Reform UK says almost 2.9 million people would have sickness or disability benefits reduced, replaced or withdrawn under plans it claims would cut the annual welfare bill by £50 billion.
The party would abolish Personal Independence Payment for working-age adults, alongside the health-related element of Universal Credit, replacing them with a much narrower system of cash support. Robert Jenrick, Reform’s Treasury spokesman, said regular payments would be restricted to people assessed as having “severe and enduring” disabilities. Other claimants would instead get access to council-administered accounts that could pay for approved disability-related costs.
The proposals sit inside a 50-page policy document called Making Welfare Work, due for publication Monday. Until that paper and its financial modelling are actually available, the £50bn saving remains a party estimate, not an independently verified figure.
PIP is not an unemployment benefit
Jenrick presented the changes as reducing economic inactivity and moving more people into work. That description risks conflating two different kinds of support. The Universal Credit health element is paid to people whose condition restricts their capacity for work. PIP serves a different purpose entirely, it helps with the additional costs of a long-term health condition or disability, isn’t means-tested, and can be claimed by people who are employed, have savings, or receive other benefits.
That distinction matters for judging this plan properly. Removing PIP wouldn’t just affect people out of work. It could remove cash support from disabled people already employed who use it for transport, care, mobility and other additional costs. Official figures show four million people were entitled to PIP in England and Wales in April 2026, around 3.3 million of working age. Reform says 2.89 million people would have payments changed or removed across the affected benefits, but hasn’t yet published a detailed breakdown of how many would retain any cash support under its replacement system.
Cash support restricted to the most serious cases
PIP would be replaced by a new Health Security Allowance, available only to people who pass a more restrictive assessment. Anyone who doesn’t qualify could apply through disability support accounts managed by councils and combined authorities, covering approved expenses like equipment, home adaptations, transport and personal assistance. In effect, money people currently spend according to their own circumstances would become money allocated for specified costs instead.
Real questions remain unanswered ahead of the full paper. Reform hasn’t publicly explained how “severe and enduring” disability would be defined, how much money councils would actually receive, which expenses would qualify, or how claimants could challenge a refusal. Also unclear: whether people would pay costs upfront and claim back, or whether councils would pay suppliers directly. The party says the current mix of assessments would become a single in-person clinical examination, which Jenrick said would help catch fraudulent or “vexatious” claims.
Employers would fund two years of sickness cover
A second plank shifts more responsibility for long-term sickness onto employers. Businesses with more than five employees would have to buy “Return to Work Cover,” insurance covering the first two years after an employee remains unwell beyond statutory sick pay. Reform argues this keeps workers connected to their employers while giving companies a financial incentive to help them return, offering an initial 0.2 percentage-point cut in employer National Insurance to make the change cost-neutral, on paper at least.
The model borrows partly from the Netherlands, where employers already carry more financial responsibility for long-term sick leave. Reform hasn’t published expected insurance premiums, or explained how the system would treat job-changers, workers with recurring conditions, the self-employed, or businesses unable to get affordable cover. The impact on hiring will draw real scrutiny too, employers facing two years of potential liability could become considerably more reluctant to hire people with existing health conditions unless real safeguards against discrimination are built in.
Children’s disability payments would also change
Reform also plans to change disability support for children with anxiety, depression and ADHD, applying to future claims and a defined group of mental health and developmental conditions, eventually aligned more closely with its adult system. Jenrick hasn’t disclosed the new eligibility criteria or how many families are expected to lose out.
Reform would also restore the two-child benefit limit, reversing Farage’s previous support for scrapping it, a position that shifted after Jenrick joined and became Treasury spokesman.
Where the £50bn claim actually comes from
Reform says the full package would cut annual welfare spending by £50bn, £22bn of it from disability support changes, roughly 15% off the £333bn welfare bill the OBR forecasts for this year. No independent costing exists yet, and the advance details don’t give a complete account of where all £50bn would actually come from.
The calculation also depends on whether costs genuinely disappear or just move elsewhere. Restricting benefits might cut DWP spending while increasing pressure on councils, the NHS, social care, housing departments and employers. Reform will need to show whether those knock-on effects have actually been factored in when the full paper lands.
Labour calls it ‘fantasy economics’
Labour called the proposals “fantasy economics, built on stripping support from disabled people and shifting costs onto employers.” A party spokesperson said the government’s already changing Universal Credit rates, restoring face-to-face assessments, and investing £3.5bn in employment support.
The current system’s already faced substantial criticism, an interim government review concluded in July that PIP was “not fit for purpose,” with some disabled people describing the assessment process as dehumanising. Final recommendations are expected later this year. That finding supports the case for reform generally, it doesn’t by itself support Reform’s specific £50bn cut, the same review found PIP remains vital for many disabled people facing unavoidable additional costs.
Conservatives attack Reform’s record too
Kemi Badenoch said the Conservatives would restrict disability benefits for what she called “low-level mental health problems,” restore face-to-face assessments, and reassess existing claimants within 12 months, alongside removing most welfare entitlement from non-UK citizens and restoring the two-child limit.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately accused Reform of producing a “half-baked” plan to distract from Farage’s financial controversies and his Clacton performance. Farage regained the seat on Thursday, meaning the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has reopened its investigation into the £5m he received from Christopher Harborne. This welfare announcement is Reform’s first major policy move since that win.
The party’s picked an enormous target here. These proposals wouldn’t just tighten eligibility or tweak assessment rules. They’d abolish the main disability payment received by millions of working-age adults and restrict regular cash support to a far smaller group. Whether the plan can actually deliver £50bn in genuine savings without shifting substantial costs onto disabled people, employers and local authorities can’t really be judged until Reform publishes the full policy and its actual calculations.
Leave a Reply