Reform UK has published full details of its plans for a major overhaul of disability benefits, including fundamental changes to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and health-related Universal Credit (UC).
The party's proposals would introduce a new Health Security Allowance for people assessed as having severe and enduring disabilities, alongside a new system of Disability Support Accounts to help meet specific disability-related costs. Existing working-age claimants would be reassessed over time under a new single Disability Needs Assessment.
Who would be affected?
Reform estimates that 2.89 million people would be affected by its proposed changes to PIP and Universal Credit health support, while 2.16 million would retain the full cash value of their existing entitlement.
However, it’s important to be aware these are Reform UK policy proposals and not changes to the current benefits system. Nobody's existing PIP or Universal Credit award is changing as a result of the publication of the plans. The measures would only be introduced if Reform formed a government and implemented them.
What would happen to PIP?
Despite Reform previously describing plans to scrap PIP, its full policy document says the party would “retain but fundamentally reform” the benefit. The existing system would be replaced with one based on what Reform describes as the severity and permanence of a person's disability and the additional costs they face.
People assessed as having severe and enduring disabilities could continue receiving cash support through a new Health Security Allowance (HSA). For new claimants with severe conditions, Reform proposes a single flat-rate payment of £429.80 a month at 2026/27 rates. The document says a single claimant aged 25 or over would receive £854.70 a month when this was combined with the standard Universal Credit allowance, before any housing, child, carer or other relevant UC elements.
The new Health Security Allowance would also be means-tested under standard Universal Credit rules, meaning entitlement could depend on a person's earnings, their partner's earnings and their assets. Reform says existing awards would not be affected by this particular change until a claimant was reassessed.
What are Disability Support Accounts?
One of the biggest proposed changes concerns people who Reform believes have additional disability-related costs but should not receive unrestricted cash support. The party would introduce Disability Support Accounts (DSAs), administered through local authorities or mayors. Rather than receiving money to spend as they choose, eligible people could receive support towards verified additional costs caused by their disability.
Reform says these could include equipment, aids and adaptations, mobility and transport support, communication support, personal assistance and employment-related adjustments. Central government would determine national rules covering eligibility, evidence requirements, maximum allocations and what the accounts could be used for. Unmodified motor vehicles would not be covered by DSAs, according to the document, with the existing type of Motability provision remaining only for PIP or Health Security Allowance claimants.
Who could keep their existing cash payments?
Reform's costing assumes a proportion of existing disability benefit expenditure would remain protected. Its model assumes 47 per cent of PIP spending would be within the protected group. The party estimates 2.16 million existing claimants would retain the full cash value of their current entitlement.
Existing claimants who retained the cash value of their current award would not also receive a Disability Support Account on top of that protected payment. However, millions of other claimants could see their existing entitlement modified or withdrawn as they moved through the proposed new assessment system. Reform estimates there are 2.89 million people affected by its proposed PIP and Universal Credit health reforms. The figure accounts for people receiving both benefits so that they are not counted twice.
Savings would build as existing claimants went through the proposed new Disability Needs Assessment. Reform's financial model assumes 9.8 per cent of cash initially withdrawn would subsequently be reinstated following mandatory reconsiderations and appeals. That assumption reduces the party's estimated savings by £2.24 billion. It also assumes another 8.5 per cent of the savings would reappear as expenditure on other benefits.
Who would be reassessed first?
Reform says reassessments would take place over time rather than all existing claimants being moved immediately onto the new system. Its costing says the process would begin with what it describes as “mental health and trivial claims” during the first three years of implementation. Other existing claimants would subsequently move through the new assessment system over time. The terminology is Reform UK's own and forms part of how the party has designed and costed its proposals.
A new single disability assessment is also proposed, replacing separate assessments for PIP and Universal Credit health support with a single Disability Needs Assessment. This assessment would determine the severity of someone's condition, whether they qualified for cash support and whether they faced additional disability-related costs that could qualify for help through a Disability Support Account. The proposed system would therefore bring together support currently provided through two different parts of the benefits system.
Changes proposed for Universal Credit health support
Reform also proposes replacing the existing Universal Credit health element for new claimants with the Health Security Allowance. New claimants with conditions considered sufficiently severe would receive the flat-rate HSA payment alongside the standard elements of Universal Credit. The party says the allowance would provide income replacement for people whose condition was so severe, enduring or high-risk that they could not reasonably be expected to support themselves through work.
Child DLA changes are also proposed. The policy document also contains separate proposals affecting new Child Disability Living Allowance claims for anxiety, depression and ADHD. Reform says existing Child DLA claimants would not be affected and there would be no changes for children claiming for other conditions. However, its financial modelling assumes Child DLA awards for anxiety, depression and ADHD would be restricted to what the party describes as the most severe 10 per cent of cases among new applicants. Reform estimates the changes could ultimately save £3.709 billion in 2029/30 when direct DLA savings and knock-on effects on other support are included. The modelling includes expected reductions in spending on the disabled-child element of Universal Credit and Carer's Allowance where entitlement is linked to a child's DLA award.
How much does Reform expect the changes to save?
Reform estimates its reformed working-age disability benefits system could save the Exchequer £20.15 billion by 2033/34. However, the gross reduction in benefit spending is not the same as the final saving. The party's calculations include billions of pounds in costs for Disability Support Accounts, treatment, home care, employment support and administration, as well as the cost of reassessing existing claimants and introducing new IT systems. The costing also makes allowances for successful challenges against decisions and people becoming entitled to other benefits after losing disability-related cash support.
It’s important to remember that the publication of Reform UK's welfare policy does not change the current rules for PIP, Universal Credit or Child DLA. Reform's proposals set out what the party says it would implement if it formed a government. You can read the full proposal for welfare reform on the Reform UK website.
