Yesterday, the Government rushed its newly titled Universal Credit Bill through the House of Commons. The Bill contains cuts to Universal Credit for new claimants from April 2026. We are devastated.
At the same time, we are moved by the action, tenacity, and care shown by Disabled people, our organisations, and our allies over recent months. Thousands of us have worked tirelessly to defeat these cuts and, while we have not done so entirely, we have still achieved a lot. We forced the Government to abandon the majority of its proposals. We secured a significant rebellion among Labour MPs. We pushed issues facing Disabled people into the public eye, and made the case for both a wealth tax and cuts to defence spending into the mainstream press. We protested, cried, laughed, and reinvigorated the Disabled people’s movement together. These are all significant wins that we are holding onto tightly.
We offer our deepest gratitude and care for the relentless labour and rage of those who have fought over recent months. NSUN will continue to fight for the rights of Disabled people. We will hold the Government and MPs to account. To Stephen Timms, we say this: we are watching you. To Keir Starmer, Liz Kendall, and all the Labour MPs who were not brave enough to rebel: you will not be forgiven.
What are the changes?
The final version of Universal Credit Bill implements only a few of the planned changes. Most were abandoned. The changes which remain in the Bill mean that:
- New Universal Credit (UC) health element claimants will see their UC health element cut from £97 per week to £50 per week from April 2026. Current claimants are protected. The standard rate of UC will rise by 4.5% above inflation by 2029/30.
- The new Severe Conditions Criteria (SCC) will come into effect from April 2026 for new claimants. Supposedly a “concession”, the SCC offers an extremely limited number of people an exemption from reassessment for the UC Health Element. Read more about the SCC here.
The Pathways to Work Green Paper proposed many changes to welfare support for Disabled people. However, the following changes are not implemented as a result of yesterday’s vote:
- Scrapping the Work Capability Assessment, the proposal to blend contributory ESA and JSA, and denying 18-21 year olds the UC health element – these changes were never included in this Bill, and will require separate legislation.
- Changes to the PIP eligibility criteria – while the Government originally intended to implement these via this Bill, they abandoned them. More details about PIP below.
More detail on the changes can be found in this article from Benefits and Work.
Personal Independence Payments & The Timms Review
The Bill originally intended to significantly tighten the eligibility criteria for Personal Independence Payments to require claimants to score 4 points in a single category. This would have been catastrophic. Thanks to concerted pressure from the Disabled people’s movement and subsequent risk of widespread rebellion among MPs, the Government dropped this proposal. The 4-point eligibility has been scrapped.
The Government still wants to change how Personal Independence Payment is awarded. However, this will not happen until the Minister for Disabled People, Stephen Timms, has conducted a review into the entire PIP process. This review will be published in Autumn 2026 and MPs will have to vote on any recommendations it makes regarding changes to PIP.
The Government has already published “terms of reference” for the Timms review. These set out the scope and intentions of the review. It was published before the changes to PIP were cut from the Bill, so it’s not clear whether they will now be updated. This is something we will push for.
The published terms are weak. They allude to “co-production” with no clarity on exactly what that means or how the review will be held accountable. We will continue to work with Disabled people and Disabled People’s Organisations to push for transparency and the genuine involvement of Disabled people. However, we will not comply with a review that is vague, extractive, and tokenistic. We will not be complicit in the exploitation of Disabled people’s lives to legitimise policies that attack them.
Our commitments
- NSUN will continue to hold MPs to account – particularly those who said they would vote against the Bill but eventually voted for it.
- We will engage with the Timms Review only if it meets our standards for meaningful co-production. If the review does not meet these criteria, we will call for and coordinate a boycott.
- We continue to amplify and fund user-led work around welfare reform and social security. If you or your group would like our help, please get in touch by filling out this form.