Looks like the government have caved in over PIP cuts! Yaaay.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/mar/15/downing-street-considers-u-turn-on-cuts-to-benefits-for-disabled-people

A few hours ago on The Guardian too

It's smoke screen, headlines for the general public, so they think their not being so harsh on disabled people, pip freeze, in really terms is about £40 a year, this will help them get their charges criteria though, without the general public backlash, it's very good strategy by the government, despicable as they are 😢

Stopping the freeze on the PIP uplift in 2026 doesn’t mean they will drop the changes to eligibility. Wes Steeting wouldn’t confirm or deny anything this morning which would have potentially calmed the disabled population. He still was blurring the narrative of PIP being associated with working or not. That continued narrative does not help dispel the negativity associated with having a disability and receiving benefits. PIP goes part way to assisting with the additional cost of living or rather surviving disability. 80% will acquire a disability in a lifetime we are an aging, sicker population and the destroyed Health and Social Care structures forces more onto benefits such as PIP because of delays or cuts in treatment and support. MH services seriously needs addressing. Many people aren’t able to reach retirement age due to disability and illness forcing them onto PIP. It’s a false narrative and smokescreen which won’t yield the cuts Reeves seeks. Changing from DLA to PIP is case in point it didn’t work to the figures projected for the justification. It drove more in higher levels of awards on PIP as well as more into poverty and worse. Even the ECHR called the UK Tory government out on the discrimination against disabled people.

Concessions such as dropping the freeze will look like a win when the true driver will be changing the eligibility criteria which will block new applicants and remove current recipients at renewal. Why those with ongoing awards aren’t just moved to lifetime awards is a punitive measure which could save money and ease delays.

The devil will be in the detail in the Green paper but the pressure and holding the government to account needs to be significantly increased. Already they have driven through cuts which harm the most vulnerable at home and abroad. A wealth tax hasn’t been tabled 2% tax on individuals with assets over 10 million would yield the treasury approx £24 Billion. Or as we are constantly reminded changing Reeves fiscal rules in unprecedented circumstances since introduced in October could stop this unnecessary attack completely.

I do think reform is necessary to improve the lives of people with disabilities this is not reform this is punitive and punishing politics which speaks to the narrative uprising here and abroad. It’s cruel and shameful.

This is only the lightest part of the cuts that "might" be reversed. I dont think many care that much about the freeze, its the other stuff thats really damaging.

Posts on this forum, the only comments I have seen on this is that people agree with me, the freeze is very small proportionate to the LCWRA and eligibility impact.

To give you some example figures.

4 weekly standard daily living is £290.66
A freeze with say 3% inflation amounts to a loss of £8.72 per 4 weeks.

A 25% reduction on LCRWA on UC amounts to a loss of £108.75 per calendar month which is cumulative over subsequent years. This is even worse for people who dont have a PIP award as well as a buffer, and that no one will be working on LCWRA.

A complete loss of PIP in the standard daily living due to eligibility changes disqualifying the claim, example would be £290.66 per 4 weeks.

Some people will be double impacted by loss of PIP and reduction in LCWRA.

I hope that explains it better.

£290.66 > £108.75 > £8.72 (this one u turn)

I could also present it as % of income, which would show an even starker difference. The u turn on the freeze is like stealing someone's pie, and then giving them a tiny slice back as compensation.

Ok freezing pip whoopdeedoo! It's the soft sell approach. "Oh look how good and kind we are." No, look at the real issue here. What of WCA/LRWCA?? What about new claims for disability and the assessments questions? I'm nearly 64 and just starting this process. I've held off for a long time before going down this road as I've worked and/or volunteered even with years worth of health issues. Now that I have no choice but to get a WCA it's likely going to ruin any chance of me getting any financial help and I'll be forced to work, job search, volunteer, retrain at age 64 until I can retire at 67 (because they keep putting the bloomin' state pension age up) even though I have worked/volunteered for 49 years and paid into the system.

Sorry but freezing pip is not necessarily a win for many of us.

If they reduce the state pension age , then the numbers would go down