![\"Shoppers](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0_JS315494549.jpg\")
More than a quarter of a million people in the region will see their benefit payments reduced or stopped in Labour’s welfare shake-up<\/p>\nData shows that payments worth \u00a3670 million would be stripped away under the DWP reforms of disability benefits<\/p>\n
11:22, 07 May 2025Updated 11:25, 07 May 2025<\/p>\n
More than a quarter of a million people in the region will see their benefit payments reduced or stopped in Labour’s welfare shake-up<\/p>\n
Huge changes to disability benefits would hit 280,000 people in the West Midlands, data has revealed.<\/p>\n
It’s been estimated that Labour’s plans to overhaul Personal Independence Payment<\/a> and Universal Credit would remove \u00a3670 million from people in the region.<\/p>\n Eligibility for PIP is to be tightened up so that people need at least one score of four to be awarded the daily living element of the benefit.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Universal Credit’s top-up for having ‘limited capability for work and work-related activity (LCWRA)’<\/a> is to be frozen for existing recipients and halved for those newly joining the system next year.<\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong><\/p>\n Analysts at Policy in Practice have calculated that the reforms will affect 4.6 per cent of the population in the West Midlands.<\/p>\n The \u00a3670 million impact of the measures locally exceeds that of the North East (\u00a3400 million), Wales (\u00a3470 million), the East Midlands (\u00a3520 million), the South West (\u00a3540 million), the East of England (\u00a3560 million), and Scotland (\u00a3470 million). But it’s not as high a figure as in Yorkshire & Humber, the South East, London, or the North West.<\/p>\n Based on the percentage of the regional population affected, the West Midlands ranks equal fifth with Scotland, behind the North East, Wales, the North West, and Yorkshire & Humber.<\/p>\n Across Great Britain as a whole, there would be benefit cuts amounting to \u00a36.8 billion<\/a>, affecting 4.5 per cent of the population.<\/p>\n The Universal Credit LCWRA changes would begin in April 2026, followed by the restrictions to PIP eligibility in November 2026, if the proposals become legislation.<\/p>\n Policy in Practice said: “Many people with disabilities are worried about these changes. Those who are set to be most heavily impacted could lose over \u00a39,000 per year and find it harder to access care and support services.<\/p>\n “We are calling on the government to allow people who lose PIP due to not scoring four points in any one category to retain the health element if they go on to qualify for Universal Credit.<\/p>\n “Local authorities we work with are particularly interested in what they can do to make a difference today, to support people and mitigate some of the impacts of these changes on residents’ growing demand for local authority-funded social care support.<\/p>\n “It’s important to reassure people that reforms aren’t coming in immediately, while helping people to access the right support.”<\/p>\n It suggests that councils use the Policy in Practice low-income family tracker (LIFT)<\/a> to identify households who are on LCWRA but not PIP and then support them in claiming PIP as soon as possible, so they are protected when the changes come into effect.<\/p>\n LIFT can also be used to boost the take-up of Pension Credit and Attendance Allowance. This can help older people to live independently for longer and reduce social care pressures, the organisation said.<\/p>\n Get breaking news on BirminghamLive WhatsApp<\/a>. Join our dedicated community for the latest updates. You can find out more in our Money Saving Newsletter,<\/a> which is sent out daily with all the updates you need to know on pensions<\/a>, PIP<\/a>, Universal Credit<\/a>, benefits, finances, bills, and shopping discounts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Data shows that payments worth \u00a3670 million would be stripped away under the DWP reforms of disability benefits…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,348,1267,393,4884,350,16,15,2377],"class_list":{"0":"post-81628","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-disability-benefits","11":"tag-dwp","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-pip","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-universal-credit"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114466141192426890","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81628","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=81628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}