{"id":1151041,"date":"2026-08-16T01:53:58","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T01:53:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1151041\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T01:53:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T01:53:58","slug":"reform-uk-unveils-massive-50bn-welfare-overhaul-to-scrap-pip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1151041\/","title":{"rendered":"Reform UK unveils massive \u00a350bn welfare overhaul to scrap PIP"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Reform UK<\/a> has set out plans to revolutionise the welfare state<\/a> that would see almost three million people\u2019s disability<\/a> and sickness payments withdrawn or modified. <\/p>\n

Under the plans, Reform would abolish personal independence payments (Pip) and the health element of Universal credit for working-age adults, The Telegraph reports. Reform\u2019s Treasury spokesperson Robert Jenrick<\/a> claimed that the proposals would cut \u00a350 billion from the welfare bill.<\/p>\n

He said that Reform would introduce a new, regularly-reviewed, health security allowance that would provide support only for the \u201cgravely ill and severely challenged\u201d. <\/p>\n

Labour said the \u00a350 billion claim was \u201cfantasy economics\u201d and said stripping people of benefit payments would shift costs onto employers.<\/p>\n

Mr Jenrick said 6.9 million people were receiving disability benefits but \u201cthis is not an epidemic of broken backs and lost limbs\u201d as since 2002 the share of working-age people claiming for mental health and behavioural conditions had tripled.<\/p>\n

Under the planned reforms, due to be unveiled in detail on Monday, cash payments for low-level conditions would end and be replaced with disability support accounts, run by local councils and mayors, to cover costs such as equipment, adaptations, transport and personal assistance.<\/p>\n

And employers could be obliged to pay a \u201creturn to work cover\u201d insurance to fund the cost of the first two years after an employee is signed off sick.<\/p>\n

Mr Jenrick said firms would then have a \u201cstrong economic incentive\u201d to return the employee to work. People who had not returned to work within two years would go through a single, rigorous assessment conducted in person to \u201cscreen out vexatious and fraudulent claims\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"RobertRobert Jenrick said \u2018dumping our young people onto welfare isn\u2019t compassion\u2019 (PA)<\/p>\n

Writing in The Telegraph, Mr Jenrick said: \u201cWe will not pretend this is painless.<\/p>\n

\u201cExisting claimants will be reassessed over three to four years: we estimate that 2.16 million will keep their present cash entitlement in full, while 2.89 million will see theirs modified or withdrawn, concentrated where recent growth has been most explosive.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the state must be there to support people who need it but \u201cdumping our young people onto welfare isn\u2019t compassion; it\u2019s neglect\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not lifting people out of misfortune. We are abandoning them to it, and calling it kindness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Jenrick said the Reform proposals would save \u201cmore than double\u201d the \u00a323 billion promised by Kemi Badenoch\u2019s Conservatives, with \u00a322 billion of the savings coming from changes to disability benefits alone.<\/p>\n

\"HelenHelen Whately, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Getty)<\/p>\n

Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately said the plans were an attempt to distract attention from the investigation into a \u00a35 million donation to Nigel Farage and his \u201cpointless by-election\u201d in Clacton.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cReform have been nowhere on the debate on welfare reform. They have flip-flopped on restoring the two child benefit cap and claimed they\u2019ll only take benefits away from foreigners, which won\u2019t do enough to bring down the overall bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Conservatives are on the side of working people and we\u2019re clear about our plans. Restore the two-child benefit cap, end benefits for low level mental health conditions, remove benefits from foreign nationals and restore face-to-face assessments.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Labour spokeswoman said: \u201cReform\u2019s \u00a350 billion claim is fantasy economics, built on stripping support from disabled people and shifting costs onto employers.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that the Labour Government\u2019s reforms to welfare \u201cdeliver credible, independently-costed savings, not arbitrary numbers with no credible plan behind them\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1151042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,47671,281016,393,4884,44888,267532,180960,1144,2074,2249,285,20885,712,82308,12868,288871,16,313005,15,1764,8727],"class_list":["post-1151041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","category-united-kingdom","tag-britain","tag-color-image","tag-day-2","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-horizontal","tag-manchester-england","tag-manchester-central","tag-northern-ireland","tag-pension","tag-photography","tag-politics","tag-politics-and-government","tag-scotland","tag-secretary-of-state","tag-shadow","tag-stage-performance-space","tag-uk","tag-uk-conservative-party-conference","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales","tag-working"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117102699411092454","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1151041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1151042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1151041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1151041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1151041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}