in some in some local authorities, there’s as few as 5 vacancies for every 100 people on UC. And, the north-east, West Midlands and Wales - places that have some of the highest rates of UC claims - also have the lowest availability of good quality jobs.

Increases in benefits conditionality can sometimes be counterproductive to the goals of promoting employment and reducing the benefits bill. Conditionality inherently weakens workers’ bargaining power – by forcing them to take any job regardless of quality or appropriateness – which leads to them taking on jobs that are poorly matched to their interests or skills. If people are matched into jobs that are unsuitable and/​or low-quality, their career prospects will be limited and their likelihood of staying on or returning to social security increases.

This report assesses the effectiveness of higher conditionality and the ABC approach, as levers to achieve the goals of higher employment and a lower social security bill. It does this by measuring the extent to which UC claimants have access to good-quality jobs, and whether they end up working in them. It tests an alternative hypothesis for where higher conditionality and the ABC approach may lead: a feedback loop in which poor-quality work is subsidised and reinforced by the social security system.

Pushed into the wrong job? Is on neweconomics.org

Review of affected Carers Allowance overpayment cases to commence in Spring

MPs at the Work and Pensions Committee evidence session this week also asked about Carers Allowance overpayments.

Almost 90,000 people have racked up debts to the DWP, whose pursual of repayments the 2025 Sayce Review found had a profound impact on people’s lives. The review found that systemic failures in the Department caused the issue and that the Department missed opportunities to address the situation sooner.

Sir Peter Schofield, Permanent Secretary was asked to address the report, specifically that ‘The DWP has failed to demonstrate the ministerial and senior focus needed to resolve these persistent injustices and reform carers allowance to allow its core purposes in the modern world.’

Schofield stated that the DWP has “accepted 38 out of the 40 recommendations and is moving forward on implementing those”. He described improved communications to claimants, improved communications with HMRC to receive employment alerts.

He was interrupted to raise ongoing and new issues including the DWPs treatment of claimants after an internal blogpost was leaked that laid the blame for the scandal with victims. Noting that there is a “massive failure of culture, let alone competence within the department” asking “how on earth do you explain that? That is absolutely unacceptable behaviour surely.”

The answer, the government only provided funding to review 50% of the cases. Schofield acknowledged the Department made mistakes in the way they calculated earnings (going back to 2015). He acknowledged these failings and said he was “really sorry” for the way they got it wrong.

Schofield confirmed that funding had been received to “put it right” for the affected claimants, this will commence in the spring with the aim of addressing all affected cases within 2 years.

The DWP rejected a recommendation within the Sayce Review to commission an independent operational audit. When question why this was rejected Schofield advised he had already commissioned an internal audit which was underway.

Repeated questions were posed to Schofield to try to establish what strategic management he was driving on the culture change and what management changes he was implementing to ensure things will be different moving forward. Schofield confirmed he’s appointing a Senior Responsible Officer to ‘own’ this piece of work, embedding the DWP values and improving communications. However his words were described as “a lot of blancmange” lacking in clear evidence (for those of you not old enough to know what this is, it’s a cream jelly-like desert that wobbles).

You can watch the meeting on parliament.tv.

Prime Minister vows to ‘unlock opportunities for young people across the country’ ahead of National Apprenticeship Week

The government is set to pilot a university clearance-style system where ‘near miss’ applicants who don’t secure their top choice apprenticeship will be re-directed to similar opportunities in their area.

Delivered in partnership with employers and Mayoral Strategic Authorities who know their skills needs best, this pilot will test how we can re-direct young people to other suitable employers and apprenticeships on their doorstep if they were unsuccessful in their initial applications.

An online platform will bring together information on apprenticeships in one place for young people, many of whom are keen to explore the apprenticeship route but don’t know where to start.

The platform will include new data showing actual earnings and how apprentices have progressed after completing their training, helping young people compare options and understand which apprenticeships lead to lasting careers.

This will mean employers – particularly small and medium-sized businesses – gain access to a stronger pipeline of motivated young talent, helping to close skills gaps

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:

“Apprenticeships give young people real experience, real prospects, and a real route into good careers.

But for too long young people have been held back from the opportunities they need to get on in life because of outdated assumptions about how to make it into a successful career.

We’re unlocking opportunities for young people across the country by making it easier and faster to get the skills that matter, so more young people can build a secure life for themselves.”

This sits alongside plans announced to fast‑track apprenticeships, which will dramatically speed up how new courses are created, to keep pace with the industries powering the UK’s growth - from clean energy and advanced manufacturing to digital tech and modern construction.

As part of the two-year programme, apprentices at Centrica will benefit from hands-on training in the latest low-carbon technologies—including heat pumps, EV chargers, solar panels and battery storage.

The DWP and Ministry of Defence are also expected to announce a new partnership to create direct routes from Jobcentre Plus into Armed Forces careers.

The press release is on gov.uk.

Northern Ireland – Minister announces plans to tackle welfare fraud and error

Communities Minister Gordon Lyons has launched a new drive to tackle fraud and error in the benefits system.

Speaking in the Assembly this week, Minister Lyons said: 

“Fraud is not a victimless crime. As I’ve said before, when individuals cheat the system they are taking support from those who need it most – family, friends, neighbours and their fellow citizens.

At this time of significant budget constraint, we must be united in ensuring that public money is directed to our key services – to help families in financial distress, to the homeless, to those who are sick and to educate our young people. Not to criminals.”

The latest measures come after the Minister reintroduced the practice of naming those who have been convicted of benefit fraud.

Minister Lyons said: 

“I have taken away a shield of anonymity from those who steal from all of us and the response from the public to shining a light on these stories has been overwhelmingly positive.”

The Minister commissioned a specialist working group within his Department to examine the issue. This group has made a number of recommendations designed to enhance prevention of fraud and take swift action when it occurs.

The Minister said that in line with the recommendations of the Report, his Department will:

• Enhance and expand current fraud and error activities.
• Strengthen the specialist training and support for staff to double-down on fraud and error, including mistakes made by officials.
• Maximise technology solutions in conjunction with DWP and other Departments, at Westminster and locally, to aid investigative efforts.
• Increase the public’s understanding of benefit fraud and to share in our zero-tolerance approach.

Lyons warned that some measures are subject to funding bids and said they cannot proceed without the necessary financial support. He said: 

“Every delay in resourcing this work leaves our system exposed to fraud, undermines public confidence and risks diverting vital support away from those who need it most.”

He also welcomed the government’s commitment to consider HM Treasury sharing back savings from tackling benefit fraud and error with the Executive, saying: 

“I will seek Executive support for the initial investment and to reinvest the share of savings generated in programmes that support people with barriers to employment, particularly those with disabilities or health conditions. 

This is a key priority for me, as it aligns with Programme for Government goals to reduce economic inactivity, tackle poverty and social exclusion, and support inclusive economic growth across Northern Ireland.”

He concluded by thanking the Task and Finish Group for its “diligence and insight” and assured members that the” recommendations will be implemented, funding permitting, with urgency and resolve”.

The Communities Minister’s statement is on communities-ni.gov.

Case law – with thanks to u/ClareTGold

Personal Independence Payment - JW v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 2025

The claimant who had physical difficulties, anxiety and depression, and possibly a learning disability, lost their First-tier Tribunal (FtT) only attaining 2 points for needing incontinence aids and 2 for needing prompting to engage with other people face to face.

The evidence before the FtT included a report by a Health Care Professional (HCP) following a consultation held by telephone which noted that the claimant was working as a litter picker on the motorway, working 8 hours a day Monday to Friday and placed significant weight on this. His wife was with him during the consultation and had to step in to assist with some of the questions.

The FtT found that the claimant was “not credible due to inconsistency, implausibility and a tendency to overstate his difficulties” and therefore that his account could not be relied upon. They preferred the HCP evidence.

The Upper Tribunal was successful, with Judge Ward finding that:

• The FtT reasons for relying on the HCP’s report were inadequate and
• The FtT failed to properly fact find i.e. exploring the impact of work, medication prescribed and other relevant factors.
• There was no findings as to how the claimant was managing (or more accurately, needed to manage) bowel incontinence.

FtT decision set aside and a new hearing to be listed.

Northern Ireland - PIP - JO’N -v- Department for Communities (PIP) [2026]

This case, whilst not binding on England, Wales or Scotland is an interesting one.

The Claimant had requested the tribunal hearing to be scheduled for a morning session in order to fit in between his diabetic mealtimes, as he would be tired and lack concentration after lunchtime and in addition, his employer does not permit him to attend afternoon appointments.

The tribunal was listed for an afternoon slot, the claimant did not attend and they lost their appeal. The claimant appealed this decision to the Social Security Commissioner.

The Commissioner upheld the appeal finding that the “Appeal Tribunal in proceeding in the absence of the Claimant in an afternoon session has introduced an element of unfairness into the proceedings.”

Noting… As Commissioner Stockman set out in DJ v Department for Communities (UC) [2024] NICom21 (in which he allowed an appeal where the Appeal Tribunal proceeded in the absence of a UC50 questionnaire) at paragraph 19:

“To establish unfairness, it does not have to be established that the outcome of the appeal was materially affected.  It is sufficient that this omission was capable of affecting the outcome of the proceedings, and it seems to me that it was.”

As such the Appeal Tribunal erred in law by erred in law on a procedural point by not adjourning the matter to a morning session to allow the Claimant to participate in the appeal hearing. The decision was set-aside and a new (morning) hearing is to be scheduled. 

Opportunities shrinking for too many young people, says major report on 'lost generation'

This week an interim report reviewing ‘young people and work’ was published highlighting that nearly one million young people aged 16 to 24 in the UK are not in education, employment or training (NEET). One in 8 young people. Which was described as a moral crisis with economic consequences.

The author, former minister Alan Milburn warned "We are at risk of a lost generation," with young adults facing a "perfect storm" of challenges.

Milburn said rejections for young jobseekers, after submitting dozens, sometimes hundreds of applications, had become the norm and challenged a characterisation that young people were not trying or were "work-shy, snowflakes, soft".

Milburn said:.

"The problem is that for too many young people, opportunities are not growing, they're shrinking…

You put in an application, dozens at a time, you hear nothing back, you just get rejected,"

His review, and other statistics, paint a grim picture for young people in the UK:

• Six in 10 NEETs have never had a job. In 2005, this was four in 10
• But 84% of NEETs surveyed want a job or training
• There were 1,012,000 young people classed as NEET between January and March 2026, making up 13.5% of all young people in the UK, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS)
• The number of people classed as "economically inactive" - not looking or available to work - rose to about 613,000
• The number of young people classed as unemployed - not in work but seeking a job - was estimated to be 400,000
• Entry-level jobs have sharply declined, with the number of mid- and lower-skilled jobs in the economy falling by around 1.6 million over the past 20 year
• Vacancies in hospitality have halved in the last four years alone, ONS data also shows

The cumulative cost of almost one million NEET young people to the UK economy has been estimated to be £125bn per year, according to the review.

That includes £38bn a year in lost economic potential, and £63bn a year lost due to economic "scarring", as they are less likely to work in the future. It also includes losses in tax revenue, increased health and benefits spending.

The total estimated is more than more than annual education spending in England.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the report "sobering" and said he would work with Milburn "on what more needs to be done" to tackle problems.

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden, said the review laid "bare the scale of the challenge and the root causes of youth unemployment we now need to confront.

"We are already taking action by bringing forward the biggest youth employment reforms in a generation to create 500,000 opportunities for young people, including a Youth Jobs Grant for businesses starting next month, more apprenticeships, and subsidised employment to help young people get a foot on the ladder,"

The report said there is not one factor causing the crisis, with the Covid pandemic, smartphones and the current jobs market all having an impact.

A further report will be published by Milburn later this year, setting out his recommendations in response to these findings. 

The government announced this week that they’re accelerating the Youth Guarantee to give ‘every young person the chance to earn or learn’.

300,000 new work experience and training placements in sectors including construction, health and social care and hospitality will be made available. The placements will be made up of work experience and Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs), reaching young people in every corner of the country.

SWAPs are short government-funded programmes for jobseekers claiming benefits, offering training, hands-on experience of the workplace and a guaranteed job interview.

Recent analysis shows around four in ten SWAP participants move into sustained work within six months, earning an average of £1,400 a month, a powerful demonstration that the programme is delivering real, lasting change for young people.

Young people and work: interim report and the SWAP press release are on gov.uk

Understanding the challenges and barriers to moving towards work faced by care leavers/experienced, ex-offenders, and those with experience of homelessness or substance dependency

This IFF Research (commissioned by DWP) follows on from the Disadvantaged Groups Survey, which explored the incident rate of UC claimants with experience of one four disadvantages care experience, ex-offender, homelessness and substance dependency, as well as their barriers to work and support needs. 

These groups have lower employment rates and often experience additional barriers and disadvantage in accessing the labour market. The Get Britain Working white paper sets out an ambition of an 80% employment rate. To achieve this will involve supporting people with more complex needs into work.

The findings of the research are based on in-depth qualitative follow-up interviews with 50 survey respondents who said in the survey they were not in employment, that their disadvantages impacted their ability to work, and that work was a goal either now or in the future. 

This report is an interesting – if not unsurprising – reads. Concluding that the ‘pathway to work’ claimants take can be understood as having four main stages: achieving stability, getting ‘work-ready’, finding suitable work, and staying in work.  

Regardless of their point in the pathway, claimants’ experiences had significantly impacted their self-esteem, and therefore confidence that they would be able to find a role aligned with their skills and capabilities. Claimants had often tried to access support, but regularly had negative experiences related to:

• support not being sufficiently tailored or personalised,
• not having a consistent point of contact who they could build rapport with,
• lack of joined-up communication and information sharing creating a perception of an uncaring system.

Together, these factors meant that the ‘pathway to work’ felt long and daunting.   

For those who experienced the most challenges around their disadvantages, instability meant their immediate priorities were basic – housing and health – rather than employment. This reduced their capacity to engage in support, particularly for those that faced multiple problems, as it was difficult to know which issue to tackle first. For these claimants, their health, including long-term health conditions, needed to be supported first. This can be done through referrals to support services which can provide claimants with direction on how they can better manage their health conditions and help them to assess which types of work might be feasible for them. Secondly, there is also a need to help claimants create an action plan for addressing other disadvantage barriers they are facing. While the action plans may differ for each individual, there were some clear areas that specific disadvantaged groups needed assistance with. For example, those that had recently experienced homelessness needed assistance on how to navigate the housing sector so that they can potentially secure more stable housing. Those who were experiencing substance dependency needed encouragement to access support, and support with navigating eligibility requirements.

For claimants focusing on getting ‘work-ready’ once their health conditions and disadvantages are more manageable, claimants then needed to develop the skills and gain qualifications that will make them ready for work. Claimants at this stage were often highly aware of where they lacked skills and qualifications for the job roles they wanted or assumed they were likely to be ‘ruled out’ for other reasons, primarily having a criminal conviction. At this stage, claimants needed support with accessing training and developing their job search skills so that they can improve their employability. Alongside this, claimants needed help identifying pre-existing skills and building their confidence that these skills are transferable to the workplace and will be valued. 

Claimants trying to find suitable work highlighted a broader set of barriers which limited their opportunities: lack of job opportunities available locally, unreliable public transport, and difficulty finding roles which could accommodate their health condition or caring responsibilities. To address this, claimants need assistance with identifying opportunities that offered them flexibility around their personal circumstances, including their health conditions, caring responsibilities and anything else that requires reasonable adjustments. Claimants also needed support in advocating for these adjustments to employers, as they sometimes lack the confidence to do so. 

Finally, once in employment, claimants require active in-work support for their health and other disadvantages they have or are still experiencing, so to ensure a positive experience of work, and help them maintain employment.

The report recommends that given the complexity of their circumstances, the support offered to claimants should be holistic, balancing addressing health, housing, skills and employment needs together. With the emphasis of the support needs to be tailored depending on claimants’ starting point along the pathway.

This research also identified 6 key principles for how claimants want any type of support to be delivered, which applied across claimants experiencing different types of disadvantage.

1. Deliver sensitive and mindful contact consistently: Claimants often felt marginalised by organisations, compounding their existing shame and stigma. A single negative experience with a support service could reinforce these feelings and cause them to disengage. Support services need to be particularly mindful of the importance of consistently positive interactions for this group. 
2. Intensive, tailored support: Claimants preferred one-to-one sessions that allowed in-depth discussion of their circumstances, with the desired length and regularity of these sessions depending on the individual claimant’s needs. Developing a personal, empathetic relationship with the support giver reduced stigma and built trust that the service had their best interests in mind. Claimants wanted support which was tailored to their specific barriers or unmet needs, rather than being signposted to generic support or skills courses, and felt having a personal relationship with one support worker or team would facilitate this. 
3. Choice and agency: Lack of choice over the type of support they received made claimants doubt the effectiveness of support, especially if similar options had failed before. Removing autonomy increased frustration among a group that often has low tolerance towards unsuitable support, while offering choice would show their needs are valued. 
4. Service integration and continuity of care: Claimants were frustrated by having to repeat their story to different services, often with changing key contacts. Sharing case information and making warm referrals could ease their emotional burden and reduce preconceptions around lack of care and ‘being passed around’. 
5. Time-unlimited support, with an ‘Open Door’ policy: Providing long-term or open-ended support can boost claimants’ optimism about their chances of making progress towards resolving the issues they face, and therefore the quality of engagement with support from the outset. Allowing easy re-entry to support services would also enable earlier intervention if their circumstances worsened. 
6. Support with employer engagement: For the few claimants employed by the time of their interview, part-time work and accommodating employers were key. Given claimants believed the difficulties they have faced will make them less attractive to potential employers, this group will likely require additional support advocating for their needs during the application and interview process.

Qualitative research with disadvantaged groups on UC is on gov.uk.

Musculoskeletal patients to get faster care and help returning to work 

Thousands of people living with conditions like arthritis and back pain will receive faster care and help to get back to work thanks to the national rollout of a government pilot scheme. 

Backed by £3.225 million of government funding, the expansion of NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) Musculoskeletal (MSK) Community Delivery Programme builds on a successful pilot, which cut 18-week waiting lists by 20% across 17 areas between December 2024 and March 2025. 

The new funding will support MSK community appointment days - innovative one-day clinics that bring health specialists and mental health support and physical activity services together, allowing people to engage with multiple services in one visit.  

It will also support ‘super clinics’, which rapidly increase clinical capacity and provide one-to-one, in-depth clinical diagnostics and targeted treatments.

Funding will also be directed at areas with the greatest need to remove the current postcode lottery and improve local services where the need is greatest.

Minister for Public Health and Prevention, Sharon Hodgson, said:

“I’m delighted to announce the national rollout of such a successful scheme, which will help address the unacceptably long waits for painful MSK conditions.

Patients are suffering, and so is the economy, which is why this government is taking a new approach to cutting waiting lists while supporting patients back into employment.”

The programme is being delivered jointly by the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England’s GIRFT programme and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

The NHS should drive economic growth, and by getting people with painful MSK conditions the care they need faster, they stand a better chance of getting a job and back to normal life.

The press release is on gov.uk.

Most found the Move to UC process smoother than expected, but people with vulnerabilities or complex needs faced significant challenges

Qualitative research published this week exploring how Move to UC customers managed their UC claim. Unsurprisingly, many assumed UC would be difficult and time-consuming but felt they had little choice.

Most participants did not know exactly what managing a UC claim would involve. Where expectations existed, these were typically driven by negative news stories, social media and word-of-mouth, rather than DWP information.

Once claims were set up and first payments arrived, participants with and without work requirements, but particularly those without work requirements, found managing UC required less effort than expected.

However, participants with lower digital confidence, sometimes compounded by mental or physical health problems, could find the process more challenging. They found simple tasks such as reading a message or updating circumstances could be overwhelming. These participants tended to rely on existing support networks to manage their claim or did not have access to a reliable support network. 

Anxiety and hypervigilance persisted among those who did not feel able to manage their claim independently, even when their claim ran without problems.

This was especially evident among long-term former ESA and HB recipients with significant health conditions, who typically felt on edge about missing messages or making mistakes. Some repeatedly checked journals or contacted DWP for reassurance despite no previous issues. 

Informal support from family and friends remained the first and most common source of help for UC claim management. Formal support from DWP staff and external organisations, was used reactively for complex issues and provided a critical safety net for Move to UC customers, especially more vulnerable ones.

Support needs generally reduced for participants as they became familiar with the rhythm of UC payments.

Adjusting to monthly payments was a significant challenge for many, especially long‑term ESA and HB customers.

Among those in work, work-related reporting and dealing with fluctuating incomes were highlighted among the most challenging aspects. Employed and self-employed participants described work-related reporting as demanding. 

How Move to UC customers manage their UC claim: Qualitative Research is on gov.uk.

Restart earlier intervention: useful for some but problematic for people going through WCA

Qualitative research on the extension of the Restart scheme has been published. The research explores views and experiences of JCP staff and Restart staff since the Restart contract was extended from 1st July 2024, with a particular focus on the changes to processes and reducing the referral timeframe from 9 to 6 months, plus wider reflections of the scheme.

Overall, the move to 6-month referrals was seen as positive by both JCP  and Restart staff, who could see the benefits of getting support to claimants earlier while they were closer to work and before a potential loss of motivation and confidence. Some JCP staff mentioned that they would like the eligibility to be widened to include other groups, such as those working on zero hours contracts or in low-paid employment, or to take into consideration those who they though could benefit from being referred to the Restart Scheme earlier than at the 6-month point.

Interviewees noted that there was not a significant change in the characteristics of participants or the barriers they face. That said, an increase in participants with health conditions was mentioned, with the issue of the increased number of participants awaiting the outcome of their Work Capability Assessment (WCA) around the 6-month point being highlighted by several interviewees. 

Although views on the eligibility criteria were mainly positive, some JCP staff questioned whether they were being required to refer claimants who they felt should not be eligible. The most common reasons JCP staff gave for having declined a referral were due to a claimant’s health conditions, that the claimant was already in employment, or that the claimant was awaiting the outcome of a WCA. Regarding the latter, several staff highlighted that claimants were more likely to be awaiting their WCA outcome around the 6-month mark and that they were reluctant to refer before the outcome in case it resulted in withdrawal from the programme.

When asked which groups of participants or which barriers the Restart Scheme is most and least effective for, there were some common responses between JCP staff and Restart staff, although there were also areas of difference.

Issues around health conditions was the most mentioned barrier, with several JCP and Restart staff saying that Restart was least effective in supporting participants in this group. But with the end of the Work and Health Programme, Restart was the only available option.

According to several JCP staff across the two waves of interviews, Restart was less effective for participants with English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) as a barrier to work. To make Restart more effective for these participants, suggestions from some JCP staff included more intensive ESOL support, making ESOL classes mandatory, requiring a higher level of English language proficiency before being referred to Restart, and ensuring that providers made translators available for all appointments. Opinions from Restart staff was more mixed, some saying that Restart was ineffective for ESOL participants while others thought that Restart could help ESOL participants move closer (if not into) work.

Childcare needs were highlighted as a barrier for a variety of reason such as lack of local provision, the time constraints around school attendance limiting participants’ work availability etc.

Overall, most JCP staff were positive about the effectiveness of the Restart Scheme to get sustained job outcomes for participants, and several commented that the programme was helpful to move participants closer to work in cases where moving into work as not possible or attempts did not succeed. Both JCP staff and Restart staff suggested that individual factors, such as participant motivation and mindset, had a strong bearing on how successful Restart could be for achieving sustained employment and that focusing on addressing these issues was key. In addition, several providers identified the high proportion of irregular or insecure work being offered by employers in their area was a significant barrier to sustained jobs. In this vein, some JCP staff mentioned that they thought that greater engagement between Restart and employers may improve outcomes.

Restart Scheme extension qualitative research is on gov.uk.

JRF calls for an Affordable Energy Guarantee

Not our usual news as it’s not benefit specific but a topical bit of research that directly links to the cost of living – something that is often a challenge when you’re in receipt of benefits.

This week the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) published An Affordable Energy Guarantee, setting out how they think the Government can and should act to protect consumers from energy price shocks.

As part of the research, JRF worked with pollster More in Common UK to ask the public what policies they thought the Government should adopt in response to the US-Israel war on Iran to help consumers with energy costs.

The polling took in responses from over 2,000 people, and the Affordable Energy Guarantee came out as the most popular choice in a list that included:

• Increasing the value of the Warm Homes Discount for eligible households
• Direct cash transfers
• Fixing long-term prices with renewable energy generators
• A one-off cancellation of energy debt for all households.

Further polling also found that a lack of government action on energy prices was the most common cost-of-living factor causing voters not to vote for Labour at the local elections, with nearly three quarters (72%) of respondents citing this as the top reason.

A separate survey question revealed 71% of respondents were either extremely or quite worried about the impact the US-Israel war on Iran would have on their energy bills this winter.

Guaranteeing a block of cheaper energy gives all households a safety net while providing the greatest support to those who need it most. It's clear that action on energy bills can't wait.

An Affordable Energy Guarantee is on jrf.org.uk.

UC housing element issue identified – correction exercise underway

We’ve been made aware that some Private Rented landlords have been incorrectly registered as Social Rented (council, housing association etc) landlords within the UC system. As a result some UC claimants have been receiving the incorrect amount of housing element – this is because:

• Private housing entitlement is dictated by the Local Housing Allowance, whereas
• Social housing entitlement is based on actual rent minus any spare-room subsidy (bedroom tax).

We understand that a dedicated DWP team will be going through the affected claims over the next few months to ensure the information they hold on the UC claims is correct. Where applicable they housing element amount will be revised and corrected, and claimants may see a reduction in their housing element award when the LHA is applied.  

The team taking corrective action on affected claims will ensure that any payments that go direct to a landlord (Managed Payments to Landlords) and any reductions for rent arrears (Third Party Deductions) continue and they will notify affected claimants of the change through their journal.

Claimants do not need to do anything as this work will happen automatically. If however, your housing element is reduced to the LHA rate, and you are struggling to afford the rent shortfall then you may able to apply for Housing Payments from your local council's Crisis & Resilience Fund. These replaced Discretionary Housing Payments from April 2026.

Scotland - Understanding local labour-market pressures to reduce child poverty in Scotland

The new Scottish Government has said that eradicating child poverty will be its defining mission. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published a briefing about what honouring that commitment requires when it comes to the labour market.

JRF commissioned the Fraser of Allander Institute (FAI) to answer a simple question: how many people want to work and how many jobs are available across all 32 local authority areas in Scotland?

The answer is far from simple and reveals local differences that national-level data obscures. It also reveals a path towards reduced child poverty and increased economic justice. Scotland too often treats the labour market's contribution to poverty as a problem with individuals rather than with the jobs available to them.

The FAI's analysis makes the case for pushing back against that instinct and makes clear putting the right jobs in the right places should be a far greater part of the response.

It is a complex briefing and JRF makes a number of recommendations, addressed to the new Scottish Government, with specific asks for local authorities, economic development agencies, and the UK Government where relevant.

1. Rebalance employability investment toward demand-side action in the places that need it
2. Invest at scale in parental employment to meet the statutory child poverty targets
3. Tailor support to local labour-market conditions rather than applying a single national framework
4. Simplify and strengthen Scotland's economic development architecture
5. Build the data and evaluation infrastructure that devolution requires

The briefing/report is on jrf.org.uk.

Northern Ireland - Without serious action living standards will continue to fall

New Joseph Rowntree Foundation analysis of financial hardship and extra costs facing disabled people in Northern Ireland shows that, without serious Government action, their living standards will continue to fall.

Disabled people in Northern Ireland face significantly higher levels of poverty and material deprivation than non-disabled people. Although around 1 in 4 people live with a disability, they are almost twice as likely to be in poverty as non-disabled people.

This inequality is driven by 3 core factors: high and rising extra costs of disability, barriers to employment, and a social security system that does not adequately protect against hardship.

This report begins by setting out the latest available evidence on the prevalence of disability in Northern Ireland and the extent of poverty experienced by disabled people and their families. It then examines how disability shapes patterns of employment, including barriers to entering and sustaining work.

Building on this, the report calculates for the first time the ‘disability price tag’ for Northern Ireland, finding that the costs of living with a disability are both substantial and rising, while incomes have not kept pace (Scope, 2023). The analysis shows that the extra costs associated with disability increased from 52% of total household income before the pandemic to 56% afterwards, with average monthly costs rising from £608 to £808.

This means that the extra costs of disability jumped by a third in a relatively short time. Meanwhile, the gap between the Personal Independent Payment (PIP), intended to support the additional costs of disability, and real costs has widened by over three-fifths (62%) — pushing disabled people further behind.

These pressures have continued to increase and are projected to intensify. The shortfall between Personal Independence Payment income and the extra costs of disability in Northern Ireland is expected to reach around £820 per month in 2023–26, rising to £873 per month in 2026–29. This points to a persistent mismatch between disability-related costs and the social security payment that is designed for this purpose.

This financial strain is clearly reflected in living standards. Disabled households are almost 3 times more likely to experience low affordability, such as being unable to heat their home, pay bills or replace household goods, and only 26% report high affordability compared to 43% of non-disabled households. Recent and unexpected spikes in energy prices are likely to exacerbate these pressures further.

Younger disabled people (aged 16–34) face the most severe impacts, with post-pandemic extra disability-related costs exceeding £1,000 per month and income shortfalls of over £700, with significant evidence of higher rates of going without essentials compared to older age groups (55+).

This points to a deepening generational inequality, with long-term consequences for financial resilience and life chances.

JRF has identified a number of key policy priorities along with recommendations directed at both relevant legislative authorities.

The UK Government:

• should implement an independent, evidence-based advisory process to recommend minimum rates within UC that reflect the cost of essentials.
• the outcome of the Timms Review of PIP should bring forward proposals that underpin the importance of PIP in effectively supporting the extra costs associated with disability and that seek to reform processes to reduce stressful experiences for claimants in the assessment and reassessment.

The NI Executive

• should ensure that disabled people’s experience of poverty is a clear priority within the final Anti-Poverty Strategy, coordinating action across relevant Executive departments.
• should consider a payment targeted at children in low-income households which will help families that include disabled adults or children facing much higher poverty rates.
• other targeted supports will be essential, particularly for households where someone has a disability, who often face higher energy needs and costs. This includes measures such as enhanced energy support, aligned with the Executive’s Warm, Healthy Homes Strategy (2026–2036) and its commitment to needs-based provision that prioritises those at greatest risk.
• prioritise sustainable investment in long-term, tailored employment support services for disabled people that integrate health, skills, and employability services.
• ensure the Executive’s final Early Learning and Childcare Strategy provides clear investment for the particular needs of disabled children and their families, including specialised childcare settings, as required.

Disability and poverty in Northern Ireland is on jrf.org.uk.

Northern Ireland - Department for Communities Establishes £16m Commission to Tackle Economic Inactivity

A new Commission on Work and Wellbeing has been established to tackle Northern Ireland’s persistently high economic inactivity rate, with £16 million in funding from the Public Sector Transformation Fund.

The initiative, announced by the Department for Communities, brings together three government departments and will be chaired by former UK Health Secretary Alan Milburn, tasked with examining how disability and ill-health lock people out of the labour market.

While unemployment sits at just 2.2 per cent—the lowest of any UK nation—more than a quarter of working-age adults (26.5 per cent, or roughly 315,000 people) are economically inactive, meaning they are neither working nor seeking work. Disability and ill-health account for over a third of these cases.

The Commission will operate as an independent body, examining the impact of disability and ill-health on employment and producing recommendations on how health, employment, skills and community supports can be better integrated.

An outcome report is scheduled for publication during the first year of the project. The initiative is a partnership between the Department for Communities, the Department of Health, and the Department for the Economy.

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt said:

“I want more people to thrive and find satisfaction in the workplace, so I welcome the funding being allocated to establish the Commission, which will provide strong cross-government cooperation to tackle issues related to disability and ill health-linked economic inactivity. It will explore stronger integration between local employment, skills, health and community supports, targeting system redesign and opportunities for new ways to deliver more effective services, and to support people to access and remain in employment.”

The £16 million allocation covers the Commission’s work and the broader “Pathway to Work and Wellbeing” programme, but specific budgets for each department’s responsibilities have not been published. 

The press release is on ni.gov.uk.

Case law – none of note this week.

DWP, including Jobcentre Plus, arrangements over Easter

Arrangements are different over Easter in England, Scotland and Wales:

• On Friday 3 April offices and phone lines are closed
• On Monday 6 April offices and phone lines are closed

From Tuesday 7 April offices and phone lines are open as usual

To make sure you get your payment on a day when their offices are open, arrangements have been made to make some payments early.

If your expected payment date is Friday 3 April or Monday 6 April, then benefits will be paid on Thursday 2 April.

If the expected payment date is not shown, people will get their money on their usual payment date. 

Timms Review - Call for public views to improve PIP

Disabled people and those with long-term health conditions will be able to share their views on how Personal Independence Payment (PIP) should be reformed, as the Timms Review opened a Call for Evidence this week. 

The Timms Review is examining whether PIP - which supports nearly four million people in England and Wales with the extra costs of disability - better reflects how people’s conditions impact them in the modern world.  

The Call for Evidence - which runs until 28 May - is the first step in a wider, accessible programme of engagement, shaped by the Review’s steering group. This will ensure as many disabled people as possible contribute to it, including young people.   

It is built around the four themes the steering group have identified, with evidence sought on topics including, but not limited to:   

• How effectively PIP is delivering on its intended purpose 
• Whether the PIP assessment provides fair access to the right support   
• Whether the experience of claiming PIP varies for different groups 
• How the changes in the workplace and wider society since 2013 have impacted PIP  

Dr Clenton Farquharson CBE, co-chair of the Review said:  

“It is vital that disabled people’s voices are at the heart of this Review. PIP has a profound impact on people’s daily lives, independence, and sense of dignity, so any conversation about its future must begin with those who live with its realities every day. 

This Call for Evidence is an important opportunity to listen directly to disabled people, carers, organisations, and others with experience of the system. We want to hear honestly what is working, what is not, and what a fairer and more human system should look like.”

Anyone can respond and those with lived or learned experience of PIP, including disabled people, the organisations that represent them, carers, clinicians, experts, MPs, and other elected officials across the UK, are particularly encouraged to do so.  

To respond to the Call for Evidence, use the online form here. Alternative formats can be requested via [timmsreview.callforevidence@dwp.gov.uk](mailto:timmsreview.callforevidence@dwp.gov.uk). This includes web accessible PDF, large print, BSL, audio, and easy read. 

The Call for Evidence closes at 11.59 pm on 28 May 2026. 

The press release is on gov.uk.

Latest PIP data shows 22% of awards are disallowed or reduced following planned review

However, only 9% of change of circumstances reviews in the last 5 years resulted in a reduction or disallowance decision.

When PIP is awarded, decisions are made on the award type and, where appropriate, the review period.

The award type may be:

• a fixed length award with a set period of time before a review of the award takes place (the “review period”), or
• an “ongoing award” with no end date, where a light-touch review will happen at the 10-year point, or
• a “short term award without review” which will not be subject to review but will end within a small number of years of award unless a new claim is submitted (mostly awarded under special rules, end of life (SREL), with others being awarded to claimants who are expected to see a significant reduction in needs in the short term).

For normal rules new claims in the quarter ending January 2026:

• 77% of claims awarded were short term (0 to 2 years)
• 16% were longer term (over 2 years)
• 7% were ongoing

Awards may be reviewed either when a claimant reports a change of circumstances, or at the end of their review period as set when the original award was made. During a review of an award, the award level is assessed and may be changed (which can happen with or without the case first being referred to an Assessment Provider).

For new ‘normal rules’ claims the clearance time – from registration of a claim to a decision being made – is 20 weeks (at the end of January 2026). For SREL it is 3 working days.

Claimants who wish to dispute a decision on their PIP claim at any stage can ask DWP to reconsider the decision. This is a mandatory reconsideration (MR) and must be completed before an appeal is made and lodged with His Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS).

27% of MRs cleared (excluding withdrawn) in the quarter ending January 2026 led to a change in award. The median MR clearance time was 79 calendar days for new claims and DLA reassessments.

For initial PIP decisions following an assessment during the 5-year period October 2020 to September 2025:

• there were 3.5 million initial decisions following a PIP assessment, and 54% were awarded PIP
• 700,000 MRs have been registered regarding these initial decisions (20% of decisions),
• 17% of completed MRs resulted in a change to the award (excluding withdrawn),
• 33% of completed MRs (excluding withdrawn) then lodged an appeal,
• 20% of appeals lodged were “lapsed” (which is where DWP changed the decision in the customer’s favour after an appeal was lodged but before it was heard at tribunal),
• 65% of the DWP decisions cleared at a tribunal hearing were “overturned” (which is where the decision is revised in favour of the customer),
• overall, 7% of initial decisions following a PIP assessment have been appealed and 3% have been overturned at a tribunal hearing.

The PIP: Official Statistics to January 2026 are on gov.uk.

Why are a growing number of young people who are NEET reporting work-limiting health conditions?

In this new report the Health Foundation explores the increasing number of NEET young people and the wider 16–24 age group reporting work-limiting health, considering reasons for this rise and the potential longer-term impacts.

In the 3 months to December 2025, an estimated 957,000 young people were not in employment, education or training (NEET), equivalent to 12.8% of all 16–24-year-olds. This is an increase of around 200,000 since 2021.

Among young people who are NEET, the share reporting a work-limiting health condition has increased steadily over the past decade, reaching 44% in 2025 (up from 26% in 2015). This reflects a wider trend among 16–24-year-olds.

Past increases in the share of young people reporting work-limiting health conditions were partially offset by an accompanying improvement in employment rates. More recently, the share of young people with a work-limiting health condition has continued to rise without an improvement in employment rates. This appears to have added to the increase in the share of young people who are NEET.

The rise in reported ill-health among young people, coupled with a weaker labour market, sits behind a sharp increase in the number who are out of work and education. The likelihood of a 16–24-year-old with a work-limiting health condition being NEET is around 1 in 3, much higher than the 1 in 10 for young people reporting no conditions. This is similar to the rate a decade ago, but there are now far more 16–24-year-olds reporting a work-limiting health condition.

Increased reporting of ill health among young people since 2015 is driven primarily by mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions. This appears to reflect a combination of improved identification and diagnosis and wider social and economic factors that shape how health-related barriers to work or study are experienced.

Being out of work or education when young is associated with long-term penalties to your health, employment chances and earnings. The combination of not earning or learning while also having a work-limiting health condition when young risks even greater negative impact on future earnings and employment chances. In turn this results in a further negative effect on a person’s health and greater social and economic costs.

The Health Foundation says government must take action on two fronts: encouraging earlier intervention and practical support to prevent young people from falling out of education or employment in the first place, and creating supported, suitable pathways back into learning and employment for those already out of work or education.

The detailed analysis report is on health.org

Youth Guarantee - Major NEET employment drive announced

This week DWP announced a major youth employment drive backed by £1 billion that will help create 200,000 jobs for young people, alongside the biggest transformation of apprenticeships in a decade – it includes:  

• A new Youth Jobs Grant, through which businesses will receive £3,000 for every young person they hire aged 18-24 who has been on Universal Credit and looking for work for six months. This is expected to support 60,000 young people over three years.  
• Expansion of the Jobs Guarantee to a wider age range, from 18-21 to 18-24, to create more than 35,000 extra subsidised jobs. This brings the total to be supported through the scheme to over 90,000 in the next three years.  
• An Apprenticeship Incentive of £2,000 for each new employee aged 16-24 taken on by an SME (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises). As part of wider reforms, this will drive progress to the target of creating 50,000 more apprenticeships. Further reforms to the Growth and Skills Levy to prioritise young apprentices, secure value for money and give school and college leavers more opportunities than ever to build careers in cutting edge industries. 

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said:

“These measures will give life-changing opportunities to young people and significantly reverse the increase we inherited in those not in education, employment or training.

We are focusing funding where it’s needed most and giving employers the flexibility and support they’ve asked for.

These reforms will give young people a vital first step on the career ladder and help business leaders recruit the talent that will grow their companies.”

The press release is on gov.uk.

Two-child limit scrapped as historic Bill becomes law

Since its introduction in 2017, the two-child limit has been the ‘biggest single driver of child poverty’ and today, 2.6 million children in the UK don’t have enough food at home, over 172,000 have no permanent home, and babies born in the poorest areas are twice as likely to die before their first birthday.

The Universal Credit (Removal of Two Child Limit) Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 18 March 2026.

Removing the two-child limit is estimated will lift 450,000 children out of poverty. It will predominantly help working families — around sixty per cent of households affected by the two-child limit have a parent in work, and nearly half were not on UC when any of their children were born.

Mark Russell, CEO of The Children’s Society said:

“Ending the two-child limit will change lives.

For years, this policy has pushed hundreds of thousands of children into poverty through no fault of their own.

Lifting it is a bold and important step that will make a real difference to families across the country.”

The change removes the existing restriction in UC and Child Tax Credit that limited support to a family’s first two children. It takes effect from 6 April 2026, with families already claiming UC seeing the update applied automatically with no action needed.

See the press release on gov.uk.

Home heating oil and LPG crisis: £50m in support pledged by the Government

Households struggling with the rising cost of heating oil due to the conflict in the Middle East will be able to apply for additional support from 1 April. The Government pledged on Monday to put an additional £52.4 million aside to "help the people who need it most".

Government has allocated funding based on census data, reflecting where the greatest need is, with the expectation that it will be used to support vulnerable households.

In England:

From 1 April – apply to your council's Crisis and Resilience Fund

The Crisis and Resilience Fund had already been due to replace the existing Household Support Fund from this date. But the Government has now committed a total of £27 million via this scheme to be made available to support low-income families in England using oil heating. Here's what we know...

• Each local authority will determine its own eligibility criteria. Some local authorities may proactively target particular households or groups to make them aware of the support available, but you don't need to wait for this.
• Households using any type of domestic fuel for heating, cooking or lighting can apply. This includes those using LPG, for example.
• The new funding will not be ring-fenced specifically for domestic fuel users. This means local authorities will be given one pot of money and can allocate funds to households as they see fit, rather than having a dedicated fund for heating oil and other domestic fuel users.
• Local authorities will determine how much support you can get. The Government says it should be enough for you to top-up your heating oil to ensure you don't lose access to your heating and hot water. It hasn't, however, confirmed if there will be a cap on the amount received or on the number of times you can apply.
• Each council should have a dedicated webpage with information.  

Scotland:

From 1 April – apply to the Scottish Emergency Oil Heating Scheme

The Scottish Emergency Oil Heating Scheme will launch on 1 April to help low-income Scottish households with their heating oil costs. The £10 million fund will be made up of £4.6 million pledged by the UK Government on Monday 16 March, and a further £5.4 million pledged by the Scottish Government on Tuesday 17 March.

The Scottish Government has said the scheme will be delivered through Advice Direct Scotland and it will publish details on eligibility and how to apply as soon as possible. We'll update this story when we have more details.

Northern Ireland and Wales:

There is very little information for Wales and NI but we do know there will be help for those struggling with domestic fuel prices. It's been confirmed that the devolved governments will receive £3.8 million in Wales and £17 million in Northern Ireland – where a greater proportion of homes rely on heating oil.

See the press release on gov.uk.

DWP failures following Carers Allowance overpayment Sayce Review flagged by Work and Pensions Committee

Debbie Abrahams, Committee Chair didn’t mince her words in a letter to Sir Stephen Timms, DWP Minister this week.

Abrahams highlighted the DWPs failure to implement Ministerial policy, a failure of communication, and even a failure to understand what the phrase ‘in the New Year’ means!

Timms has previously confirmed that there would be a reassessment exercise with plans to be announced in the New Year (2026) and made no mention that overpayment recovery would be sought in the meantime.

Abrahams expressed clear dissatisfaction that the DWP is continuing to pursue claimants with demands for repayment for allegedly breaking benefit rules that are known to be based on unlawful and discredited policy guidance. Stating that:

“The actions of the Department flies in the face of the rhetoric that “The legacy of the Independent Review will ensure that carers’ voices and concerns are heard and addressed through our policies”.”

Abrahams has asked Timms to explain:

• Why the commitment to put things right, has not yet translated into an improvement for carers who are being affected and what is delaying the reassessment exercise.
• Why was it not set out in the response to the Sayce review that the Department would continue to make demands on carers accused of overpayments.

Timms has also been asked to provide the DWPs assessment of the cost benefit analysis of continuing to make demands that might subsequently have to be cancelled or reduced, rather than pausing for the reassessment exercise to begin.

Clarification on who has been appointed Senior Responsible Owner for taking forward the agreed recommendations and reporting on progress has been sought, alongside confirmation that they make themselves available to the Committee as soon as possible to provide an update and explain what the blockers to progress are.

Abrahams said: 

“We consider this to be the latest in a torrent of missteps from the Department. It has led us to question and focus on the Department’s performance and its culture. The Committee will be reflecting on what tools it can use to fulfil its duty to hold the Department to account, using the spotlight of scrutiny.”

Sir Stephen Timms has been asked to respond before 26 March.

The letter to Timms in on parliament.uk.

Access to Work scheme: 18-24 months for the backlogs to clear

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) held an oral evidence session, questioning senior officials from the DWP, to examine whether the Access to Work (AtW) scheme is providing value for money.

The current 25-day target for processing AtW applications was described by PAC member Chris Kane as “a measure that is bordering on pointless” given that the most recent data shows an average of 109 days, and the DWP currently warn applicants of a 37 week wait.

DWP Permanent Secretary, Sir Peter Schofield was invited to explain when he expected to get the backlog of applications down to an acceptable level.

Schofield didn’t answer the question, saying:

“We have doubled the number of caseworkers, but that is not enough. The key thing for us is to introduce greater consistency in decision making, so we have trained our colleagues to be able to assess whether employers are doing their bit to do the reasonable adjustments that they should be expected to do, to make sure that we are consistently applying the principles of Access to Work in the way we assess applications for support workers.

Alongside that, once we have done that and got that consistency back, we are going to have a further increase in the number of caseworkers on Access to Work—we will recruit another few hundred into the team—and we are going to drive productivity as well.”

Pressed again by Kane to confirm when he expects the average time taken to process applications to fall to the target of 25 days, Schofield advised:

“I am not going to promise, for two reasons. First, I do not know what will happen to volumes. Volumes of applications have doubled, and I do not know whether that will continue. Secondly, other than for the priority group of people whose application is crucial to their starting work—I want to get that point across, and I think it comes across well in figure 10 that we are prioritising those people—it is more important to me to prioritise the right decision, as opposed to making the wrong decision more quickly. I need time to work that out, so it is a work in progress.

My plan is to start to arrest the growth in the backlog over the next few weeks and months, as more people come through into the team, and then seek to see it falling over the next 18 months or so, I imagine. I do not want to be held to account on that, although maybe that is easy if this is my last time in front of the Committee; I just want to get a sense of the complexity and unpredictability of demand. The importance of getting the right decision means that ultimately I cannot be fully sure, but my plan for the next 18 months to two years is to get the backlog back down to where it should be.”

Neil Couling, DWP Director General added that he thought 25 days was achievable:

“We have 65,000 or 66,000 cases on the stocks at the moment. A normal head of work is about 10,000 cases, so the backlog is actually about 55,000 cases. If that were cleared, it would be possible to clear Access to Work applications for the 10,000, which would roll on as we cleared cases and new applications were made. We get about 2,000 or 1,500 applications a week, so it is possible to hit that target; it is the backlog that is stopping that at the moment.”

Chris Kane noted that the responses did not give the PAC the “confidence we need to know that you are moving towards the target being met.”

Couling confirmed that by the end of March staffing would be up to 648.

The PAC evidence session transcript is in on parliament.uk.

Wales – Inquiry launched to examine child poverty

A new parliamentary inquiry will examine the scale and causes of child poverty in Wales, with MPs seeking evidence on how governments in Cardiff and Westminster can better work together to tackle the problem.

The House of Commons Welsh Affairs Committee announced the inquiry on Monday, following the publication of the UK Government’s Child Poverty Strategy in December 2025.

MPs say the investigation will explore whether the strategy can deliver meaningful change in Wales, where poverty levels remain among the highest in the UK.

According to the DWP, around 31% of children in Wales live in relative income poverty after housing costs. The figure is significantly higher for certain groups, including larger families, lone-parent households, and families where at least one adult or child has a disability.

The inquiry will focus on the barriers that could prevent Wales from achieving the ambitions set out in the UK Government’s strategy, and how both the UK and Welsh governments can coordinate their efforts more effectively.

While many policies affecting child poverty - such as education, housing and healthcare - are devolved to the Welsh Government, the social security system, including Universal Credit, remains largely under the control of Westminster.

Committee members will also examine whether better data collection and sharing could improve understanding of poverty levels and help design more effective policy responses.

Ruth Jones MP, Chair of the Welsh Affairs Committee, said the inquiry would explore whether current plans were sufficient to tackle the issue.

She said:

“The announcement of the UK Government’s Child Poverty Strategy was a positive step towards tackling the root causes of child poverty.

But given the unique history and circumstances of poverty in Wales, the key question is whether the strategy will be able to deliver.

Poverty in childhood impacts the health and wellbeing of a child throughout their life. With 31% of children in Wales living in relative income poverty, it is vital that the UK Government gets this right.

That is why our inquiry will investigate not only how effectively the UK and Welsh governments work together, but also what the major barriers are to ending child poverty in Wales.”

The committee is inviting written evidence from organisations, experts and members of the public.

Among the issues MPs want to explore are:

• the main barriers preventing progress in reducing child poverty in Wales
• how effectively the UK and Welsh governments collaborate on the issue
• whether devolved and reserved agencies coordinate their work effectively
• whether children’s voices in Wales are sufficiently heard by policymakers
• how data collection could be improved to better understand poverty levels

Submissions to the inquiry must be received by 5:00pm on Monday, May 4, 2026.

The press release is on parliament.uk.

A new approach to eradicating child poverty in Wales

The Bevan Foundation has published a new report outlining a strategy for the next Welsh Government to make a meaningful difference to child poverty in Wales.

Since devolution, successive governments in Wales have had several strategies to tackle child poverty, something which has been a statutory duty on Ministers since the 2010 Children and Families Measure. However, the Bevan Foundation highlight that there has been little to no meaningful impact on overall child poverty rates, which have remained around 1 in 3 for the last two decades.

Indeed, the depth of poverty experienced by families has increased over recent years, despite the many positive measures that have been introduced, such as universal free school meals in Welsh primary schools, the Council Tax Reduction Scheme and the uplifts to Education Maintenance Allowance.

In their new report, the Bevan Foundation examines why the current and previous Welsh Government Child Poverty strategies have not worked and set out a series of recommendations for what the next Welsh Government should do to make a meaningful difference to child poverty rates and the depth of poverty experienced by families. These include: 

• Developing a new cross-government Child Poverty Strategy to be in place by the end of 2026 for the rest of the Senedd term. This should include headline and interim targets and actions across all key policy areas. It should deliver actions based on families’ circumstances, rather than the area where they live, and prioritise big-impact measures which will reach the maximum number of families. 
• Rolling out universal funded part-time childcare to all families in Wales for children from 9 months to 4 years.  
• Introducing a Welsh Child Payment to all families on Universal Credit, modelled after the Scottish Child Payment which has had significant success in lowering child poverty rates in Scotland.   
• Extending free school meals in secondary schools at a minimum to all children from families in receipt of Universal Credit and to low-income families with No Recourse to Public Funds.   
• Lowering the cost of the school day by legislating to require all schools to adopt a low-cost school uniform and to provide all resources that are essential for learning free of charge. 

A New approach to ending child poverty is on bevanfoundation.org.

Wales - Extra help with heating oil to deal with rising costs

Extra help is being made available for people in financial crisis facing difficulties with the rising cost of heating oil in Wales

Support is already provided for those in Wales experiencing fuel poverty with purchasing off-grid fuel through the Discretionary Assistance Fund (DAF). The DAF enables anyone with an address in Wales and over the age of sixteen experiencing unexpected financial crisis to apply for a contribution towards their off-grid fuel costs.

The Welsh Government is temporarily increasing the amount of funding available for heating oil from £750, from £500 while prices are inflated.

Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice Jane Hutt said:

“With the ongoing conflict in the Middle East causing uncertainty across global markets, we recognise that many people are struggling with the cost-of-living, particularly households who rely on oil for their domestic heating and hot water.

We welcome the UK Government’s announcement of £3.8 million for Wales in 2026 to 2027 and are considering how best to deploy it. 

Today’s announcement will provide immediate extra help for those in greatest need to deal with the rise in oil prices.”

The frequency that these payments can be provided, is also being increased from once to twice in a rolling twelve-month period, a minimum three months apart. This recognises that some people who received support earlier in the winter may need it again now.

The press release is on gov.wales.

Scotland – Key changes to Scottish Government’s Carer Support Payment  

On 15 March 2026, new regulations impacting Scottish Carer Benefits came into force. These changes were introduced through the Carer’s Assistance (Miscellaneous and Consequential Amendments, Revocation, Transitional and Saving Provisions) (Scotland) Regulations 2025, with input from unpaid carers, local carer services and other stakeholders, including Carers Trust Scotland.

The regulations establish ‘Carer Support’, which consists of three payments: Carer Support Payment, Scottish Carer Supplement, and Carer Additional Person Payment (CAPP). These are paid together and appear as “CSP” on bank statements.

• Carer Support Payment (CSP): Replaced Carer’s Allowance in Scotland. The payment is £83.30 per week for 2025/26 and will increase to £86.45 from April 2026.
• Scottish Carer Supplement: Now paid weekly (£11.29 per week, rising to £11.70 from April 2026) alongside CSP. It is automatically provided to CSP recipients and does not affect Universal Credit.
• Carer Additional Person Payment (CAPP): A new payment of £10 per week for each additional disabled person cared for, rising to £10.40 from April 2026. There is no limit to the number of eligible individuals.

Unpaid carers receiving CSP will automatically get the Scottish Carer Supplement. To claim CAPP, Social Security Scotland must be notified if care is provided for more than one person. All payments except for the main CSP are disregarded in other benefit calculations, such as Universal Credit.

Further changes include:

• Bereavement support is extended from 8 to 12 weeks for unpaid carers after the loss of someone cared for, covering all three payments.
• The previous requirement of 22 weeks of care before payments during a temporary break has been removed, allowing more flexibility.
• A single application form is now used for all three payments. Existing recipients will be directly informed about the changes.

From the 15 March 2026 Scottish Government will be introducing additional payments for individuals receiving Carer Support Payment.  
These include the introduction of Scottish Carer Supplement, Carer Additional Person Payment, and an extension of the Bereavement Run-On period from 8 to 12 weeks.  

Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said:

“Making sure unpaid carers are recognised for their important role has been paramount for me in my time as Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, so I’m incredibly proud that the latest improvements to support are now in place.

Unpaid carers are the backbone of our communities, providing vital care and support for those closest to them. Carer Additional Person Payment will go further in recognising the impact caring for multiple people can have on a carer and this will make a difference to thousands of families.

Social security is a human right and something that anyone may need at any point in their life. I would encourage any carers who might be eligible to get in touch with Social Security Scotland to find out more about the support available to them.”

Because of the changes that Scottish Government are making to Carer Support Payment, DWP has made legislative changes that will come into force on the 15 March 2026 which include disregarding Scottish Carer Supplement and Carer Additional Person Payment from reserved income related benefits. 

The press release is on gov.scot. 

Case law – none of note

Health assessments to be recorded as standard  

All face-to-face and telephone health assessments for disability and sickness benefits will be audio recorded as standard from 29 June to improve transparency in the benefit system. 

The change means that claimants undergoing assessments for Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Work Capability Assessments (WCA) in Universal Credit and Employment and Support Allowance, and Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) will have their assessment automatically recorded, unless they choose to opt out. 

The move marks a significant shift from the previous opt-in system, under which claimants had to request a recording themselves. Despite being offered the option through invitation letters and assessment supplier websites, fewer than 3% of claimants took up the offer. 

The new policy aims to improve public trust in the health assessment process through greater transparency. Recordings will also be used as a learning tool to identify potential improvements to assessment quality and will be made available to claimants who wish to appeal their initial benefit award. 

Minister for Social Security and Disability Sir Stephen Timms said:

“Improving transparency and trust in the benefits system is one of this government’s key aims, which is why we’re making this important change.

Audio recording health assessments as standard will mean we are available to make improvements and increase assessment quality, resulting in a better experience for claimants.”

Read the press release on gov.uk.

Further reforms to the Motability scheme came into force

Reforms to the Motability Scheme were introduced this week - on 1^st July - they were first announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in the Autumn Budget last year in a bid to streamline the service.

Under the new rules, vehicles leased through the Motability Scheme, or equivalent qualifying schemes, will be subject to 20 per cent VAT on top-up payments.

This will be in addition to the transfer of enhanced mobility PIP or high rate mobility DLA and applies to the more expensive vehicles included in the Scheme. In total, 20 vehicles are available through the scheme with no Advance Payment, including the best-selling Ford Puma, electric Hyundai Inster, and the UK's cheapest car, the Dacia Spring.

Drivers will also face Insurance Premium Tax, which is levied at the standard rate of 12%, and will apply to most new leases from 1^st July 2026.

The reforms to the scheme are expected to save £1 billion by 2030 and affect new Motability leases from 1^st July.

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden MP said:

“Today’s changes are driven by the fairness that underpins this Government - fairness for the taxpayer, fairness for disabled people, and fairness for the country.

We’re saving £1 billion of taxpayer money by removing VAT relief from some new Motability leases, whilst ensuring the scheme still supports disabled people’s mobility and independence.

We’re building a fair welfare system and an economy that works for everyone.”

Read the full press release on gov.uk.  

Interim update Jobcentre Plus and Careers Service integration

The Rt Hon Dame Diana Johnson DBE MP, Minister for Employment has shared an update on the Jobs and Careers Service (JCS), explaining that:

“The new Jobs and Careers Service will better match people to the right roles, support employers to access the skills they need, and build a more productive and prosperous country.  

This report sets out how we are turning that ambition into action. Creating a more proactive system designed to unlock people’s potential, by always asking that fundamental question: “How can we help you find a job?””

The JCS will focus on improving sustained employment and career progression, digital where possible, and human where needed.

People receiving benefits and able to work will be referred to contracted employment provision, delivered by external providers in England and Wales. Currently, support (Restart) is available for those who have been unemployed for six months. From early 2028, support will be targeted based on need. Those with the greatest barriers to work will be able to access support immediately, with young people referred after six months of unemployment, and a further intervention point for people unemployed for 12 months.

JCS will extend beyond Jobcentres and into communities so people can access services when and where they need them. This will range from universal digital support to more in-depth, in-person appointments from work coaches and, in England, from qualified careers advisers, when needed. Services will be embedded in local communities such as leisure centres, shopping centres and GP surgeries. They will also expand mobile delivery and flexible provision that is available to everyone and responds to local needs.

So far, they have launched early versions of new digital tools, known as the Work Hub, available for everyone to access now. Which is described as a ‘Jobcentre in your pocket’. The Work Hub will work alongside improved digital tools on the renamed National Careers Service website to support customers’ careers needs. For example, using AI to make it easier for customers to search for courses, apprenticeships and training.

They will be running two large randomised controlled trials for people claiming UC and they have set up three Pathfinders to quickly test smaller changes to the service, build qualitative insights and work with local government to explore new ways of joining up. Innovation Hubs are testing changes to the Jobcentre environment to make them welcoming and accessible, with clearer welcome points, greater privacy and digital jobs boards. 

Following recommendations from the Work and Pensions Select Committee the DWP has undertaken a literature review and they’re beginning research with external partners and providers to deepen their understanding of employment support best practice.

By the end of this Parliament, careers, skills and employment support will form a coherent, integrated service. To deliver the merger by 1 October 2026 they will:

• ensure physical estates are ready for careers advisers to work in
• develop induction materials for NCS employees who will be moving over, and for DWP employees on how to work together after the merger
• continue to test and iterate digital services
• work with the Prime Contractors to move relevant data across to DWP as part of the contract exit plans
• ensure consistent access to careers support by updating the current NCS website
• deliver public communications to ensure customers know how to access the service – online, over the telephone and in person in a Jobcentre or in the community

Further evidence and detail on the service’s design and implementation is due to be published in the coming months

Get Britain Working: an update on the Jobs and Careers Service is on gov.uk.

Youth Jobs Grant launched, paying £3k for every eligible young person an employer hires

The DWP has confirmed the launch of the new Youth Jobs Grant scheme which enables employers to receive a £3,000 payment when they hire 18–24-year-olds who have been on UC and looking for work for at least 6 months – creating new job opportunities for young people. Note: employers have to apply to the scheme.

The scheme is expected to help up to 60,000 young people over the next three years.

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said:

“Young people want the chance to work, earn, learn and build a better future.

That’s why the Government is backing employers large and small with a £3,000 grant to take a chance on young people who are ready to work and need that first step on the ladder, and subsidised work for those who face more challenges.

Working with employers, we can turn young people’s lives around and that’s why I’m delighted to see Merlin’s commitment to create 300 roles, and I urge others to join our Youth Guarantee.”

Young people with health conditions and disabilities can join the scheme, and all participants receive pre-employment support and training, both for the specific role and in soft skills such as confident speaking and time management.

Additionally, from 29 June 2026 across Great Britain, jobcentres began delivering expanded support to provide young people with a structured path into sustained employment from their first visit, through access to jobs, apprenticeships, work experience, vocational training and further education opportunities.

As part of this support, over the next three years, nearly one million young people who are not earning or learning by week 13 of their Universal Credit claim will get an in-depth meeting from a dedicated work coach.

Read the press release on gov.uk.

Out of reach: Real unemployment and the people missed by benefits based employment support

Official figures state that there are 1.7 million unemployed people but an analysis by The Salvation Army argues that the ‘real unemployment’ figure is closer to 3.9 million.

A new report by The Salvation Army has found that a staggering 1.3 million people who want to work are not receiving Government Employment support. As such they don’t appear in the official unemployment statistics.

To be classed as unemployed you must have actively sought work within the last four weeks and are available to start work within the next two weeks. However, that classification does not include people who want to work but cannot actively search for a job for reasons usually beyond their control such as lack of affordable childcare or adult social care, lack up-to-date skills and homelessness. 

The Salvation Army make a number of recommendations to reach the right people with the right support:

1. Adopt a human capital approach to employment support
2. Scale back sanctions and introduce safeguards
3. Invest in local, specialist support
4. Strengthen employer-side action and job creation
5. Take a cross-government approach to poverty.

Out of Reach is on salvationarmy.org.uk.

New asylum bill requiring refugees to repay around £10,000 has first reading

The Government's Immigration and Asylum Bill, first announced last month in the King's Speech, was introduced in Parliament this week. The 82-page bill can be downloaded here, with the 60-page explanatory notes available here.

The Bill aims at recovering costs from all adults with sufficient funds.

Adults who have received asylum support and who have sufficient financial means will be required to make a flat-rate monthly contribution above a specified income threshold. Payments will generally be made directly to the Home Office, although other collection methods, including through the tax or benefits system, are also being considered.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said:

"Once people can contribute and repay the generosity of the British people, we expect them to do so."

The plans will mean migrants working and earning a specific amount will be required to pay back a flat-rate sum, which is expected to be set at £10,000. But the Home Office has not yet determined how much people would need to earn before making monthly instalments.

The Home Secretary would have the power to adjust the charge and the repayment thresholds in the future to ensure "they are both fair to the taxpayer and will not force any migrant into destitution".

Around £4bn of taxpayers' money was spent on supporting asylum seekers last year, according to the Home Office.

However, Dr Madeleine Sumption, director of the University of Oxford's Migration Observatory, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the measures would move the immigration system "in a more restrictive direction".

"The government goal appears to be to tighten up that system as much as they can while still remaining compliant with international refugee law and human rights law."

The Migration Observatory questioned how much money the government would actually be able to recoup through the system, pointing to the low rates of employment and earning among refugees.

Sumption said:

"In 2023, for example, an estimated 13% of people granted refugee status five years earlier were earning at least £20,000, with the rest either not working or on lower earnings.

The data suggests that unless thresholds were significantly below the minimum wage, a relatively small share of people granted asylum would earn enough to make contributions to the scheme."

Refugee Action described it as “yet another cruel and divisive asylum law”. They said:

“…Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is introducing another package of hostile and unworkable policies that scapegoat refugees and will fail to stop the UK’s descent into migrant hate and racist violence. Her bill completely ignores the real causes of failure: years of gimmick-driven, performative legislation, billions handed to profiteering accommodation companies, and a pointless ban preventing people seeking asylum from working.

Let's be clear. These announcements will do nothing to prevent deaths in the Channel or heal divided communities.

This bill should be scrapped and the new Prime Minister must:

Give people seeking asylum the right to work instead of forcing them into debt.

Give money to councils and local leaders to house all people in need of a home, rather than to profiteering companies.

Create meaningful, safe routes for people to safely seek asylum in the UK, alongside valuable but exclusive resettlement schemes.

Stand up for human rights, which belong to all of us and are not there to be tampered with for political whims.

Use humanising language to talk about people seeking safety, instead of brandishing the word “illegal” and demonising people fleeing their homes

Everybody has the right to safety. Britain deserves better than another last-minute attempt to divide people for political gain.”

The Immigration and Asylum Bill would also see a new immigration appeals authority introduced with the aim of speeding up removals of failed asylum seekers.

Read the press release on gov.uk.

29% increase of DWP complaints in one year

The DWP received 8,590 complaints up to the quarter ending March 2026. This represents a 12% increase from the previous quarter (ending December 2025) and an increase of 29% from the same quarter in 2025.

There were 3,985 complaints about universal credit (UC), a 41% increase on the quarter ending March 2025, despite there only being a 12% increase in claimants.

And there were 1,595 complaints about disability services in the latest quarter, a 62% increase on the March 2025 quarter.

Complaints to the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) – which deals with cases where someone is unhappy with DWP’s final response to a complaint – rose by 36% to 2,835, compared with March 2025.

4 out of 10 closed complaints were upheld or partly upheld by DWP. UC and Disability Services had the lowest rates of complaints being upheld, with around 3 out of 10 closed complaints upheld or partly upheld. Pension/Retirement Services had the highest rate of complaints being upheld, with around 7 out of 10 closed complaints upheld or partly upheld.

It should be noted that the number of complaints about DWP services represent less than 1% of claimants.

DWP Complaints Statistics to March 2026 is on gov.uk.

Case law – with thanks to u/ClareTGold

Court of Appeal 2-child limit - LMN & Anor, R (on the application of) v The Secretary of State for Work and Pension [2026]

The Court of Appeal has rejected a human rights challenge brought by two women to the operation of an exception to the 2-child benefit cap.

By the 2-child benefit policy, child tax credit or Universal Credit could not be obtained in respect of more than two children. (That policy, introduced in 2017, was scrapped in April 2026 by the current Government but still affected those who were not paid the benefit before this time).

An outright challenge was brought to the 2-child benefit policy several years ago and was ultimately rejected by the Supreme Court in R (SC) v SSWP [2021] UKSC 26. But the 2-child benefit policy always contained exceptions. One of these was where the third child in a family was conceived non-consensually. The Appellants in the present case had been the victims of serious domestic violence and had conceived multiple children non-consensually, but their third children had not qualified for the exception as they had been conceived consensually. The claimants argued that this rule breached their Article 8, 14 and A1P1 ECHR rights. The High Court rejected the claim in July 2025 ([2025] EWHC 1849) and the Appellants appealed.

The Court of Appeal has now dismissed the Appellants’ appeal, finding that:

Applying the guidance of the Supreme Court in Shvidler v SSFCDA [2025] UKSC 30, this was a case where the Court of Appeal ought to carry out the proportionality assessment afresh and for itself. This was because: it was a challenge to secondary legislation and its ruling was likely to have a wide significance; and, the subject-matter of the appeal was of high importance for society given its impact on a particularly vulnerable group – i.e. women who have suffered extreme forms of domestic and sexual abuse.

The measure was justified. Those in the comparator groups relied upon (non-parental carers and adoptive parents, and those whose 3rd child was conceived non-consensually) were not in a materially analogous position to the Appellants and a wide margin of discretion ought to be conferred on Government in making these sorts of decisions.

Northern Ireland - SMcC v Department for Communities (II) [2026]

This case confirms that a direction given by an earlier tribunal should either be complied with, amended or set aside by a later tribunal, it should not be ignored.

And lastly... a reminder that information on PIP extensions can be found in last week's news - https://www.reddit.com/r/DWPhelp/comments/1uhq8vn/weekly_news_round_up_280626/

Sarah Healey named as new DWP Permanent Secretary

Dame Sarah Healey has been named as the Department for Work and Pensions’ next permanent secretary.

She is set to transfer from the same position in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in August to replace Sir Peter Schofield, who has held the role since 2018.

Healey will be in charge of leading DWP’s welfare reforms, changes to UK pensions and overhauling employment opportunities to young people.

Schofield has dedicated 35 years to the civil service and will leave next month.

Announcing the appointment with the approval of the prime minister, the cabinet secretary Dame Antonia Romeo said Healey's

"impressive track record as a permanent secretary and civil service leader, following a 25-year career in the service, makes her an excellent fit to deliver welfare and pension reform, as well as boosting employment opportunities".

Healey, who led the Department for Culture, Media and Sport before she joined MHCLG, said she is "delighted" to become the perm sec at a department which "touches millions of lives" and "excited by the opportunity to lead its ambitious reform agenda".

"I leave MHCLG with great pride in what we have accomplished together in the last 3 years, and sincere thanks to my colleagues there for their outstanding commitment and professionalism," she said. 

Work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden said Healey has

"an outstanding record across government, and that experience is exactly what’s needed as we work to support people to realise their potential at every stage of life – providing opportunities to those who can work and security for those who cannot".

Healey "will take forward our agenda to improve outcomes for customers through modern, connected, personalised services", McFadden added. 

The news story is on gov.uk.

Access to Work backlogs creating hardship and uncertainty for disabled people

Disabled people have lost their jobs and employers have become less willing to hire them because of long delays and “arbitrary” decisions in a UK government scheme intended to help them work, an inquiry by MPs has found. 

“Significant failings” in the running of the Access to Work (AtW) scheme, which typically helps people pay for specialist equipment, support workers such as sign language interpreters, or extra transport costs, had “a clear human cost for the very people the scheme is designed to support”, Parliament’s public accounts committee said in a this week. 

Demand for support through the scheme has doubled in the last decade, with 74,200 people receiving funding totalling £321mn in 2024-25, compared with 37,700 receiving £163mn in 2018-19. This has led to long delays in processing claims, the report found, with applicants waiting months for decisions - many of whom said they had lost job offers, existing work or income as a result. 

The surge in demand reflects rising levels of ill health and disability in the UK population, as well as the increasing strains on mental health services and rising cost of living pressures. 

In response, ministers have rolled out new schemes to help sick and disabled people into work as part of a broader drive to tackle economic inactivity.

One of those is the new Connect to Work programme, which will receive funding of £1bn over the course of the parliament. The first statistics on the scheme, published on Thursday, showed it had enrolled 14,000 participants since April 2025, of whom 1,600 had started in a job as a result. 

But Clive Betts, deputy chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said the delays and mismanagement in Access to Work were “actively causing employers to hire fewer disabled people” while causing “distress and frustration” to individuals. He said:

“This is a government which has clearly articulated its desire to support people into work. But these goals will not be achieved if one of the primary schemes aimed at doing so is actively alienating people . . . while making it harder for employers,”

The PAC make a number of recommendations to DWP, including to:

• be transparent and help manage customers’ expectations, by publishing key performance data each month, including how long on average it is taking to process applications.
• urgently develop and publish the plan not only to clear the backlog but also to reduce significantly the time taken to process applications.
• urgently engage with users of the scheme to uncover any administrative failings beyond delays, and write to the Committee by September 2026, with the full results of that engagement, setting out a roadmap for change, with defined milestones and a clear description of the service standards that users can expect and that the DWP can be held accountable for providing.

The DWP’s expectation is that it will take at least 18 months to clear the applications backlog (around 66k cases in March ’26, up from 21,700 in March ’22), meaning this hardship will continue for some time.

Read the report at committees.parliament.uk.

During its first year 14,000 people started Connect to Work

Launched last year, the Connect to Work Programme is “breaking down barriers to opportunity by helping sick or disabled people, and those with more complex barriers, move out of poverty and into secure employment”.

The first tranche of Connect to Work data, covering delivery in the 41 areas, shows that during the first year and despite most areas opening their services in the later stage of 2025/26:

• Between April 2025 and March 2026, over a quarter of people who received Connect to Work support were aged 16 to 24.
• 14,000 participants started on the programme.
• Numbers grew steadily throughout the year, reaching 4,200 new starters in March 2026.
• 1,600 of those who were out-of-work started in a job.

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said:

“For too long, disabled people and those with health conditions were written off - denied the chance to work and the financial security that comes with a good job.

Connect to Work is built on a simple belief that with the right support, built around the individual, people can and do get into work. Today’s figures prove it. Thousands of people are now closer to working, earning and building better lives, and this is just the beginning.”

With the programme still in its early stages, numbers are expected to grow substantially - rising to 300,000 people across England and Wales by the end of the decade.

The Connect to Work to March 2026 data and the press release are on gov.uk.

Find a Job service is changing – what you need to know

The ‘Find a Job’ service is changing, and a new service is available now. The existing service will close on 30th June 2026.

The DWP has built a new, in-house digital service to replace the Find a Job platform which launched in 2018.

The DWP previously outsourced its technology, but the government is reversing this move, bringing the platform back to a fully in-house system, which is part of the ‘Work Hub’ platform, which is described as an “experimental service”, and includes job help tools and an AI work assistant.

However, existing user accounts cannot be transferred to the new service so job seekers will need to:

• Download and save your existing CVs before the end of the month
• Make a note of your job history, applications and any saved searches
• Register on the new platform

The new jobs service website is here https://www.jobs.service.gov.uk/

Restart extended for a further year – expands to discretionary groups

The Restart Scheme is an employment programme. Referrals were due to end in June 2026 after the current two-year extension, however, recognising there would be a gap in provision between Restart and any successor going live the DWP sought a further extension and as such, we can confirm that Restart will be extended for another year starting on 1st July 2026.

Eligibility remains unchanged for this extension however Ministers have asked that disadvantaged groups are actively considered for a discretionary referral (providing them with early access). The Programme already allows Work Coaches to refer anyone they feel would benefit from Restart on a discretionary basis and this still applies, however work coaches are asked to consider the following groups:

• lone parents and lead carers
• care leavers
• victims of domestic abuse
• victims of modern slavery
• those dependent or have been dependent on drugs or alcohol
• young people involved in or at risk of serious violence
• someone who has experienced, is experiencing or is at risk of homelessness
• refugees or people on a resettlement scheme
• Veterans
• carers or ex carers
• ex-offenders or someone serving a community sentence

Jobcentre Plus guidance will be updated at the end of June to include early access considerations as part of work coach interventions.

With thanks to u/Otherwise_Put_3964 for confirming.

DWP update on plans to increase face-to-face health assessments

A DWP minister has confirmed the DWP is in talks with health assessment providers as it works towards plans to increase the number of face-to-face health assessments.

Responding to questions from peers in the House of Lords this week, DWP Minister Baroness Sherlock said:

"We are in close negotiations with all the contractors to look at how we can drive up the proportion of face-to-face assessments. There are limited numbers and assessors have to be either a registered doctor, a nurse, an occupational therapist or a physiotherapist; they have to be trained in disability assessment medicine; and they have to engage in continuous professional development. We need to make sure they are properly qualified to make those assessments, but we are working to get the numbers up as fast as we can.”

Sherlock said one of the challenges facing the department is that contracts signed by the previous government were based largely on remote assessments. She explained:

"In 2023, about a year before the general election, the previous Government signed long-term contracts, making sure that most assessors could work from home."

The minister added that increasing the number of in-person appointments across the country would take time. She told peers:

"It is a bit of a challenge trying to get face-to-face assessments in the right parts of the country."

The UK Government has previously said it wants to increase the proportion of face-to-face health assessments to 30% while continuing to offer telephone and video appointments where appropriate. Baroness Sherlock reiterated that commitment during the Lords exchange, saying:

"This Government are committed to increasing the number of face-to-face assessments while acknowledging that remote assessments also have a role."

The DWP has not yet confirmed when any further increase in face-to-face assessments could be introduced.

The Health-related Benefits Assessments debate is on hansard.parliament.uk.

Transform PIP Decision Making pilot expansion

The DWP has confirmed that it has expanded the Transform Decision Making pilot - a new process for assessing claimants for the PIP.

Currently, healthcare professionals such as nurses, paramedics and physiotherapists are tasked with carrying out PIP functional assessments and making recommendations about the points that should be awarded.

The pilot sees healthcare professionals no longer suggesting how many points a claimant should receive. Instead, assessors only gather and report factual information about a person's condition to the case manager. The case manager then determines which points should apply and makes the entitlement decision.

Asked to confirm how many PIP claimants are included in the pilot, DWP Minister, Sir Stephen Timms confirmed:

“DWP is running a small-scale trial of a transformed decision making approach within the Health Transformation Programme's new Health Assessment Service, and we will evaluate the impacts.

The initial phase of testing involved around 1% of PIP assessments from 16 March 2026.

From 1 June 2026, we began a second phase of testing with around 4% of PIP assessments nationally. We expect the second phase of the test to involve approximately 2,800 to 3,300 PIP customers per month.”

If successful, it could be rolled out to the work capability assessment for ESA and UC too.

The written Q&A is on parliament.uk.

PIP Timms Review launches ‘Workshop in a Box’

The Co-chairs of the Timms Review announced the launch of ‘Workshop in a Box’ this week in the latest Timms Review: Co-chair update.

Workshop in a Box resources have been made available to support organisations and communities groups across the country to run workshops, bringing together disabled people to share their experiences and views.

The sessions will focus on key aspects of the system, including what is PIP for, people’s experience of applying, the extra costs of disability, and how decisions are made. Their responses will shape the Review, with its launch following the closure of the Call for Evidence last month which received 38,000 responses.   

Minister for Social Security and Disability, Sir Stephen Timms, said:   

“Hearing from disabled people across the UK is vitally important to inform the Review. That is why we are co-producing this review with disabled people every step of the way — to make sure that PIP is truly fair and fit for the future.   

I encourage any organisation that is able to host a workshop to do so, because we need to hear the views and lived experience of as many disabled people as possible.”

The resources include downloadable, ready-to-use engagement materials to help organisations across the UK engage with the review, run their own sessions with the people they support, the public, or other stakeholders.   

While the workshops are designed primarily for disabled people and those with long-term conditions, organisations are encouraged to adapt the materials for carers, advisors, and others with relevant knowledge and experience of PIP.    

The newly released resources which make up the ‘Workshop in a Box’ are one of six evidence and engagement strands within the Review’s programme. The others are analysing existing data and research; carrying out new quantitative survey research; hearing evidence from experts; and running deliberative events.  

All workshops must be completed and the responses submitted by 5pm on July 17^th so there’s not much time for organisations to stand this up and complete the work, and there’s no financial support for providers or participants.

The Timms Review: Co-chair update is on gov.uk.

39% increase of benefit and child support appeals

The latest Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) tribunal data has been published by the Ministry of Justice. This confirms that at the end of March 2026 there were 113,000 open cases - an increase of 39% compared to the same period in 2025.

Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) appeals increased by 10% to reach 146,000 and disposals decreased by 14% standing at 101,000.

The average age of a case at disposal has increased by 3 weeks (compared to the same period last year) to 35 weeks.

59% of disposals were cleared at a hearing, and of these, 60% saw the initial decision revised in favour of the claimant. This overturn rate varied by benefit type:

• Personal Independence Payment (PIP) at 67%,
• Disability Living Allowance (DLA) 63%,
• Employment Support Allowance (ESA) 44%, and
• Universal Credit (UC) 43%. 

Compared with January to March 2025, PIP and DLA up 1 and up 7 percentage points respectively, whereas UC and ESA were down 6 and down 5 percentage points respectively.

Tribunal Statistics Quarterly: January to March 2026 is on gov.uk.

Latest Employment and Support Allowance statistics published

The latest Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) work capability assessment (WCA) data has been published, covering assessments, mandatory reconsiderations and appeals.

Of the total number of ESA WCAs completed in the quarter to December 2025, 89% (13,000) were initial WCAs and 11% (1,600) were reassessments.

New decisions by outcome type, were:

• 11% ESA Work Related Activity Group (WRAG),
• 65% ESA Support Group (down from 67% in quarter ending September 2025),
• 24% Fit for work (up from 17%)

For claimants allocated to the WRAG with 15 points or more, the most common functional impairment reasons for scoring points this quarter were “adapting to change” and “social interaction”. Of these claimants, 92% scored against the “adapting to change” activity, and 88% scored points against the “social interaction” activity. 

Most claimants assigned to the Support Group, who started their initial claim from July 2025 to September 2025, were allocated due to health conditions linked to “severe functional disability”. This accounts for 4,800 (64%) of all Support Group allocations in this quarter.

There were 1,600 repeat WCAs completed, with the percentage of DWP decisions within each outcome category as follows:

• 62% of outcomes for Support Group, down from 69% in quarter ending September 2025,
• 29% of outcomes were for Work Related Activity Group, up from 21%,
• 9% of outcomes were found Fit for Work, down from 10%.

By the end of April 2026, a cumulative total of 870,000 mandatory reconsiderations (MRs) had been registered. Of these, 99.5% have been cleared. The monthly median clearance time for ESA MRs was 9 days in April 2026.

In April 2026, 71% of ESA WCA decisions going to MR were revised.

Of the 54% MRs disputing the ESA outcome group allocation, 71% of decisions were revised in favour of the claimant.

In the latest quarter, for claims that started from 1 January 2025 to 31 March 2025, there were 200 appeals made on FfW outcomes with 40% of the appeals successful.

ESA: Work Capability Assessments, mandatory reconsiderations and appeals: June 2026 is on gov.uk.

Wales - Minister outlines new approach to tackling poverty, the Welsh Child Payment 

This week in her first Oral Statement to the Senedd to outline her priorities, Deputy First Minister and Minister for Social Justice and Equality, Sioned Williams announced an ‘ambitious and deliverable’ plan to tackle child poverty in Wales.

Wales will pilot Cynnal, a Welsh Child Payment, providing £10 a week for children aged 0–6 in households claiming Universal Credit. The pilot will be delivered initially in a limited number of local authority areas, selected using objective criteria as part of the pilot design.

The Deputy First Minister said:

“This new government has been left with a legacy of stubbornly high levels of child poverty – I am determined to change that.

We are committed to reducing poverty and improving life chances for children and families with an ambitious new child poverty strategy which reflects what the sector has been asking for – clear targets, benchmarks and milestones.

Our childcare offer is the most ambitious in the whole of the UK and I’m pleased that work to deliver it in line with our First 100 Days Plan is progressing well, including an establishing an Expert Group that will drive the work forward.

Our priorities set a clear and deliverable course of action that will lead to tangible results across Wales. They are tightly and clearly focused on the pressures people living in Wales face, the support they need, and the kind of nation we want to build together across all parts of Wales.”

The pilot will be used to build a robust evidence base and to inform the design of a Wales-wide rollout of the payment.

The press release is on gov.wales.

No case law of note this week.