THE LABOUR-dominated work and pensions committee (WPC) has issued a scathing report into the government’s attempts to “reform” disability benefits. It is a very critical examination of the Labour government’s proposals that attempted to impose catastrophic cuts to disability benefits.

The government’s case for reform, as outlined in its Pathways to Work green paper, is built on a narrative of a “broken” and financially unsustainable welfare system. Labour has tried to justify its plans for devastating cuts to disability benefits by pointing to the rising costs of health-related benefits like the personal independence payment (PIP) and the health element of universal credit (UC), claiming that the system gives people a “perverse incentive’’ towards “economic inactivity.” This ableist attitude frames disabled people as a “financial burden” to be solved, a cost to be managed, rather than as human beings who need support to live with dignity.

The WPC report acknowledges the government’s concern over spending but points out that while health-related spending has increased, other forms of welfare have been cut, “overall non-pensioner welfare spending is not much higher than it was in 2007.”

More importantly, the WPC report highlights the real-world factors pushing more of us to claim benefits: a decade of deteriorating public health, rising financial insecurity and an increasingly inaccessible workplace. For many of us, claiming benefits isn’t an “incentive,” a “lifestyle-driven” choice, but a last resort in the face of mounting living costs, long NHS waiting lists, and employers who are unwilling to provide the reasonable adjustments we need to stay in work.

The committee’s report details the immense pressure from disabled people, campaign organisations and MPs that led to the government making a crucial U-turn over its planned cuts to PIP eligibility and removing this change from their proposed legislation. This was a massive victory over a Labour government which has such a huge majority and which arrogantly swatted away all calls to abandon its cuts to PIP and UC. It was a moment where our collective voice was heard.

It showed that mass pressure from below can force even the most confident government onto the defensive and be forced to make major concessions.

Another major area of concern covered in the WPC report are the cuts to the health element of universal credit. This will involve a significant cut to the health element for new claimants, offset by a smaller increase in the standard allowance for everyone.

The report correctly identifies that, “…instead of incentivising work (in the case of the changes to UC rates), they would increase poverty, worsen health, widen health inequalities and push people further away from work.”

The report notes that the cuts for new claimants of the health element of UC starting in March 2026 will cause “some 730,000 future recipients to lose £3,000 a year as a result of the reduction in the rate of UC health…”

The report states that the idea that cutting vulnerable disabled people’s income will “incentivise” them to work is perverse and a deliberate misunderstanding of disability.

Poverty doesn't motivate; it paralyses. When you are struggling to afford food and heating, you do not have the physical or mental capacity to navigate the complexities of job hunting, especially when facing health barriers. The Work and Pensions committee rightly calls for a delay to this cut for new claimants of the health element of UC until a full impact assessment is carried out.

The WPC report goes on to examine the proposal to abolish the work capability assessment (WCA) and link UC health eligibility directly to PIP. This is portrayed as a another double-edged sword. I can personally testify as to how the WCA is a traumatic and deeply flawed process, which most disabled people would be glad to see the back of.

However, simply replacing it with the PIP assessment, which is designed to measure the extra costs of disability, not the capacity for work, is the completely wrong approach. The report notes that making PIP the gateway for someone to receive the health element of UC is discriminatory and completely unfair as, “the WCA and the PIP assessment were designed to measure different things and that the PIP assessment could not therefore perform both functions.”

The WPC report raises questions about what the UC health benefit is “for.” If it’s not about incapacity for work, it becomes a means-tested disability payment, and the government has not been clear about this.

Throughout the report, the theme of trust — or the profound lack of it between claimants and the DWP — is central.

Many disabled people are reluctant to engage with DWP employment support because they fear being sanctioned or having their benefits cut. As John Ring’s book, The Department, points out benefit sanctions are responsible for the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of disabled people.

The report states that, “Professor Geiger said most countries did not have the levels of mistrust between claimants and the benefits system found in the UK … The government accepts the point about claimants mistrusting the DWP. One of its other big criticisms of the current system is that people often have very poor experiences of DWP and that it needs to rebuild trust.”

Rebuilding the trust, which has been eroded over years of terribly negative experiences and hostile hateful rhetoric from both the DWP and government ministers, will require more than a platitudes from Starmer, Timms and Kendall.

The committee also highlights the critical need for a review of the PIP assessment process itself. The report echoes the dreadful experiences many of us have faced: assessors with no knowledge of our conditions, confrontational interviews, and reports that feel like works of fiction designed to deny people their rightful claim. The WPC report welcomes the government’s promise to co-produce the Timms review of PIP with disabled people. However, the report states that it must be a genuine co-production which the committee will carefully monitor to see that this is the case.

The WPC report also calls on the government to withdraw the threatened cut which will prevent young disabled people aged 18-21 claiming the health element of UC. It also expresses serious concern that disabled people with serious mental health illnesses will not be protected by the severe conditions criteria from reassessments.

The report also takes up the issue of the expansion of conditionality for UC claimants. Most UC health claimants will face mandatory “support conversations” with work coaches. While framed as “light-touch,” this risks coercive sanctions if disabled people miss appointments due to health fluctuations. Work coaches have a notorious reputation for being poorly trained and taking punitive approaches to vulnerable disabled people.

In an interview regarding the release of the report work and pensions committee chair Debbie Abrahams has said: “We must ensure that the wellbeing of those who come into contact with it [the DWP] is protected. The lesson learned from last month should be that the impact of policy changes to health-related benefits must be assessed prior to policy changes being implemented to avoid potential risks to claimants.”

This welcome report validates our criticisms of a welfare system, which under capitalism, is designed to punish rather than support. The report is a testament to the power of grassroots advocacy, as seen in the government’s concessions on the most damaging cuts to PIP.

However, it is also a stark reminder of the constant vigilance required to protect our rights and our financial security. The government’s direction of travel is one of further austerity which more cuts to disability benefits in the pipeline. This report demands a more compassionate, evidence-based, and collaborative approach to welfare reform.

On a forum for disabled people I was struck by the following anonymous comment: “The WPC report leaves us not with a sense of security, but with a clear understanding of the battles that have been won and the many that still lie ahead.”

Dylan Murphy is a member of Disabled People Against Cuts and Unite Community.