Earlier today the UK Government announced reforms to health and disability benefits. This included some significant changes to Personal Independence Payments (PIP).

 

What changes to PIP are being proposed?

The main changes proposed for PIP in the green paper are:

  • To make it more difficult for people with lower levels of daily care needs to qualify. Only those who score a minimum of 4 points in at least one of those ten activities will be eligible for the daily living component of PIP.  It will still be necessary to score 8 points in total. This is due to apply from 2026/27.
  • Modernising the PIP assessment, including re-introducing more face to face assessments. Timing to be confirmed
  • Using receipt of PIP as the gateway to qualifying for the health related addition in Universal Credit, replacing the Work Capability Assessment (WCA). Due to apply from 2028/29.
  • Raising the age for qualifying for PIP to 18. Timing TBC.

 

How will these proposed changes to PIP affect disabled people in Scotland? 

It is important to note that the main reforms to PIP are not due to take effect until after April 2026, by which time it’s expected that everyone on PIP in Scotland will have transferred to the Scottish ‘version’ of PIP, Adult Disability Payment (ADP).

The Scottish Government has also ruled out similar changes to Adult Disability Payment.

So even although  these reforms are unlikely to affect anyone directly in Scotland – there are still a couple of concerns:

  • If spending on PIP falls, the amount of funding provided to the Scottish Government through the block grant adjustment (BGA) falls by a similar proportion.
  • If PIP becomes the gateway to Universal Credit health element in England and Wales, will ADP take on this function in Scotland? 

At the moment the detailed impact of the proposals on the Scottish budget is not clear.  Once those details are available,  the Scottish Government will need to decide how it will afford to maintain its current policy on disability benefits.

The Scottish Parliament Information Centre have produced a useful briefing paper to explain how the changes being proposed by the UK Government will impact people in Scotland. You can download the briefing paper from here.