• Personal Independence Payments (PIP) is a form of benefit available to people with “a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability” that means they face “difficulty doing certain everyday tasks or getting around”.
  • The level of payment received by an individual depends on the scale of the challenges that person faces.
  • The government’s own guidance on PIP states that it is not means tested, and can be accessed whether or not someone is in work.

In a party press release on 11 March, SDLP MP Colum Eastwood claimed:

“Cutting support payments for people with disabilities while the cost of living continues to climb is immoral and unethical. The reported plans to freeze personal independence payments and introduce harsher new criteria to force people off the support altogether in a misguided effort to get people into work will leave vulnerable families significantly worse off every year. Worse still – they have very little chance of achieving their goal.

“These support payments aren’t for people on long term sick who could return to work – they are designed to help people live independently regardless of their work status. Slashing this element of social security will only make it harder for people with disabilities to live their lives.”

This is accurate.

The government’s own guidance on Personal Independence Payments (PIP) states that these supports are “not means-tested and can be paid whether the claimant is working or not”, and that those with health challenges that meet its criteria can get PIP “even if you’re working, have savings or are getting most other benefits.”

Read on for more details.

  • Source

FactCheckNI contacted the SDLP MP about this claim, and were pointed to official government advice concerning PIP, which notes that:

“PIP is not means-tested and can be paid whether the claimant is working or not. There is no need to report that the claimant has started or finished work or if the nature of their current employment has changed, unless the amount of help that they need has changed.”

Mr Eastwood’s office said further:

“That guidance makes clear that PIP is awarded regardless of work status and that when work status changes, claimants should not report it to DWP. That’s a basis for our claim that it isn’t an out-of-work or sickness absence form of social security. There are other forms of social security for the long term sick including Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), and Universal Credit.”

  • Official status

Fundamental details about PIP are available on the government portal for this arm of social security. This guidance states that:

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) can help with extra living costs if you have both:

  • a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability
  • difficulty doing certain everyday tasks or getting around because of your condition

You can get PIP even if you’re working, have savings or are getting most other benefits…

There are 2 parts to PIP:

  • a daily living part – if you need help with everyday tasks
  • a mobility part – if you need help with getting around

Whether you get one or both parts and how much you get depends on how difficult you find everyday tasks and getting around.

Altogether, this clearly supports Mr Eastwood’s claim that these supports “aren’t for people on long term sick who could return to work – they are designed to help people live independently regardless of their work status.”

  • Context

Scope, a disability charity, outlines that households with a person living with a disability, require an additional £1,010 per month to have the same standard of living as non-disabled households. On average, the extra cost of disability is equivalent to 67% of household income after housing costs (based on data from 2022-2023).

Entitlement to PIP recognises that claimants have difficulty doing certain “everyday tasks” or “getting around because of their condition.”

  • Discourse

Mr Eastwood’s claim was made in the build up to expected changes in the social security system in the UK. There were suggestions in the wider media that PIP payments would be frozen and its qualifying criteria stiffened (see here, here and here, for example).

His were not the only criticisms of plans from the Labour government. Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, a former Health Secretary, called for caution with any changes, even when agreeing that an overhaul was required.

Ultimately, PIP payments were not frozen, although qualifying criteria for the support have been made tougher. Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall made a statement on welfare reform in the House of Commons on 18 March – a week after Mr Eastwood’s claim – saying:

“Almost 1 million young people are not in education, employment or training—one in eight of all our young people. Some 2.8 million are out of work due to long-term sickness, and the number of people claiming personal independence payments is set to double this decade from 2 million to 4.3 million, with the growth in claims rising faster among young people and those with mental health conditions…

“Millions of people who could work are trapped on benefits, denied the income, hope, dignity and self-respect that we know that good work brings. Taxpayers are paying millions more for the cost of failure, with spending on working-age sickness and disability benefits up £20 billion since the pandemic, and set to rise by a further £18 billion by the end of this Parliament to £70 billion a year…

“Under this Government, the social security system will always be there for people in genuine need. That is a principle we will never compromise on. Disabled people and people with health conditions who can work, however, should have the same rights, choices and chances to work as everybody else.”

The Minister did note that PIP is a disability benefit and unrelated to employment, however government messaging on this issue has received some criticism.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves appeared on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg on 23 March, responding to a viewer’s query by saying that if someone “cannot work [they] will continue to get PIP.” Later on the same programme, Anela Anwar – CEO of anti-poverty charity Z2K – said:

“[The Chancellor] spoke about Personal Independence Payments and on the same hand talked about employment support. PIP is not an employment benefit, it’s there to help people with the extra cost of living with a disability and health condition and many people who receive PIP are people who are in work and it leaves that outstanding question of how is reducing the income they receive to help manage the costs of their disability or health condition going to help them to retain or actually find work.”
The following Wednesday (26 March), the Chancellor delivered her Spring Statement which outlined the government’s wider budgeting stance, including several mentions of welfare reform.