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And he said he wanted to lead a government with transparency 😂 . Worst PM ever and they know it

Labour’s cruel severe conditions criteria

 Published: 22 June 2025

labour’s cruel “severe conditions criteria” (SCC) plan is not designed to protect seriously ill claimants as the government claims, it is intended to save money at their expense.  Because tens of thousands of claimants too ill to ever work again will be forced to live for years on half the additional payment that current claimants receive.

The SCC are part of the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill and are intended to be a concession to Labour MPs concerned about the effect of the cuts on disabled claimants.

From April 2026, new claimants who meet the SCC will not have to face future reassessments for health element of universal credit, though they will still be reassessed for personal independence payment (PIP).

At the same time, Labour is almost halving the limited capability for work-related activity (LCWRA) element payable to new claimants, but claimants with LCWRA who also meet the SCC will get the full amount.

The SCC qualifying conditions

The current qualifying conditions for LCWRA require one of a number of descriptors to apply to the claimant “for the majority of the time”.  For example: 

• Cannot pick up and move a 0.5 litre carton full of liquid.
• Cannot press a button(such as a telephone keypad) with either hand or; cannot turn the pages of a book with either hand.
• Cannot cope with any change, due to cognitive impairment or mental disorder, to the extent that day-to-day life cannot be managed.

The severe conditions criteria require claimants to meet the same criteria “constantly”.

Constantly is defined in the Bill as “at all times” or “on all occasions on which the claimant undertakes or attempts to undertake the activity”.

However, many degenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis and muscular dystrophy follow a slow path of decreasing ability, with periods of remission.  So, most days you may be unable to turn the pages of a book, but you may have occasional good days when you can do so.

Or your manual dexterity may be better first thing in the morning but get rapidly worse as fatigue sets in.

At the moment, a claimant in these circumstances would get the full LCWRA amount, which from April 2026 will be £423.27 a month, because they meet the descriptor for the majority of the time.

However from April 2026, new LCWRA claimants in the same position will only get around half this amount, £217.26, because they do not meet the descriptor constantly.

But the same claimant will never improve, their condition will only get worse.  So, if they are already unable to work because of a degenerative disease, they will never be able to work again in the future. 

Under Labour’s new rules, however, they will have to exist on half the LCWRA element, possibly for years after there is no chance of their ever being able to work again, until they can show that they are constantly unable to carry out an activity, rather than just for the majority of the time.

So, far from guaranteeing  that people who will never work again are supported, the SCC guarantees that they will live  on a severely reduced income for years, until their degenerative disease enters its most debilitating stage.

For some conditions, including some severe mental illnesses, there may never be a time when the claimant is certain not to have periods of remission, so they may never get the full LCWRA award.

How long will protection last?

The SCC are claimed to protect claimants from ever being assessed again. But, as noted above, people who meet the SCC can still be reassessed for PIP.

From 2028, Labour are planning to abolish the work capability assessment (WCA) and make receipt of PIP daily living the gateway for the UC health element.  But they have repeatedly failed to explain what will happen to someone who meets the SCC if they lose their PIP daily living award on review.

Will they still be able to claim UC health even though they no longer meet the basic qualifying conditions?  If not, then the SCC guarantee may only last a few years, rather than a lifetime as Labour claims.

Peace of mind

In unveiling the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill, Liz Kendall claimed that it “represents a new social contract and marks the moment we take the road of compassion, opportunity and dignity.  This will give people peace of mind, while also fixing our broken social security system so it supports those who can work to do so while protecting those who cannot. . .”

In reality, the Bill simply seeks every opportunity to take more money from disabled claimants, whilst telling them it really is in their own best interests.

40 against is nowhere near enough I think it has to be near 200. Which isn't going to happen because the mps who plan to vote against it are bring threatened and bullied. 😓

I read somewhere we need between 83 and a 100 , I guess depending on how many from other parties vote against. Tory’s have said they’ll vote against as will independents apart from reform

And the fatigue . I have a feeling they’re scrapping the 10 year award and calling it severe criteria so they look good yet they’re making it almost impossible to get

Hi ,

I commented to you earlier regarding this as we’d had this conversation a couple of days ago . IMO they want to scrap the 10!year awards that are at the discretion of the assessors and instead have the severe criteria that according to Kendall is non negotiable, to me meaning less assessor discretion and no appeal maybe . Now instead of passing the pip descriptors alone to get 10 year award , you need to first pass lcwra and have your descriptor for 50% of the time plus with the same descriptor you’ll need it constant ie100% of the time . So I can’t see how many people will qualify. What about painkillers? Will they make a difference ? And as you said before we can have symptoms that fluctuate throughout the day but how can we prove that and how can the prove we aren’t in pain 24/7 . What about fatigue, there’s no descriptor for that . At the end of the day we are human beings not robots, how can we feel the same 24/7 ?

"War and Peace"? I can no longer lift it.