What is the Green paper?
The Green Paper is the government’s consultation document about changes it is considering making to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and universal credit (UC).
It is possible that not all – or not any – of the proposals will actually become law. With many Labour backbenchers unhappy about cutting benefits, a lot will depend on how much of an outcry the proposals cause.
You can download the Green Paper from this link.
What are the main changes in the Green Paper?
Personal independence payment
From November 2026, claimants will need to score at least 4 points from a single daily living activity to qualify for the daily living component of PIP, as well as scoring a total of at least 8 points.
So, if you are assessed as meeting 4 descriptors scoring two points each, that will be 8 points, but it will not qualify for an award of the standard rate of the daily living component of PIP.
But if you select one descriptor scoring 4 points and two descriptors scoring 2 points each, that will be 8 points and you will qualify for an award.
In the same way, six two point descriptors will currently qualify for the enhanced rate of PIP daily living, but under the new scoring system it will not qualify for any award of the daily living component
The changes 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.
These changes are not being consulted on.
The DWP is consulting on how to support existing PIP claimants who lose their entitlement on review from November 2026. The possibility of transitional protection is mentioned briefly in the Green Paper as well as ways to ensure that claimants who lose their PIP daily living component have their health and care needs met.
The age at which young people transition from disability living allowance (DLA) to PIP may be raised to 18.
Universal credit
The UC standard allowance for new and existing claims will be increased. This will mean the single person 25+ rate of UC standard allowance increasing by £7 per week, from £91pw in 2024/2025 to £98pw in 2026/2027.
From April 2026, the LCWRA element (which the Green Paper calls the health element) for existing claimants will be frozen at £97pw until 2029/30, but claimants will benefit from the increased standard allowance.
For new claims from April 2026, the rate of the LCWRA element will be reduced by £47pw, from £97pw in 2024/2025 to £50pw in 2026/2027.
These changes are not being consulted on.
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 an additional premium. There are no details yet of how eligibility will be decided or the rate of the new premium.
Access to the health element of UC will be delayed until a claimant is aged 22.
The Green Paper says “we will guarantee that no-one who has been found LCWRA prior to April 2026 and remains LCWRA following reassessment will see their UC health element entitlement changed.”
From 2028 assessment for the health element of UC will not be based on your ability to work, so there will no longer be an LCWRA category. So it is not clear whether this guarantee means that they will not be affected ever or whether it means they will be protected until the WCA is abolished in 2028 and replaced by the PIP daily living component assessment.
People on the health element of UC will be expected, as a minimum, to participate in periodic conversations about work and support (with exceptions where this would not be appropriate). If someone does not attend or engage in a planned conversation, the DWP will seek to understand the reasons before benefits are affected. In other words, sanctions can be applied to people in this group. However, the green paper says that "as now, we do not envisage the requirement on this group extending to undertaking specific work related activity or to look for work or take jobs."
Work capability Assessment
The WCA is to be scrapped in 2028 and a new single assessment system introduced.
The DWP are not consulting on this change.
Under the new system, any extra financial support for health conditions (including PIP, ESA or UC health) will be assessed via a single assessment which will be based on the PIP assessment – considering the impact of disability on daily living, not on capacity to work.
According to the Green Paper, only 63% of people currently receiving the health element of UC or ESA are also in receipt of PIP or DLA.
Reassessments for UC and ESA will be resumed until the WCA is scrapped, with exceptions for those who will never work and those under special rules for end-of-life care. Reassessments have largely been switched off since 2021.
A "Right To Try Guarantee" will be introduced, which will guarantee that attempting work will never lead to a benefits reassessment.
New Style JSA and ESA
New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) and New Style Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) will be replaced with a new single entitlement called Unemployment Insurance. It will be paid at the ESA rate (currently £138pw) and will be time-limited.
People claiming Unemployment Insurance will be expected to actively seek work with ”easments” for those with work-limiting health conditions.
It is not clear how it will be decided if a claimant has a work-limiting health condition, as the WCA is being abolished.
After the, as yet unquantified, time-limit on Unemployment Insurance has expired, claimants will have to attempt to claim UC.
Assessments
There will be a greater proportion of face-to-face assessments for PIP, UC and ESA.
Reassessments for UC and ESA will be restarted prior to abolishing the WCA (see WCA above).
People with the most severe disabilities or with health conditions that will never improve will never be reassessed.
Assessments will be recorded by default.
There will be a review of the PIP assessment “involving experts, stakeholders and disabled people to consider how it needs to adapt for the future.”
How long will the changes take?
The consultation ends on 30 June 2025.
However, because the DWP has chosen not to consult on most of the major issues, including the changes to PIP scoring and the freezing of the health element of UC, it does not have to wait until the consultation ends before bringing forward new legislation for these changes. The DWP have said they want to introduce legislation in this session of parliament, which ends on 21 July.
So it is possible legislation to enact some of the changes, especially to PIP scoring, could be introduced as early as May to try to prevent opposition to the cuts building.
The change to PIP scoring would still not take effect until November 2026, but the law enabling it could be firmly in place very much sooner.
For the limited range of proposals which are being consulted on, a White Paper will be published later this year with legislation to follow. In addition, details of the scrapping of the WCA and the use of the PIP assessment to assess entitlement for the UC health element will be set out in the White Paper, although they will not have been consulted on.
