The government’s “Pathways to Work” green paper sets out proposed changes to disability benefits. Kidney Care UK is working with other health and disability charities to respond to the proposals and to highlight our concerns about cutting vital disability benefits, which we know will be creating anxiety among many people.
The green paper sets out wide-ranging ideas that the government is developing and asking for feedback on. Some measures have potential to help, for example overhauling the PIP assessment process and improving the support for people to access work.
However, reducing disability benefit payments risks the health, wellbeing and independence of many people with long term conditions and Kidney Care UK strongly opposes these cuts.
The government’s own analysis shows that cuts to sickness and disability benefits will push 250,000 people into poverty, including at least 50,000 children, but analysts at Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimate this could be closer to 400,000 people and question whether the reforms will help substantially more people access work.
It is worth noting that nothing will change immediately and it is not guaranteed that the reforms will happen.
From November 2026: a change to the eligibility rules of the Daily Living component of PIP (Personal Independence Payment) to make it harder for some people to qualify. In future a claimant must score at least 8 points to qualify for PIP, but this must include at least four points in any one single activity. The change will apply both to new claimants and to existing claimants when their award is reviewed from November 2026 onwards. The mobility component will not be affected. Losing PIP will mean some claimants will lose £74-£110 per week (using 2025/26 rates).
For new claims from April 2026: a reduction in the health element (the current limited capability for work related activity component) of Universal Credit (UC) for new claimants from £97 to £50 per week. Existing claimants will not be affected by this reduction.
For people receiving the new reduced UC health element after April 2026, those with the most severe, life-long health conditions, who have no prospect of improvement and will never be able to work, will receive a new additional premium.
From 2027/28, access to the health element of UC will be delayed until a claimant is aged 22.
The work capability assessment will be scrapped in 2028, and a single assessment system introduced which will be based on the PIP assessment. This will consider the impact of disability on daily living rather than ability to work.
The government would like to hear more on how the following proposals could work best for people:
- Introducing a ‘right to try’ guarantee. This will mean that no one’s health-related benefits will be reassessed as a direct result of them moving into work – making trying work less financially risky.
- Offer 'support conversations' that could provide more people with early help to access or return to work. Government would like to hear how these could best work for people.
The government has committed to reviewing and modernising the PIP assessment, by bringing together experts and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this. While this review takes place, the government will look at what immediate actions they can take to improve the experience of people accessing health benefits, including increasing the quality of medical evidence.
You can also read about the many suggested changes on the government green paper website.
How is Kidney Care UK responding?
We have joined over 100 charities who co-signed Scope’s letter to the Chancellor, to show the government that we are united against disability benefits cuts and urging the government to think again.
We are members of the Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC), a national coalition of over 100 different charities and other organisations committed to working towards a fair benefits system. The DBC are united in calling for the government to abandon these cruel and harmful cuts.
We will be participating to the government consultation so that we can explain how the proposed reforms will impact people with kidney disease. Find out how you can support us below.
Kidney Care UK supports a review of the welfare system, to make sure resources are targeted effectively and to address the many problems within the current assessment process.
But government must ensure the review’s outcome is not reducing or removing essential financial support to people with disabilities who have no choice but to rely on state support.
- Kidney Care UK wants a welfare system that treats people with dignity, supports people to work where appropriate and provides an adequate safety net where this is not possible.
- Overhaul of the system is necessary – our experience is that people with kidney disease find the current system flawed, inefficient and often distressing to engage with.
- Chronic conditions like CKD bring additional costs. Personal Independence Payments help meet those costs, increasing people’s independence and ability to engage with society, including pursuing training or employment. Cutting essential support would be counterproductive.
We would like to see reform of the welfare system focus on increasing the quality and efficiency of assessment processes and ensuring people are treated with respect and would be happy to work with policymakers to share with them the concerns of people with kidney disease.
I want to get involved. What can I do?
Contact your MP
Some proposals, including cuts to PIP and health elements of universal credit (LWCRA) in England and Wales, must pass a vote by MPs before passing into law.
Before this vote later in June, we strongly encourage people to write to their MPs to help them understand why access to financial support is so important for many people with kidney disease.
Urge your MP to speak out against these devastating cuts
Fill in your postcode below and use our template to ask your MP to speak out against these cuts.
Please insert any of your experience of disability benefit support that feels relevant. The voices and experiences of people living with CKD are the most powerful tool we have. If you do not wish to fill out this section, please delete the placeholder text.
Please insert your name and full postal address at the end of the email. It's very important that your MP knows that you are a member of their constituency.
If you are happy to copy us in, this allows us to follow up with your MP. If you choose to copy the email content to clipboard and send the email yourself, please cc our Policy team: [email protected].
Tell us what you think
Kidney Care UK will be responding to the government consultation, to explain how the proposed changes will impact people with kidney disease.
To help inform our response, we would love to hear from people with kidney disease who have experience of Personal Independence Payments (PIP) or support to access or return to employment.
Please complete our survey to help inform our response. The deadline is 22 June 2025.
You can also reply to the government consultation yourself online, by email or by post. The deadline for comments is 30 June 2025.
What would these changes mean for people with CKD?
We have imagined the impact that the proposed changes to PIP (Personal Independence Payment) could have on a single person living with kidney disease.
In an application for PIP, points are assigned based on the impact a person's condition has on their ability to carry out everyday tasks and activities.
In future, someone trying to claim PIP would have to score at least 8 points to qualify, but this would have to include at least four points in any one activity.
Click the boxes below to read how the proposed changes to PIP would affect Fatima, who lives with chronic kidney disease.
Fatima is 42 and, as her chronic kidney disease has progressed to kidney failure, she is an in-centre haemodialysis patient. She has returned to work as a secondary school teacher. She finds work tiring but is building back up to working full-time. Her husband works away a lot, so is not always around to support her. Fatima struggles with fatigue, weakness, breathlessness, unsteadiness, neuropathy, pain, brain fog, and anaemia.
She does not have the energy to cook and relies on using a microwave (2 points). Her husband helps her to cut up her food, so it is easier to eat (2 points) and regularly reminds her to take her medications (2 points). She worries about showering alone because she feels unsteady and weak, so her husband or sister supervises (2 points). Fatima has several aids to help her get dressed because of neuropathy in her hands. Fatima has withdrawn into herself since starting dialysis, so her friends and family support her to engage with other people and prompting her (2 points). Fatima can no longer make budgeting decisions on her own, and needs to discuss everything with her husband (2 points).
Fatima receives the Enhanced Rate of PIP, but stands to lose £5740 per year because she does not score four points in any one area. PIP helps pay for aids that she uses daily, including cooking, washing and dressing aids. Her renal dialysis diet means she needs to purchase healthy and specific microwaveable meals for when she does not have the energy to cook. She feels the cold because of CKD, and anaemia, and uses her PIP to put the heating on for longer. Losing PIP would cause her great hardship, likely cause her to become more unwell and stop working.